Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The importance of ESG factors for company performance during Covid-19 pandemic

This thesis investigates the importance of ESG factors for company performance during Covid-19 pandemic. Because of the novelty of the issue there is not much microeconomic research on topic yet. However, the existing literature is showing that ESG factors may have had a positive effect on company performance during the pandemic. It is also shown that the relationship between ESG and company performance seems to be especially strong during the times of crisis. Nevertheless, the research of the thesis not only contributes to the existing literature by testing its adaptability in a new context but also enlarges the scope of it. That is, the research of the thesis further aims to investigate, how ownership structure and geographical differences have affected the ESG – company performance relationship during the pandemic. The research itself is conducted as a quantitative research with the help of regression analyses. The data is retrieved from Thomson’s Reuters database, and the tests ran with IBM Statistics SPSS program. Company performance is measured by total returns, Tobin’s Q and ROA, and companies’ ESG achievements with Refinitiv ESG combined score. In total six regression analyses are formatted, four of which are used to examine the validity of the hypotheses. The final sample consists of 1’772 companies. From these companies the institutional ownership data is obtained for 590 companies. The research results both support and diverge from previous research findings. In line with previous literature, the research indicates that good ESG efforts have been associated with better company performance during the pandemic. This is especially true, when company performance is measured by accounting-based metric, in this case with ROA. Likewise, compatible to previous research, the research results show that presence of institutional owners in a company strengthens the ESG – company performance relationship. Interestingly, the marginal effect of institutional investors is not significant though. On the other hand, in contrast to expectations, companies’ ESG achievements seem to be better reflected in company performance in America than in Europe. Similarly, contrary to previous research, the first additional test indicates that ESG – company performance relationship has been even stronger before than during the pandemic. Finally, as expected, the second additional test shows that higher ESG scores of companies have been associated with better valuation ratios during the pandemic. The results of the research provide implication possibilities for various stakeholders. As a conclusion, it could be said that paying attention to ESG factors can benefit companies, investors, policy makers and researchers. Besides, the interesting notions on institutional investors and regional differences’ effects on ESG – company performance relationship, provide insights into important aspects of ESG practices.
Direct Simulation Monte Carlo in Reentry Flows

The present project is focused on physical models applicable to the numerical simulation of rarefied gas flows. The main application considered in this work is the high-speed gas flow around vehicles returning from space at early stages of atmospheric entry. We to focus mainly on the improvement and extension of the physical models used with the most prevalent simulation technique for rarefied flows, the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Specifically, the areas of interest include the high-fidelity modeling of internal energy exchange and chemical reaction processes occurring in the bulk gas, during its compression and heating in the bow shock region in front of the vehicle. The second topic to be studied is the influence of chemical reactions taking place at the surface of ablative materials on the gas flow.
insan toplum Türkiye ’ de Mesleklerin Kirlilik Düzeyleri ve

This study was carried out to define and classify dirty work in a Turkish context and to introduce the concept of dirty work to the literature. In the first stage of the study, 321 people were reached through an online survey. We selected 36 occupations (pre-hypothesised 25 dirty jobs and 11 non-dirty jobs) and asked participants to classify them as social, physical or moral dirty work or non-dirty work. As a result of the first study, only 17 occupations were classified as dirty by the participants. In the second stage of the study, occupations that were not classified as dirty in the first stage were administered using the same design to 130 participants. The second study confirmed our first study results except for one occupation (Shoe-shining). The results show both a high level of agreement on the type of physical taint and a consensus that the type of moral taint is one of the main factors that make a profession dirty. The study is important in terms of introducing the concept of dirty work to the Turkish literature and in terms of conducting the classification of occupations in Turkey according to the types of dirty work.
DETERMINANTS OF SMALLHOLDER FARMER’S ADAPTATION STRATEGIES TO CLIMATE CHANGE: THE CASE OF HARAMAYA DISTRICT, EASTERN HARARGHE, OROMIA, ETHIOPIA

