Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rethinking Development

Perhaps there has never been a better historical moment to interrogate development. The fog of market fundamentalism and the neoliberal consensus has lifted a bit in the wake of the financial meltdown and the lingering and almost global economic crisis. Bond market vigilantes are turning even governments in the Global North into debt-collecting agencies on behalf of the global oligarchy of finance capital; a fate until now reserved for the Global South. The purported link between capitalism and democracy appears stained if not severed as states in the Global North resort to declaring Financial Martial Laws. “Capitalism with Asian characteristics” complements “Socialism with American characteristics” – read public bailouts of finance capital. Technocratic governance displaces political government. While the welfare state follows the fate of the development state towards shrinkage and oblivion, the coercive capacity of the state, the capacity and willingness to wage war both within and without, grows unabated. Ubiquitous austerity measures and structural adjustments are yet again transferring wealth from the poor to the rich both within and across states. All this unmistakably underscores that mythologies of the “free market” notwithstanding, the concert of the hidden hand of the market and the iron fist of the state is indispensible for capitalism, and that accumulation by dispossession is a basic ontological condition of capitalism, rather than just its historical pre-condition. The only growth industry today, besides privatized prisons, is the production of liminal spaces and subjects at the margins of legal orders and formal economies – “the other side of universality – the moral and legal no man’s land, where universality, yet again, finds its spatial limit. ”
Working Paper Series Educational inequality and intergenera- tional mobility in Latin America: A new database

The causes and consequences of the intergenerational persistence of inequality are a topic of great interest among various fields in economics. However, until now, issues of data availability have restricted a broader and cross-national perspective on the topic. Based on rich sets of harmonized household survey data, we contribute to filling this gap computing time series for several indexes of relative and absolute intergenerational education mobility for 18 Latin American countries over 50 years, and making them publicly available. We find that intergenerational mobility has been rising in Latin America, on average. This pattern seems to be driven by the high upward mobility of children from low-educated families; at the same time, there is substantial immobility at the top of the distribution. Significant cross-country differences are observed and are associated with income inequality, poverty, economic growth, public educational expenditures and assortative mating.
Why do some firms follow zero leverage policy?

Analysing zero leverage (ZL) phenomenon by focusing on different channels of supply effects, we report that ZL firms face different supply conditions. They are generally restricted to issuing debt following a downgrade in their credit rating and/or underinvestment problems. In contrast, optimistic investors create good stock supply conditions (overvalued equity) to rely more on equity financing. Additionally, it appears that ZL firms which deviate significantly from their optimal leverage are more likely to have an upgrade in their credit rating. Finally, controlling for endogeneity, we report that firms employing overconfident CEOs are more likely to adopt ZL policy.
The radiative lifetime of A 1Πu C2

This note reports ab initio potential curves of A 1Πu and X 1Σ+g states of C2, and the A–X radiative lifetimes. The calculations are based upon configuration interaction wave functions formed from single and double electron excitations from state‐averaged MC‐SCF reference functions expanded in a Gaussian basis. The lifetimes for (J′=1,v′) A 1Πu are calculated to be about 25% longer than those found in previous ab initio works, but about 25% shorter than the most recent LIF measurements of Bauer, Becker, Bielefeld, and Meuser. Also reported are the quadrupole moments of the A 1Πu and X 1Σ+g states as a function of internuclear distance and the quadrupole lifetimes of several (v′=0,J′) levels in the X state.This note reports ab initio potential curves of A 1Πu and X 1Σ+g states of C2, and the A–X radiative lifetimes. The calculations are based upon configuration interaction wave functions formed from single and double electron excitations from state‐averaged MC‐SCF reference functions expanded in a Gaussian basis. The lifetimes for (J′=1,v′) A 1Πu are calculated to be about 25% longer than those found in previous ab initio works, but about 25% shorter than the most recent LIF measurements of Bauer, Becker, Bielefeld, and Meuser. Also reported are the quadrupole moments of the A 1Πu and X 1Σ+g states as a function of internuclear distance and the quadrupole lifetimes of several (v′=0,J′) levels in the X state.
Growth Rate Dispersion at the Single‐Crystal Level

