Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Globalization: Implications for firms in Germany

This paper, however, is not about evaluating whether or not Germany has, on aggregate, done well out of globalization. Rather, we dig deeper into the economy and acknowledge the fact that it is not countries that trade or invest, but rather firms. We therefore look at data at the micro (firm or establishment) level to shed light on questions such as: What types of firms are involved in trade or investments? What distinguishes these globalized firms, if anything, from firms that are not engaged in these international activities? What benefits are there for the firms and also their workers?
Log smoothness and polystability over valuation rings

Let $\mathcal{O}$ be a valuation ring of height one of residual characteristic exponent $p$ and with algebraically closed field of fractions. Our main result provides a best possible resolution of the monoidal structure $M_X$ of a log variety $X$ over $\calO$ with a vertical log structure: there exists a log modification $Y\to X$ such that the monoidal structure of $Y$ is polystable. In particular, if $X$ is log smooth over $\mathcal{O}$, then $Y$ is polystable with a smooth generic fiber. As a corollary we deduce that any variety over $\mathcal{O}$ possesses a polystable alteration of degreee $p^n$. The core of our proof is a subdivision result for polyhedral complexes satisfying certain rationality conditions.
Representations of the Lie superalgebra B(∞,∞) and parastatistics Fock spaces

The algebraic structure generated by the creation and annihilation operators of a system of m parafermions and n parabosons, satisfying the mutual parafermion relations, is known to be the Lie superalgebra . The Fock spaces of such systems are then certain lowest weight representations of . In the current paper, we investigate what happens when the number of parafermions and parabosons becomes infinite. In order to analyze the algebraic structure, and the Fock spaces, we first need to develop a new matrix form for the Lie superalgebra , and construct a new Gelfand–Zetlin basis of the Fock spaces in the finite rank case. The new structures are appropriate for the situation . The algebra generated by the infinite number of creation and annihilation operators is , a well defined infinite rank version of the orthosymplectic Lie superalgebra. The Fock spaces are lowest weight representations of , with a basis consisting of particular row-stable Gelfand–Zetlin patterns.
Is the Improved Financial Performance after Broader Reforms and Privatisation Long-Lasting and Uniform Across Industries ?

The long-run financial performance of industries after broad reforms, including privatisation, has rarely been investigated. This study addresses this issue and examines the financial and operational performance within the Pakistani cement industry by utilising data covering two decades of the post-reform period. The study then compares the findings against four other industries from the manufacturing sector. Our empirical estimates reveal that, similar to the findings of many early studies, privatised firms improved their profitability, capacity utilisation, liquidity, solvency and leverage indicators in the short run, but recorded either a statistically significant decline or at best no change in profitability, financial prudence and capital investment over a longer post–reform and privatisation period. The long-run decline in profitability was also widespread across the other comparable industries. Interestingly, the improvement in liquidity and solvency indicators for privatised firms was better than for firms that had always been private in the immediate period but only lasted briefly. The one exception is labour use efficiency in terms of sales/income per employee and real sales, which indeed significantly improved over the longer post-reform/privatisation period. However, this improvement is mostly limited to the cement industry when compared against four other industries in the Pakistani manufacturing sector.
Correlates of the personality change judgments of individuals who have MS

ABSTRACT Objectives: This is the first study to estimate prevalence of self-reported personality change (PC) in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods developed in traumatic brain injury studies explore physical, and psychosocial triggers for PC judgments. Participants: 69 MS clinic attendees living with their partner. Measures: Participants rated the degree of PC. 28 Current and pre-MS characteristics were rated. The Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale, the MS Neuropsychological Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory-FastScreen, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale quantified neuropsychological status. The Family Questionnaire, McMaster Assessment Device and the Social Provisions Scale sampled perceived social influences. Results: 54% perceived substantial PC. Current characteristics predicted PC better than perceived behavior changes. PC was associated with specific characteristics denoting stress reactions, emotional distress, perceived cognitive impairment and poorer family functioning. PC was not significantly related to severity of physical symptoms or social support. This study also suggested that the specific characteristics questionnaire probed at least 2 components of reconstructed identity: PC/Reactivity and Disability. Conclusions: This study raises methodological concerns about measures that simply sum ratings of characteristics related to self-identity. It also proposes possible ways of collaborating with individuals in their efforts to respond constructively to PC and other changes.
Change the Referent? A Meta-Analytic Investigation of Direct and Referent-Shift Consensus Models for Organizational Climate

