Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
School Attendance Boundary Gerrymandering and the Segregation of Schools in the US

Public school assignment policy is determined by local school districts, most often using school attendance boundaries. I provide evidence that local leaders exhibit demand for school boundary desegregation as a function of commuting costs, and that this demand shifts in response to desegregation court orders and local attitudes toward racial diversity. To do so, I develop empirical techniques to analyze spatial school boundary data in conjunction with census block demographics. My findings suggest that school boundaries are a remarkably active area of local policy that has impacts on educational equity and is responsive to costs and local policymaker preferences. The Urban Institute, Washington DC, TMonarrez@urban.org. I am grateful to my dissertation committee chairs David Card and Jesse Rothstein for their guidance and support on this project. I also thank Christopher Walters and Patrick Kline, who provided invaluable advice throughout the research process. This work has benefited particularly from the comments of Frederico Finan, Enrico Moretti, Ted Miguel, Solomon Hsiang, David Schoenholzer, Julien Lafortune, Ferenc Szucs, Felipe Gonzalez, Jennifer Kwok, Raffaele Saggio and participants in the UC Berkeley Labor Economics seminar.
Bandwidth Selection Problem for Nonparametric Regression Model with Right-Censored Data

In this paper, the proposed estimator for the unknown nonparametric regression function is a Nadarya-Watson (Nadarya, 1964; Watson, 1964) type kernel estimator. In this estimation procedure, the censored observations are replaced by synthetic data points based on Kaplan-Meier estimator. As known performance of the kernel estimator depends on the selection of a bandwidth parameter. To get an optimum parameter we have considered six selection methods such as the improved version of Akaike information criterion (AICc), Bayesian information criterion (BIC), generalized cross validation (GCV), risk estimation with classical pilots (RECP), Mallow’s Cp criterion and restricted empirical likelihood (REML), respectively. In addition, we discuss the behavior of the estimators obtained by these selection methods under different configurations of the censoring level and sample sizes. Simulation and real lifetime data results are presented to evaluate and compare the performance of the selection methods. Thus, a optimum criterion is provided for smoothing parameter selection.
Growth and production performance of Vietnamese climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) at farm level in Jashore, Bangladesh

The experiment was carried out to assess the effects of stocking density andmanagement practices on the growth and production performance of exotic climbing perchlocally known as Vietnamese koi (Anabas testudineus). The monoculture of Vietnamese koi wasdone from March to June 2017 in 213.33±63.94 m2 earthen ponds located in Jashore district,Bangladesh. Fingerlings of 2.44±0.04cm total length and 0.22±0.01g weight were stocked at arate of 22 fingerlings/m2 in treatment T1, 55 fingerlings/ m2 in treatment T2 and T3. Supplementalfeed (30% protein) was applied at the rate of 3-10% of body weight in T1 and T2 while in T3 fishwere fed as practiced by the farmers. After 120 days of culture, the survival rate was estimated at84.73±16.86%, 64.12±6.36% and 63.50±25.14 for T1, T2 and T3, respectively. The averagefinal body weight of the fish was 72.67±6.03 g in T1, 53.39±3.49 g in T2 and 52.55±14.12 g inT3. The SGR in treatment T1(4.83±0.07) was higher than T2 (4.58±0.05) and T3(4.55±0.23). While, the FCR was comparatively higher in treatment T3 (1.80±1.15) than T2(1.75±0.14) andT1(1.50±0.67). The productionwas estimated at 13,338kg/ha, 18,574.40 kg/ha and 18,179.20kg/ha in T1, T2 and T3 respectively. The highest net return was estimated in T1 (Tk.3,55,877.60/ha) followed by T2 (Tk. 2,78,122/ha) and T3 (Tk. 2,56,880/ha), respectively. TheBCR was calculated 1.32 for T1, 1.16 for T2 and 1.15 for T3. The stocking number 22/m2 ofVietnamese koi and good management practices might be helpful for enhanced and sustainableproduction of Vietnamese koi in the region.
AN APPROPRIATE INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO FOR STOCK MARKET INVESTORS: EVIDENCE FROM PAKISTAN