In Ethiopia in general and more so in the area of study where the livelihood of people depends on subsistence rain-fed farming, climate change causes a serious problem. The key to securing resilient smallholder farmers' livelihood systems is successful improvements in adaptation to climate conditions. This study therefore established the option of smallholder farmers and variables that decide climate change adaptation strategies in rural Haramaya districts, Ethiopia, which are strictly affected by climate change pressure. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to collect data from 189 randomly selected smallholder farmers to identify adaptation measures being undertaken and to estimate the prominent determinants in the study area. The research used both primary and secondary data’s. Primary data were gathered through focus group discussion, key informant interview, personal observation, and house hold survey. Secondary data were collected from all concerned stakeholders sources for the analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to explain the climate change adaptation strategies of farmers and an econometric multinomial probit model was used to classify the variables deciding the household choice of climate change adaptation strategies. The results of the model showed that age, climate information, livestock holding, access to irrigation, household education level, frequency of extension visit, active labor size and access to credit were the most significant variables affecting the choice of smallholder farmers adaptation strategies in response to climate change. The likelihood of households to use changing planting period, soil and water conservation practices, change livestock type, income source diversification and growing drought tolerant crops were 16.69%, 22.32%, 15.25%, 28.92% and 16.82%, respectively. The regional government and nongovernmental organizations must therefore help to improve farmers' adaptation capacity by providing credit accesses, enhancing farmers with awareness of climate change adaptation strategies and technologies, providing extension services as well as formal and informal education, and investing on the long run climate mitigation projects.
Considering Time as the Random Variable: The First Hitting Time

The usual point of view when analyzing time series is to consider quantities for a given fixed time interval. Yet, one can adopt the opposite point of view, namely that the quantity is fixed and the time interval is the random variable of interest. This reverted point of view leads us to study the first hitting time and the first exit time. We are studying the probability density P( t | r), that a given return r is reached for the first time after an elapsed time t. This probability density is being computed for the FX market, for a Garch(1,1) process and for a Gaussian random walk. In particular, this study is showing the region in which the probability density does not scale and exemplify the large event region.
K-mouflage gravity models that pass Solar System and cosmological constraints.

We show that Solar System tests can place very strong constraints on K-mouflage models of gravity, which are coupled scalar field models with nontrivial kinetic terms that screen the fifth force in regions of large gravitational acceleration. In particular, the bounds on the anomalous perihelion of the Moon imposes stringent restrictions on the K-mouflage Lagrangian density, which can be met when the contributions of higher-order operators in the static regime are sufficiently small. The bound on the rate of change of the gravitational strength in the Solar System constrains the coupling strength $\beta$ to be smaller than $0.1$. These two bounds impose tighter constraints than the results from the Cassini satellite and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Despite the Solar System restrictions, we show that it is possible to construct viable models with interesting cosmological predictions. In particular, relative to $\Lambda$-CDM, such models predict percent-level deviations for the clustering of matter and the number density of dark matter haloes. This makes these models predictive and testable by forthcoming observational missions.
Painlevé equations and the quantum discrete Painlevé VI equation

Based on the works by Kajiwara, Noumi and Yamada, we propose a canonically quantized version of the rational Weyl group representation which originally arose as “symmetries” or the Bäcklund transformations in Painlevé equations. We thereby propose a quantization of discrete Painlevé VI equation as a discrete Hamiltonian flow commuting with the action of W (D (1) 4 ). 1
Influência da substância química, do cimento obturador e do número de sessões na incidência de pericementite traumática