Based on earlier taxonomies of group composition models, aggregating data from individual-level responses to operationalize group-level constructs is a common aspect of management research. The present study contributes to the literature on group composition models by quantitatively integrating the climate literature via meta-analysis to determine which of the two most common methods of aggregation, direct consensus and referent-shift consensus, is the stronger predictor of group-level outcomes. We found that referent-shift consensus was a stronger predictor of job performance and customer service performance than direct consensus. However, we found that direct consensus was a stronger predictor of job attitudes than referent-shift consensus. We also found that climate-performance relationships were moderated by aggregation method of the performance criterion. The implications of these findings for advancing multi-level theory and research are discussed.
Low-Carbohydrate High-Fat Diet and Exercise: Effect of a 10-Week Intervention on Body Composition and CVD Risk Factors in Overweight and Obese Women—A Randomized Controlled Trial

We assessed the effect of weight-loss induced with a low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet with and without exercise, on body-composition, cardiorespiratory fitness and cardiovascular risk factors. A total of 57 overweight and obese women (age 40 ± 3.5 years, body mass index 31.1 ± 2.6 kg∙m−2) completed a 10-week intervention using a low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet, with or without interval exercise. An equal deficit of 700 kcal∙day−1 was prescribed, restricting diet only, or moderately restricting diet and adding exercise, producing four groups; normal diet (NORM); low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet (LCHF); normal diet and exercise (NORM-EX); and low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet and exercise (LCHF-EX). Linear Mixed Models were used to assess between-group differences. The intervention resulted in an average 6.7 ± 2.5% weight-loss (p < 0.001). Post-intervention % fat was lower in NORM-EX than NORM (40.0 ± 4.2 vs. 43.5 ± 3.5%, p = 0.024). NORM-EX reached lower values in total cholesterol than NORM (3.9 ± 0.6 vs. 4.7 ± 0.7 mmol/L, p = 0.003), and LCHF-EX (3.9 ± 0.6 vs. 4.9 ± 1.1 mmol/L, p = 0.004). Post intervention triglycerides levels were lower in NORM-EX than NORM (0.87 ± 0.21 vs. 1.11 ± 0.34 mmol/L, p = 0.030). The low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet had no superior effect on body composition, V˙O2peak or cardiovascular risk factors compared to a normal diet, with or without exercise. In conclusion, the intervention decreased fat mass, but exercise improved body composition and caused the most favorable changes in total cholesterol and triglycerides in the NORM-EX. Exercise increased cardiorespiratory fitness, regardless of diet.
Comparison of Vacuum Assisted Closure Versus Normal Saline Dressing in Healing Diabetic Wounds

Objective: To compare vacuum assisted closure with simple saline soaked dressing in duration of healing wounds in diabetic patients. Study design: Randomized control trial. Place and duration of study: General Surgery Department, Nishter Hospital, Multan.From 28032009 to 27 -092009. Methodology: 54 patients of age between 30-60 years of either sex presented with history of superficial diabetic wound involving skin and subcutaneous tissue on any part of body were included in study. They were randomized into 2 groups i.e. A and B. Group A was subjected to vacuum assisted closure and group B to normal saline dressings. Both groups were followed until appearance of 100% granulation tissue over wound surface. Number of days taken were noted. Results: Appearance of granulation tissue was more rapid in vacuum assisted closure group as compared to normal saline dressing group i.e. mean 17.5 days for VAC group and mean 37.5 days for saline soaked gauze dressing (P=0.000). Conclusion: Healing is more rapid in VAC group as compared to normal saline soaked gauze dressings.
Title Demand response optimization for smart home schedulingunder real-time pricing

Demand response (DR) is very important in the future smart grid, aiming to encourage consumers to reduce their demand during peak load hours. However, if binary decision variables are needed to specify start-up time of a particular appliance, the resulting mixed integer combinatorial problem is in general difficult to solve. In this paper, we study a versatile convex programming (CP) DR optimization framework for the automatic load management of various household appliances in a smart home. In particular, an regularization technique is proposed to deal with schedule-based appliances (SAs), for which their on/off statuses are governed by binary decision variables. By relaxing these variables from integer to continuous values, the problem is reformulated as a new CP problem with an additional regularization term in the objective. This allows us to transform the original mixed integer problem into a standard CP problem. Its major advantage is that the overall DR optimization problem remains to be convex and therefore the solution can be found efficiently.Moreover, a wide variety of appliances with different characteristics can be flexibly incorporated. Simulation result shows that the energy scheduling of SAs and other appliances can be determined simultaneously using the proposed CP formulation.
STABILITY OF THE SENSORY QUALITY OF VIRGIN OLIVE OIL DURING STORAGE: AN OVERVIEW