The study is based on two main objectives. First, it aims to identify a portfolio of stocks as the most appropriate investment portfolio (AIP) for investors, specifically in the context of Pakistan. Second, this research intends to identify the characteristics of the portfolio which forms AIP. For this purpose, the researcher has formed sixteen time series portfolios, using Fama and French five factor model (2015). Beside marker factor, four risk factors have been constructed which include SMB, HML, RMW, and CMA. The results show that five portfolios which are BHRA, BLRA, BLRC, BHRC, and SHRA are appropriate investment portfolios for investors in Pakistan. Amongst these portfolios, BHRA earns highest monthly average returns of 1.17% having standard deviation of 9.13%, followed by BLRA with average monthly returns of 1.05% with standard deviation of 7.59%. The average return of BHRA is 11.4% higher than BLRA, whereas standard deviation of BHRA is almost 20% larger than the standard deviation of BLRA. Both, the average per month return and risk of BHRA are highest amongst all higher returns portfolios. Contrarily, the excess return of BLRA is not considerably low from BHRA but the incremental risk per unit return of BHRA is almost double of BLRA. Therefore, amongst all five appropriate portfolios, BLRA is justifiably the most appropriate investment portfolio which has the highest adjusted R-square of 77.106 %, the highest average returns of 1.053 % per month, and minimum risk of 7.5%. The results, therefore, suggests all investors to include big, low book/market, robust profitable, and aggressive investment stocks in their portfolios to earn above average returns with minimum risk.
Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis, a Clinicopathological Review of 22Cases

Background: Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis is a rare chronic inflammatory disease and typically occurs in women at the reproductive life. The etiology, clinical course, and optimal treatment of this disorder remain obscure. The most common clinical presentation is a unilateral, firm, discrete breast mass, often associated with inflammation of the overlying skin. Because clinically the lesion can simulate carcinoma, definitive diagnosis is made using histopathology. The main purpose of this study was to present the clinicopathological features of patients with idiopathic granulomatous mastitis, as well as the authors’ experience with surgical treatment of these patients. Methodology: The unit’s pathology database and clinic letters for the time period from January 2005 to May 2010 were used to identify patients who had presented with idiopathic granulomatous mastitis. Results: 22 female patients with a mean age of 35.14 ± 6.07 were included. The patients ranged in age from 24 to 44 years. All patients were parous, the median number of their pregnancies was 2 (ranging from 2 to 6) and the median duration of the last delivery was 4 years (ranging from 1.4 to 14 years). 19 patients had a history of breast feeding. 8 patients (36.4%) had used hormonal contraception. The right breast was involved in 8 (36.4%) cases and in 12 (54.5%) patients; the left breast was affected. Erythema was the most common presenting symptom. Surgery was the definitive procedure in all patients. 13 patients (61.9%) presented with recurrence. Conclusion: Increased recognition of this disease will improve its understanding and management of it. Longterm follow-up is necessary.
Role of Mesenchymal Stem Cell in Identification of Hemotoxic Effect of sFas in cases of Nephrotoxicity

Nephrotoxic nephritis is a clinical condition with a high mortality rate. People with nephritis are susceptible to anemia. This may be due to the presence of sFas. MSCs hold therapeutic potential in repairing tubular injury, ameliorating renal function deficits, and prolonging survival in acute renal injury. The aim of the present study was to investigate role of BM-derived MSCs cell therapy on mercuric chloride experimentally induced nephrotoxicity and their effect on sFas level in an in vivo albino rat animal model. 90 adult female albino rats were divided equally and randomly in to 3 groups. Group I -ve control group, Group II received an intramuscular injection of Mercuric chloride for 2 weeks (5 days/ week) (1 mg/kg body weight). Group III received an intramuscular injection of Mercuric chloride for 2 weeks (5 days/ week) (1 mg/kg body weight). After establishment of nephrotoxicity by kidney function test (KFT), single dose of labeled MSCs with GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) injected in the tail vein at a dose of labeled MSCs 1× 106 cells After 2 weeks from 24 hours after last mercuric chloride dose injection, and 3 weeks from labeled MSCs injection. 15 rats from each group were suspected to Blood samples collection from infraorbital. Rats from each animal group were suspected for biochemical estimation of kidney function test (KFT); serum creatinine, Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) and complete blood count (CBC) then rats were sacrificed. Kidney were subjected to histopathologic examination by H&E and immunohistochemical examination by PCNA and sFas expression. MSCs suppressed serum urea and creatinine levels in HgCl2-treated rats with increased tissue regeneration and inhibition of tubular cell apoptosis, with decreased expression of PCNA and sFas and increased of the RBCs, Hct and Hb levels compared to the mercuric chloride group reflecting the improvement of anemia.
Epidemiological trend of post-neonatal tetanus in a Nigerian teaching hospital