Evidence of growth rate dispersion for symmetry-related opposite faces of centrosymmetric single crystals of ammonium perchlorate is provided. Crystallization experiments conducted by evaporation of a stagnant aqueous solution at room temperature show that some faces have high and irregular normal growth rates, in time and space, whereas the corresponding faces crystallize slowly and steadily. The faces presenting high and irregular crystal growth also form repetitive inclusions, whereas faces are not involved in any formation of vacuoles. As a consequence, it is possible to retrace the crystallization history of a single crystal by analyzing the location of series of inclusions showing the progressive displacement of its center of gravity.
Mareta et al. Effect of a Mixture of Averrhoa bilimbi Fruit Filtrate and Shrimp Paste on Performance, Gut Microbes

Mareta I, Nathaniel G, Yudiarti T, Widiastuti E, Wahyuni HI, Sugiharto S. 2020. Effect of Averrhoa bilimbi fruit filtrate and shrimp paste mixture on performance, gut microbes and blood profile of broilers. JITV 25(4): 182-189. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.1433/jitv.v25i4. 2515 This study was aimed to evaluate effect of a mixture of Averrhoa bilimbi fruit filtrate and shrimp paste (Mysis sp.) on the growth performance, blood profile, selected intestinal bacterial number and pH value of broiler digestive tract. The mixture of A. bilimbi fruit filtrate and shrimp paste were incubated for 4 days and were then used in the experiment. For in vivo experiment, 40 day-old Lohmann broiler chicks were distributed randomly to two treatment groups, i.e., control (T1) and chickens given the mixture of 10% A. bilimbi fruit filtrate and shrimp paste in drinking water (T2). Body weight and feed intake were recorded weekly. At day 42, 2 birds from each pen (8 chicks per treatment group) were taken for blood and digesta collection. Internal organ weight and carcass traits were determined thereafter. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was lower (P<0.05) on the treatment group than the control. Hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) of the treatment group were higher (P<0.05) than that of the control. Total cholesterol was higher (P<0.05) in the treatment group than that in control. Total cecum coliform was lower (P<0.05) in the treatment group than that in the control. The pH values of the small intestinal segments (jejunum, ileum, cecum) were lower (P<0.05) in the treatment group than that in the control group. In conclusion, administration of the blends of A. bilimbi fruit filtrate and shrimp paste into drinking water improved FCR, increased hemoglobin and MCV values, decreased gut pH and cecal coliform of broiler chickens.
University Students’ Perception of Japanese Encephalitis

Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the perception of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) among future healthcare providers in a university in Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional and observational study was conducted among the students of three different healthcare provider faculties in a university in Malaysia with the help of pre-validated research tool. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 24.0 was used to enter and analyze the data. Results: Overall, 252 respondents from three different health care faculties participated in the current study. The dental faculty students had better perception as compared to the other two faculties. The female students had a better perception of JE as compared to the students who were living in hostels. Conclusion: Overall appropriate perception was observed in the three health care provider faculty students. The present study concluded that dental and pharmacy students had a better perception of JE than medical students.
Structural studies of montmorillonites by 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy

Abstract Five montmorillonites were analysed by 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy and their Fe3+ occupation in tetrahedral and octahedral sites assigned. The montmorillonites, with a range of IVFe3+ contents, were used in an attempt to correlate IVFe3+ content with VIFe3+ cis- and trans-OH site occupation to verify the assertion that increasing IVFe3+ content directs VIFe3+ to cis-OH sites. However, VIFe3+ in montmorillonite appears to be located essentially in the trans-OH sites. The two doublets computer-fitted to the VIFe3+ Mössbauer resonance for montmorillonite appear to represent a distribution of a continuum of slightly different Fe3+ resonances, which arise from the variable atomic environment surrounding the VIFe3+ sites, rather than discrete cis- and trans-OH sites. Therefore Mössbauer spectroscopy cannot be used to demonstrate whether an increasing IVFe3+ content directs VIFe3+ substitution into particular sites for montmorillonites.
The COVID-19 resilience of a continental welfare regime - nowcasting the distributional impact of the crisis