The storage conditions of bottled or tank-stored virgin olive oil, as well as all the agronomical and technological variables of the processing stages, are particularly relevant for preserving the highly valued organoleptic quality of this product. All the efforts made in the olive grove and in the oil mill to produce virgin olive oil with good sensory characteristics can be undermined if improper storage conditions are used. In particular, it is necessary to protect the oil against lipid oxidation which can have many deleterious effects on the quality of virgin olive oil, including the formation of unpleasant organoleptic characteristics, the drastic reduction of the bouquet and taste notes as well as the reduction of naturally-occurring antioxidant compounds and therefore shortening of its the shelf life. The oxidation process during storage is known and involves changes to both the major and minor components of virgin olive oil. To slow down the oxidation rate during storage, certain factors such as the presence of oxygen and traces of metals, exposure to light and the binomial storage time/temperature, must be kept under control. This overview will present the importance of reducing these pro-oxidizing effects, as well as the main changes which may occur during the storage of virgin olive oil at the expense of the minor constituents that are more relevant for the olfactive and gustative characteristics and its impact on the aroma and taste of the oil, particularly the phenolic and volatile compounds.
Perturbative Renormalization of Neutron-Antineutron Operators

Two-loop anomalous dimensions and one-loop renormalization scheme matching factors are calculated for six-quark operators responsible for neutron-antineutron transitions. When combined with lattice QCD determinations of the matrix elements of these operators, our results can be used to reliably predict the neutron-antineutron vacuum transition time, $\tau_{n\bar{n}}$, in terms of basic parameters of baryon-number violating beyond-the-Standard-Model theories. The operators are classified by their chiral transformation properties, and a basis in which there is no operator mixing due to strong interactions is identified. Operator projectors that are required for non-perturbative renormalization of the corresponding lattice QCD six-quark operator matrix elements are constructed. A complete calculation of $\delta m = 1/\tau_{n\bar{n}}$ in a particular beyond-the-Standard-Model theory is presented as an example to demonstrate how operator renormalization and results from lattice QCD are combined with experimental bounds on $\delta m$ to constrain the scale of new baryon-number violating physics. At the present computationally accessible lattice QCD matching scale of $\sim$ 2 GeV, the next-to-next-to-leading-order effects calculated in this work correct the leading-order plus next-to-leading-order $\delta m$ predictions of beyond-the-Standard-Model theories by $< 26\%$. Next-to-next-to-next-to-leading-order effects provide additional unknown corrections to predictions of $\delta m$ that are estimated to be $< 7\%$.
Hidden Diversity within Common Protozoan Parasites as Revealed by a Novel Genomotyping Scheme

Giardia duodenalis assemblage B is a major waterborne pathogen and the most commonly identified genotype causing human giardiasis worldwide. The lack of morphological characters for classification requires the use of molecular techniques for strain differentiation; however, the absence of scalable and affordable next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based typing methods has prevented meaningful advancements in high-resolution molecular typing for further understanding of the evolution and epidemiology of assemblage B. ABSTRACT Giardia duodenalis (syn. Giardia lamblia, Giardia intestinalis) is the causative agent of giardiasis, one of the most common diarrheal infections in humans. Evolutionary relationships among G. duodenalis genotypes (or subtypes) of assemblage B, one of two genetic assemblages causing the majority of human infections, remain unclear due to poor phylogenetic resolution of current typing methods. In this study, we devised a methodology to identify new markers for a streamlined multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme based on comparisons of all core genes against the phylogeny of whole-genome sequences (WGS). Our analysis identified three markers with resolution comparable to that of WGS data. Using newly designed PCR primers for our novel MLST loci, we typed an additional 68 strains of assemblage B. Analyses of these strains and previously determined genome sequences showed that genomes of this assemblage can be assigned to 16 clonal complexes, each with unique gene content that is apparently tuned to differential virulence and ecology. Obtaining new genomes of Giardia spp. and other eukaryotic microbial pathogens remains challenging due to difficulties in culturing the parasites in the laboratory. Hence, the methods described here are expected to be widely applicable to other pathogens of interest and advance our understanding of their ecology and evolution. IMPORTANCE Giardia duodenalis assemblage B is a major waterborne pathogen and the most commonly identified genotype causing human giardiasis worldwide. The lack of morphological characters for classification requires the use of molecular techniques for strain differentiation; however, the absence of scalable and affordable next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based typing methods has prevented meaningful advancements in high-resolution molecular typing for further understanding of the evolution and epidemiology of assemblage B. Prior studies have reported high sequence diversity but low phylogenetic resolution at standard loci in assemblage B, highlighting the necessity of identifying new markers for accurate and robust molecular typing. Data from comparative analyses of available genomes in this study identified three loci that together form a novel high-resolution typing scheme with high concordance to whole-genome-based phylogenomics and which should aid in future public health endeavors related to this parasite. In addition, data from newly characterized strains suggest evidence of biogeographic and ecologic endemism.
Sensitivity of ℓ1 minimization to parameter choice