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a influencia quimica, do cimento obturador e do numero de sessoes na incidencia de pericementite traumatica. Para tanto, 160 dentes com vitalidade pulpar foram utilizados, onde 84 foram obturados com Sealapex e 76 com FillCanal. Os dentes obturados com Sealapex mostraram um percentual de 87,5 por cento e 88,6 por cento de ausencia dor apos o tratamento endodontico, realizado em uma e duas sessoes, respectivamente. Quando o cimento utilizado foi o FillCanal, o percentual de ausencia de dor com o tratamento em uma ou duas sessoes foi de 85,7 por cento e 82,3 por cento, respectivamente. Em todos os grupos foi empregado o hipoclorito de sodio a 1 por cento com substância quimica irrigadora, alternado nas duas irrigacoes finais com o EDTA (trissodico, 17 por cento, ph neutro). Frente a aplicacao do teste de Fischer e do Qui-quadrado, nao se observaram diferencas estatisticas significantes, tanto entre os cimentos, como quando comparados os numeros de sessoes entre si (AU)
First comparisons of local ion measurements in the inner magnetosphere with energetic neutral atom magnetospheric image inversions: Cluster-CIS and IMAGE-HENA observations

[1] Data provided by the CIS (Cluster Ion Spectrometry) instruments on board the Cluster spacecraft are used to survey recent crossings of the inner magnetosphere and ring current. CIS is capable of obtaining full three-dimensional ion distributions (about 0 to 40 keV/q) with one spacecraft spin time resolution and with mass-per-charge composition determination. Events are selected for which the Cluster spacecraft are within the field of view of the HENA (high-energy neutral atom) imager on board IMAGE. HENA provides energetic neutral atom images with a high geometric factor and with a 120° × 360° field of view over the spin. The H+ ion distribution functions obtained in situ by CIS are then compared to the ones deduced by inverting the HENA hydrogen neutral atom images for the overlapping energy range of the two instruments (27–39 keV). This analysis concerns events obtained both during well-developed ring current conditions (e.g., 18 April 2002 event) and during quiet magnetospheric conditions (e.g., 9 August 2001 event). The results show the consistency between the ion fluxes deduced from energetic neutral atom (ENA) image inversions and the fluxes measured locally. They thus show the complementarity of the two approaches. The locally measured fluxes provide the “ground truth,” and they give the detailed ion distributions. ENA images allow to situate local measurements into a global context and to position them with respect to the ring current large-scale structure. Our results also show the limitations of the ion fluxes deduced from the ENA image inversions for images taken from a single vantage point, with a substantial scatter of the inversion fluxes with respect to the in situ measured ones and a more limited dynamic range.
Knowledge and attitudes towards thalassemia among university students in Bangladesh

Background Thalassemia is the most common congenital single-gene condition. It is marked by a lack of or reduced synthesis of either the alpha- or beta-globin chains and passed down from parents to offspring. This study aimed to determine how healthy students in Bangladeshi public universities were aware of thalassemia and how they felt about it. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive online survey was conducted on public university students in Bangladesh using a structured questionnaire between June and November 2020. Students completed structured questionnaires consisting of three sections: demographic information, ten multiple-choice knowledge questions rated on a scale of 0 to 10, and ten attitude questions. The data were analyzed using Python. Descriptive statistics methods such as frequencies and percentages were used to present data. Results A total of 681 students participated in the online survey. The average age of the respondents in this study was 21.97 years, with a standard deviation of 2.9. Most of the students, 611(89.72%), had heard about thalassemia. Only 248 (36.42%) of the students had a fair understanding of thalassemia, with 138 (22.62%) being male and 110 (18.03%) being female (P-value = 0.0819). Students' knowledge level did not differ significantly by gender (P-value = 0.0819), marital status (P-value = 0.2281), or academic year (P-value = 0.4619), but there was a substantial variation by field of study (0.0042). However, 478 (78.36%) participants showed a positive attitude toward "Premarital Screening" to prevent thalassemia. Conclusions In Bangladesh, where the rate of family marriage is high, it is recommended that university students and the general public engage in long-term, goal-oriented prevention measures. These initiatives would provide crucial information and increase people's awareness of thalassemia when married and after becoming parents, reducing the impacts of illnesses.
Presence of cells in the polyaneuploid cancer cell (PACC) state predicts risk of recurrence in prostate cancer