Background. In sub-Saharan Africa, tetanus is one of the causes of childhood deaths with public health significance. Objective. To determine the current epidemiological trend of post-neonatal tetanus (PNT) in a Nigerian tertiary health facility. Methods . A retrospective study was done of the cases of tetanus (patients of age 28 days to 15 years) managed at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, south-west Nigeria, between January 2010 and December 2017. Results. There were 67 cases of PNT out of 3 171 admissions over the study period. The annual prevalence rates ranged from 3.9% in 2010 to 1.2% in 2017. The majority of patients were aged 6 - 12 years (55.2%) and 64.2% male and fell into the lower socioeconomic classes IV and V (98.4%). The mean (SD) duration of illness was 3.1 (2.2) days while the mean incubation period was 10.4 (5.4) days. The portal of entry was identifiable among 54 (88.5%) children. Most patients were not immunised against tetanus (45; 73.8%), had an incubation period >1 week (30; 49.2%), period of onset >24 hours (29; 47.5%) and severe and very severe disease (35; 57.4%). The case fatality rate was 35.8%, contributing 12.6% of total childhood deaths. Death was significantly associated with duration of illness less than 24 hours ( p =0.032) and severe and very severe cases ( p =0.005). Conclusion. Although the prevalence rates of PNT declined over the 8-year study period, the disease still contributed major proportions of post-neonatal childhood deaths from unmet intensive care needs among severe cases.
House Price Diffusion and Cross-Border House Price Dynamics in the Greater China Economic Area

This paper examines the lead-lag relationships and dynamic linkages among the cross-border house prices of four economies in the Greater China Economic Area(GCEA). We determine the extent and magnitude of their relationships by applying the Toda & Yamamoto(1995) causality test, variance decomposition analysis(GDVC), and impulse response analysis(GIRF). Our empirical results reveal compelling implications. First, the empirical results illustrate a long-run equilibrium among crossborder house prices in the GCEA. Second, the results of the Granger causality test provide evidence of a unidirectional relationship running from Taiwan to China. Third, the GIRF demonstrate that Hong Kong initially has a significantly positive impact on Singapore. Finally, the GDVC results indicate that house prices in China are the most exogenous in the long term, implying that China’s market cannot be influenced easily by other markets, whereas Taiwan’s market more crucially influences the markets of other regions’ in the GCEA.
EFFECT OF SOME FEED ADDITIVES ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, BLOOD COMPONENTS OF NILE TILAPIA