We evaluate the COVID-19 resilience of a Continental welfare regime by nowcasting the implications of the shock and its associated policy responses on the distribution of household incomes over the whole of 2020. Our approach relies on a dynamic microsimulation modelling that combines a household income generation model estimated on the latest EU-SILC wave with novel nowcasting techniques to calibrate the simulations using external macro controls which reflect the macroeconomic climate during the crisis. We focus on Luxembourg, a country that introduced minor tweaks to the existing tax-benefit system, which has a strong social insurance focus that gave certainty during the crisis. We find the system was well-equipped ahead of the crisis to cushion household incomes against job losses. The income-support policy changes were effective in cushioning household incomes and mitigating an increase in income inequality, allowing average household disposable income and inequality levels to bounce back to pre-crisis levels in the last quarter of 2020. The share of labour incomes dropped, but was compensated by an increase in benefits, reflecting the cushioning effect of the transfer system. Overall market incomes dropped and became more unequal. Their disequalizing evolution was matched by an increase in redistribution, driven by an increase in the generosity of benefits and larger access to benefits. The nowcasting model is a “near” real-time analysis and decision support tool to monitor the recovery, scalable to other countries with high applicability for policymakers.
ASSOCIATION OF ALCOHOL, SMOKING, AND BETEL QUID CHEWING WITH ORAL CANCER - A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Oral Cancer is one of the most common life threatening diseases in India. Tobacco smoking, betel quid chewing and alcohol drinking are risk factors for Oral Cancer. Observational studies unanimously report that Oral Cancer risk in smoking-drinking-betel quid chewing exposed subjects is exceptionally high. Therefore, this study was aimed at evaluating the association between smoking, alcohol consumption and betel quid chewing with Oral Cancer in a retrospective manner. In this study conducted from June 2019 to March 2020, the clinical records of patients with Oral Cancer were evaluated. Data regarding age, gender, presence of habits were obtained from the records of the private dental college. Chi-square test was used to determine correlation between variables, while the Chi-square test for trends was used to assess the frequency of Oral Cancer patients with smoking, alcohol consumption and betel quid chewing habit. Oral Cancer was found prevalent among patients who reported with the habit of betel quid chewing (67.7%) than tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption habits. The mean age group of occurrence was reported to be 51-70 years (46.7%) with higher incidence among males (83.3%). The results of this study show that, although betel quid chewing was a major cause for development of Oral Cancer. Tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption has a modifying effect in the development of Oral Cancer. Therefore, habitual cigarette smokers, alcohol consumers, and betel quid chewers have a higher risk of contracting Oral Cancer and should receive oral screening regularly so potential Oral Cancer can be detected as early as possible. Fareen et al (2020): Oral Cancer associated with alcohol, smoking and betel quid chewing habits Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 22 Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020. 232311
The Comparative Effect of Self-assessment vs. Peer-assessment on Young EFL Learners’ Performance on Selective and Productive Reading Tasks

This study aimed at investigating the comparative effect of using self-assessment vs. peerassessment on young EFL learners’ performance on selective and productive reading tasks. To do so, 56 young learners from among 70 students in four intact classes were selected based on their performance on the A1 Movers Test. Then, the participants were randomly divided into two groups, self-assessment and peer-assessment. The reading section of a second A1 Movers Test was adapted into a reading test containing 20 selective and 20 productive items, and it was used as the pretest and posttest. This adapted test was piloted and its psychometric characteristics were checked. In the self-assessment group, the learners assessed their own performance after each reading task while in the peer-assessment group, the participants checked their friends’ performance in pairs. The data were analyzed through repeated-measures two-way ANOVA and MANOVA. The findings indicated that selfassessment and peer-assessment are effective in improving young EFL learners’ performance on both selective and productive reading tasks. Further, neither assessment method outdid the other in improving students’ performance on either task. These findings have practical implications for EFL teachers and materials developers to use both assessment methods to encourage learners to have better performance on reading tasks.
A study on influence of scalp acupuncture on behaviors, cognitive function and activity of daily living in vascular dementia patients