The use of generalized Lasso is a common technique for recovery of structured high-dimensional signals. There are three common formulations of generalized Lasso; each program has a governing parameter whose optimal value depends on properties of the data. At this optimal value, compressed sensing theory explains why Lasso programs recover structured high-dimensional signals with minimax order-optimal error. Unfortunately in practice, the optimal choice is generally unknown and must be estimated. Thus, we investigate stability of each of the three Lasso programs with respect to its governing parameter. Our goal is to aid the practitioner in answering the following question: given real data, which Lasso program should be used? We take a step towards answering this by analysing the case where the measurement matrix is identity (the so-called proximal denoising setup) and we use $\ell _{1}$ regularization. For each Lasso program, we specify settings in which that program is provably unstable with respect to its governing parameter. We support our analysis with detailed numerical simulations. For example, there are settings where a 0.1% underestimate of a Lasso parameter can increase the error significantly and a 50% underestimate can cause the error to increase by a factor of $10^{9}$.
Spatial interpolation techniques for site-specific irrigation management in a mango orchard

Interpolation techniques can be a suitable approach to apply site-specific management for irrigation in fruit fields. However, which interpolation method will produce more accurate maps? In order to respond this question, the aim of this study was to test the performance of spatial interpolation techniques for mapping soil physical properties for site-specific irrigation management purpose in a mango orchard in the Brazilian semi-arid region. The experimental site was structured in a grid of 60 georeferenced points, which correspond to the number of mango trees spaced about 8 × 10-m in a fruit field in Petrolina county, Pernambuco. Soil texture, bulk density, volumetric water content at -0.01; -0.033; -0.06; -0.1; and -1.5 MPa, and soil water available were determined. Stochastic and deterministic interpolation methods were tested. Soil physical properties did not show spatial dependence preventing the interpolation by stochastic method (Kriging). However, it was possible to interpolate using deterministic methods such as inverse distance weight (IDW), local polynomial interpolation (LPI), and Radial basis functions (RBF). IDW and RBF showed the best results of map quality for physical properties, however, all interpolation method showed relative small errors and could be all used for delineating zones for site-specific irrigation management.
The impact of television, print, and audio on children's recall of the news: A study of three alternative explanations for the dual-coding hypothesis.

Recent research has shown that children remember more from television news than from print news, a finding that has been explained by the extra mnemonic support offered by redundant television pictures (the dual-coding hypothesis). The present study was designed to examine three alternative explanations, which attribute children's superior recall of television news to (a) underutilization of the print medium, (b) a recall advantage of listening compared with reading, and (c) imperfect reading ability. A sample of 192 fourth and sixth graders was presented with children's news stories, either in (a) their original television form, (b) a bare print version, (c) a print version supplemented with photo material, or in (d) an audio version. Results indicated that the television presentation was remembered better than any of the other three versions. The results of the study were consistent with the dual-coding hypothesis, whereas no support was found for the alternative explanations tested in the study.
Are Green Payments Good for the Environment?

There is growing interest in green payments subsidizing conservation measures on working farmland based on the premise that they have positive effects on the environment and agriculture simultaneously without causing international trade distortions. This paper uses a Ricardian land market equilibrium model to examine the impacts of green payments. The analysis shows green payments can worsen ambient pollution damage by subsidizing the expansion of more intensive crop cultivation. Some forms of green can increase cultivation intensity (and thus environmental damage) as well. These adverse effects can be avoided by careful targeting, but such targeting is likely to be quite difficult.
The colorful world of carotenoids: a profound insight on therapeutics and recent trends in nano delivery systems

Abstract The therapeutic effects of carotenoids as dietary supplements to control or even treat some specific diseases including diabetic retinopathy, cardiovascular diseases, bacterial infections, as well as breast, prostate, and skin cancer are discussed in this review and also thoughts on future research for their widespread use are emphasized. From the stability standpoint, carotenoids have low bioavailability and bioaccessibility owing to their poor water solubility, deterioration in the presence of environmental stresses such as oxygen, light, and high heat as well as rapid degradation during digestion. Nanoencapsulation technologies as wall or encapsulation materials have been increasingly used for improving food product functionality. Nanoencapsulation is a versatile process employed for the protection, entrapment, and the delivery of food bioactive products including carotenoids from diverse environmental conditions for extended shelf lives and for providing controlled release. Therefore, we present here, recent (mostly during the last five years) nanoencapsulation methods of carotenoids with various nanocarriers. To us, this review can be considered as the first highlighting not only the potential therapeutic effects of carotenoids on various diseases but also their most effective nanodelivery systems. Highlights Bioactive compounds are of deep interest to improve food properties. Carotenoids (such as β-carotene and xanthophylls) play indispensable roles in maintaining human health and well-being. A substantial research effort has been carried out on developing beneficial nanodelivery systems for various carotenoids. Nanoencapsulation of carotenoids can enhance their functional properties. Stable nanoencapsulated carotenoids could be utilized in food products.