In a complete randomized design, Two hundred and ten fingerlings (weighing approximately 0.905±0.002 g all fish) were randomly distributed into 21 glass aquaria in 7 treatments (3 replicates per treatment). The first group was fed diet without any treatment (control), the second group was fed on diet supplemented with SeO2 (0.3 mg selenium/kg diet) in fish diets, the third group was fed on diet supplemented with organic selenium supplemented; Sel-Plex® (0.3 mg selenium/kg diet) in fish diets, the fourth group was fed the same diet and supplemented with zinc oxide (100 mg zinc/kg diet) in fish diets, the fifth group was fed on diet supplemented with EDTA zinc; C10H12N2O8ZnNa2; (100 mg zinc/kg diet) in fish diets, the sixth group was fed on diet supplemented with clay 30 g bentonite/kg feed (3%) and the seventh group was fed on diet supplemented with nano-clay 30 g nano bentonite/kg diet. There was no clear effect of dietary feed additives on the water quality in the all experimental groups. All water parameters were stable and within acceptable ranges. Fish groups fed diets supplemented with zinc oxide or selenium oxide recorded higher final live body weight and daily weight gain, then those fed diets supplemented with EDTA zinc, organic selenium and natural clay. Dietary feed additives reduced the mortality rate of fish. Fish group fed diet supplemented with EDTA zinc and nano-clay recorded the lower mortality rate. Fish groups fed diets supplemented with organic selenium and EDTA zinc recorded the best feed conversion ratio. No statistical differences were observed in fish body dry matter, crude protein, ether extract and ash as affected by dietary feed additives. Fish groups fed diets supplemented with EDTA zinc, selenium oxide, zinc oxide or organic selenium recorded the higher final margin and income from body gain. The best final margin was obtained in fish group fed diet supplemented with EDTA zinc.
Postoperative Hypertension: When Blood Pressure Cuff and Arterial Line Disagree

Hypertension is a commonly encountered condition by anesthesiologists yet there is no clearly defined approach to monitoring and managing blood pressure in the perioperative period. In this review, we focus on common dilemmas in perioperative management of hypertensive patients including preoperative evaluation and indications for postponement of elective procedures; appraise the commonly used modes of perioperative blood pressure monitoring; discuss acute hypertension in the postoperative period and the role of blood pressure in discharge criteria for patients in the post-anesthesia care unit; and we review the relevant pathophysiology of organ perfusion in chronic hypertension and the implication for postoperative blood pressure management in hypertensive patients.
Dynamic Capabilities: A Measurement Proposal and its Relationship with Performance

Despite the relevance and growth of research into Dynamic Capabilities, certain gaps and criticisms remain. These issues are primarily related to the measurements of Dynanic Capabilities and its impacts on performance. There is a lack of empirical research that is attempting to investigate the existence, development, and orchestration of Dynamic Capabilities to support superior performance. This paper proposes and validates a scale for the measurement of Dynamic Capabilities based on Teece’s conceptual dimensions (sense, seizing and reconfiguring) through a survey presented in a highly dynamic industry and market, and by investigating the impact on performance. The results, besides validating the scale, showed Teece ? s three conceptual dimensions exhibited different behavior in relation to each dimension of performance. Sense and Reconfiguration demonstrated a negative relationship with organizational performance while Seize is positively associated with performance. This may help explain some of the fuzzy results of previous studies that used proxies to measure Dynamic Capabilities.
Insider Ownership and Dividend Policy of Listed Non-Financial Firms in Nigeria

In this study, we examine the relationship between insider ownership and dividend payout policy of listed companies in Nigeria. Based on the sample of 400 firm-year observation of companies listed on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange over a period of 2012 to 2016. Our data were analysed using a Generalized Method of Movement (GMM), the results show that insider ownership served as a strong determinant of dividend payout in the Nigerian capital market. Specifically, the study finds that managerial ownership has a significant positive influence on the dividend payout policy. The study also documents that block shareholders improve and increase the firm’s possibility to pay higher dividend payout. On the other hand, the study finds that CEO ownership has a significant negative effect on the dividend payout policy of companies in Nigeria. Thus, we conclude that companies in which a high proportion of shares are held by managers are more likely to pay a higher dividend to avoid agency problem. Hence, the study recommends the needs for a framework that could regulate the shareholding structure and monitor the CEOs discretion in the financing reporting practice in Nigeria. Article Information: This paper was first presented at the First International Conference on Management and Social Sciences (ICMSS 2019), organised by the School of Human Resource Development and Psychology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, on 27 April 2019. Published after peer review: November 2019.
Decomposition of M/M/1 With Unreliable Service and a Working Vacation

We use the stationary distribution for the M/M/1 with Unreliable Service and aWorking Vacation (M/M/1/US/WV) given explicitly in (Patterson & Korzeniowski, 2019) to find a decomposition of the stationary queue length N. By applying the distributional form of Little's Law the Laplace-tieltjes Transform of the stationary customer waiting time W is derived. The closed form of the expected value and variance for both N and W is found and the relationship of the expected stationary waiting time as a function of the service failure rate is determined.
Coordination and Quality Service Delivery in Service Organizations: Qualitative Investigation