Objective: It is aimed to explore the influence of scalp acupuncture (SA) on vascular dementia (VD) patients’ behaviors, cognitive function (CF) and activity of daily living (ADL). Methods: 63 VD patients were selected from our hospital as objects of study and divided into experimental group (EG) (n=34) and control group (CG) (n=29) according to different treatment methods. CG was treated with conventional western medicine (CWM) and EG was treated with SA on the basis of treatment used for CG so as to compare the response rate (RR) and the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and ADL scores before treatment and 1 month and 3 months after treatment and analyze the levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) before and after treatment. Results: (1) The RR of EG was higher than that of CG (P<0.05). (2) The MMSE scores of two groups had no statistical difference before treatment (P>0.05), and the scores of EG were much higher than those of CG 1 month and 3 months after treatment (P<0.05). (3) The ADL scores of two groups had no statistical difference before treatment (P>0.05), and the scores of EG were much higher than those of CG 1 month and 3 months after treatment (P<0.05). (4) There was no statistical difference in levels of TNF-α and IL-1β between two groups before treatment (P>0.05), and the levels of above factors in EG were lower than those in CG after treatment (P<0.05). Conclusion: SA had a good therapeutic effect on VD and could improve patients’ cognitive ability (CA) and ADL and reduce the level of serum inflammatory factors (SIF), showing a definite effect.
Spremnost za ovladavanje vještinama čitanja i pisanja na hrvatskome jeziku kod djece romske nacionalne manjine ‒ jednak početak za sve?

Over 16,000 people belong to the Roma national minority in the Republic of Croatia. Given the fact that they do not have their own standardised language and orthography, Roma children1 attend regular schools and regular curriculum in the Croatian language. This also implies the acquisition of reading and writing prerequisites prior to enrolment into first grade. The aim of this paper is to examine the level of acquisition of reading and writing prerequisites in Roma children and to determine whether Roma children (N = 56, 62.5% of boys, M = 6 years, 8 months, SD = 0.46) differ from children whose first language is Croatian (N = 55, 50.9% of boys; M = 6 years, 8 months, SD = 0.4) in the development of individual components of reading and writing prerequisites. Testing was performed through selected tasks from the Test for the assessment of reading and writing prerequisites (PredČip test, Kuvač Kraljević & Lenček, 2012). The results were as expected and indicate that Roma children deviate from regular achievement on most of the examined variables. In comparison to the control group of participants, Roma children demonstrated significantly lower results on almost all tested variables, apart from syllable and phonemic blending. The obtained results are an indicator of insufficient acquisition of certain components of reading and writing prerequisites in the Croatian language and insufficiently developed visualperceptual abilities. Considering that reading and writing prerequisites are the important precondition for fluent reading Valentina Martan, Ivana Srebačić: Spremnost za ovladavanje vještinama čitanja i pisanja na hrvatskome jeziku kod djece romske nacionalne. 84 Budući da su predvještine čitanja i pisanja važan preduvjet za usvajanje tečnoga čitanja i pisanja, kao i akademskih postignuća, vidljivo je da djeca Romi nisu spremna za školu i već u samome početku ne mogu održati korak sa svojim vršnjacima. Samim time potrebno je sustavno mijenjati sustav predškolskoga i školskoga odgoja i obrazovanja kada je u pitanju ova posebno ranjiva skupina djece. Ključne riječi: predvještine čitanja i pisanja, Romi, školski obveznici, spremnost za školu
EFFECT OF PACKAGING TYPE AND PERFORATION RATE ON STORABILITY AND QUALITY OF COMMON BEANS PODS: - A- PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the most important members of leguminous crops grown in Egypt for either local consumption or exportation. For highly respiring produce such as mushrooms, peas and broccoli, traditional films like LDPE. However, the micro- perforated films are special films which are expensive and not available everywhere. This experiment was carried out at Fruit Handling Department laboratories, Horticultural Research Institute. Snap bean pods were obtained from a private farm at Giza, at suitable maturity stage of marketing. Uniform pods and free from blemishes were selected for storage experiment. Pods were packed in perforated or non-perforated polyethylene and polypropylene bags (30 μm thickness, 15 × 25 cm size) and each bag had 250 g as one replicate. There were two perforation rates in addition normal perforation rate. All treatments were stored at 7°C and 90 - 95 % relative humidity for 7, 14, 21days. Pods physical properties were recorded during storage. A significant decrease in weight loss percentage was observed in all perforated and non-perforated treatments in comparison with normal perforation rate. The highest weight loss was associated with those stored in normal perforation rate compared with all the other treatments. While the lowest weight loss was associated with those stored in non-perforated treatment in comparison with all other treatments. On the other side, reducing perforation rate significantly reduced decay incidence of stored common beans compared with non-perforated and normal perforated bags. Common beans stored in the less perforation rate bags was associated with the less decay incidence during storage. However, there was no significant differences among these treatments. Also, these treatments significantly reduced deterioration rate in all other studied quality of common beans during storage. Moreover, it is clear that, although common bean pods packaged in polyethylene bags had quality parameter higher than those packaged in polypropylene bags during the two seasons, there was no significant differences among these treatments in these aspects. We can conclude that, reducing bag perforation rate well led to improve common beans storability and reduce its deterioration rate during storage.
STABILITY AND HOPF BIFURCATION ANALYSIS ON A SPRUCE-BUDWORM MODEL WITH DELAY

In this paper, the dynamics of a spruce-budworm model with delay is investigated. We show that there exists Hopf bifurcation at the positive equilibrium as the delay increases. Some sufficient conditions for the existence of Hopf bifurcation are obtained by investigating the associated characteristic equation. By using the theory of normal form and center manifold, explicit expression for determining the direction of Hopf bifurcations and the stability of bifurcating periodic solutions are presented.
- 1-Sentiment , Market Order Choice , and Returns 1

We use a unique data set over a crisis period obtained from the Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) to investigate the order type choices made by retail and institutional investors. The results indicate that individual investors submit more market orders and sell orders during periods when market sentiment is highly fearful. In contrast, institutional investors are less sensitive to market sentiment and sometimes display the opposite trading behavior, especially when the market is liquid. Institutional trades can aleviate, but not reverse, individuals’ market orders during market panics, and actually exacerbate price drops at the intraday level. Furthermore, we find that retail investors’ market order choices, which are measured in market order ratios, have significant impact on contemporaneous and future price movements, both directly and indirectly through the influence on order imbalance. The pattern is particularly strong for sell orders and for intraday high-frequency horizons. In sum, our research provides important insight into market stability and microstructure. JEL Classification: G14, G15
Semiconducting low‐pressure, low‐temperature cesium plasma with unidirectional conduction

In a low‐temperature, low‐pressure cesium plasma environment, special conditions have been found which exhibit unidirectional conduction of a current over a physical interelectrode space of a size up to 1 mm between two plane parallel electrodes. The spacing is determined by the need to maintain a high enough cesium pressure in the present setup. The cesium emitter has a temperature of 800 K or lower. Current densities of 100–200 A cm−2 during steady state and up to 500 A cm−2 under non‐steady‐state conditions are reported. The experiments give a semiconducting resistivity between the electrodes as low as 10−3 Ω m, usually around 10−2 Ω m. The special plasma conditions are probably due to excited states of cesium atoms, which condense to form an excited state of matter. Such a type of matter has been predicted to exist on theoretical grounds by Manykin et al. and was stated to have metallic electrons. We propose that the conduction observed involves electron transfer from the cold electrode, through the e.