ABSTRACT The study investigated how coordination mechanisms drive quality service delivery in Uganda’s local governments. Using an interview guide, data were collected from 24 participants of Uganda’s local governments and analyzed through thematic content analysis. Findings indicated that coordination mechanisms drive quality service delivery in Uganda’s local governments. Practically, it is manifest that organizations should be aware of the importance of coordination mechanisms on quality service delivery and strive to execute policies crucial for coordination mechanisms to deliver quality services. In addition, local governments that manage their dependencies (coordination) have better chances of survival. This study empirically extends the limited research on coordination and quality service delivery to the local government sector, an area least considered in the literature. Further, it demonstrates that coordination mechanisms are very important in the quality service delivery processes. Methodologically, the findings suggest that in a wider sense, the framework linking coordination to service quality in local government sector can be investigated from a qualitative angle.
Model of Collective Efficacy, Organizational Commitment and Job Performance among Village Leaders

Job performance by village leaders is the key to promote sustainable life among rural communities. However, previous studies found performance issues among them remain as serious problems. This study was conducted to predict job performance among village leaders in fisheries communities by variables of collective efficacy and organizational commitment. Participants were 153 members of village organization that selected by stratified sampling, while the data was collected by questionnaires and analyzed by structural equation model (SEM). The finding shown that the collective efficacy was significantly contributed to job performance and the organizational commitment had fully-mediated to the relationship between collective efficacy and job performance. The study also resulted that the model with organizational commitment as mediator was fitter than the model without mediator. Finally, this study has successfully developed a model how to increase job performance among fisheries village leaders by encourage collective efficacy and organizational commitment among them.
COMPOSITION AND QUALITY OF FRESHWATER LAKE SEDIMENTS (BALVU AND PĒRKONU LAKES)

Water quality, watershed basin and urbanization are key factors from the perspective of freshwater management; however, actual depth of waterbodies is often an overlooked element. Actual depth represents the overall depth of lake bed and depth of sediments. Some cases have been reported, where with increase of average depth of lake, it is possible to expect improvements of water quality when sediments are removed. If lakes are eutrophic, shallow, overgrown with macrophytes and contain high concentrations of biogenic elements water and lake ecosystem quality can be endangered. Removal of sediments can be an expensive procedure and also depends on the composition, structure, local conditions and total amount of sediments, also the disposal or possible use of sediments must be considered. Therefore, it is crucial to understand not only the genesis of sediments, but also possible pollutants, especially in urban territories. Two lakes in Latvia, where the coastal areas of lakes are urbanized at different levels, were studied. Lake Pērkonu was less affected from urbanization than Lake Balvu, cumulative effects of sedimentation and eutrophication were shown as these two lakes are interconnected. Characterization of lake sediments was done, including measurements of pH, ash content, analysis of C/N ratio, biological composition, metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), content of organic matter and concentration of humic acids. Results show that structure and composition of sediments in studied lakes differ with increasing depth, giving opportunity to track environmental changes in the past and differentiate possible applications of sediments. In deeper layers sediments were mostly formed from algae, but in more recent stages of lake development macrophytes were more dominant. Sediments formed after Ice-Age and located close to the bottom of the lake differ from conditions on paste (relief of lake bed, streams etc.), because areas with accumulated clay material and areas with sandy material were present.
Wavelet-based Estimation of Linear Regression Models with an Application to fMRI Image Data

Linear regression models with long memory noise have been proven useful for application in many areas, such as medical imaging, signal processing, and econometrics. In this paper we analyze a linear regression model with two error components, a long memory and a white noise. We employ discrete wavelet transforms in order to simplify the dense variancecovariance matrix of the additive error structure. We then adopt an EM algorithm for the estimation of the model parameters. We first evaluate performances on simulated data and then show how the proposed model can be used for the analysis of real fMRI data.