Background: The non-proliferating polyaneuploid cancer cell (PACC) state is associated with therapeutic resistance in cancer. A subset of cancer cells enters the PACC state by polyploidization and acts as cancer stem cells by undergoing depolyploidization and repopulating the tumor cell population after the therapeutic stress is relieved. Our aim was to systematically assess the presence and importance of this entity in men who underwent radical prostatectomy with curative intent to treat their presumed localized PCa. Materials and Methods: Men with NCCN intermediate- or high-risk PCa who underwent radical prostatectomy l from 2007-2015 and who did not receive neoadjuvant treatment were included. From the cohort of 2159 patients, the analysis focused on a subcohort of 209 patients was selected, and 38 cases. Prostate tissue microarrays (TMAs) were prepared from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded blocks of the radical prostatectomy specimens. A total of 2807 tissue samples of matched normal/benign and cancer were arrayed in 9 TMA blocks. The presence of PACCs and the number of PACCs on each core were noted. Results: The total number of PACCs and the total number of cores with PACCs were significantly correlated with increasing Gleason score (p=0.0004) and increasing CAPRA-S (p=0.004), but no other variables. In univariate proportional hazards models of metastasis-free survival, year of surgery, Gleason score (9-10 vs. 7-8), pathology stage, CAPRA-S, total PACCs, and cores positive for PACCs were all statistically significant. The multivariable models with PACCs that gave the best fit included CAPRA-S. Adding either total PACCs or cores positive for PACCs to CAPRA-S both significantly improved model fit compared to CAPRA-S alone. Conclusion: Our findings show that the number of PACCs and the number of cores positive for PACCs are statistically significant prognostic factors for metastasis-free survival, after adjusting for CAPRA-S, in a case-cohort of intermediate- or high-risk men who underwent radical prostatectomy. In addition, despite the small number of men with complete data to evaluate time to mCRPC, the total number of PACCs was a statistically significant predictor of mCRPC in univariate analysis, and suggested a prognostic effect even after adjusting for CAPRA-S.
Reduced--Basis Output Bound Methods for Parametrized Partial Differential Equations

We present a technique for the rapid and reliable prediction of linear-functional outputs of elliptic (and parabolic) partial differential equations with affine parameter dependence. The essential components are (i) (provably) rapidly convergent global reduced-basis approximations -- Galerkin projection onto a space WN spanned by solutions of the governing partial differential equation at N selected points in parameter space; (ii) a posteriori error estimation -- relaxations of the error-residual equation that provide inexpensive yet sharp and rigorous bounds for the error in the outputs of interest; and (iii) off-line/on-line computational procedures -- methods which decouple the generation and projection stages of the approximation process. The operation count for the on-line stage -- in which, given a new parameter value, we calculate the output of interest and associated error bound -- depends only on N (typically very small) and the parametric complexity of the problem; the method is thus ideally suited for the repeated and rapid evaluations required in the context of parameter estimation, design, optimization, and real-time control.
Physics And Chemistry Of The Solar System

(Chapter Headings) Introduction. Astronomical Perspective. General Description of the Solar System. The Sun and the Solar Nebula. The Major Planets. Pluto and the Icy Satellites of the Outer Planets. Comets and Meteors. Meteorites and Asteroids. The Airless Rocky Planets: Io, Phobos, and Deimos, the Moon, and Mercury. The Terrestrial Planets: Mars, Venus, and Earth. Planets and Life About Other Stars. Future Prospects. Appendix I: Equilibrium Thermodynamics. Appendix II: Absorption and Emission of Radiation by Quantum Oscillators. Appendix III: Exploration of the Solar System. Appendix IV: Basic Physical Constants. References. Subject Index.
2019 Microwave dynamics of pure and doped anisotropic S=1 chain antiferromagnet NiCl 2 -4SC(NH 2 ) 2

We studied electron spin resonance in a quantum magnet NiCl 2 -4SC(NH 2 ) 2 , demonstrating a ﬁeld-induced quantum phase transition from a quantum-disordered phase to an antiferromagnet. We observe two branches of the antiferromagnetic resonance of the ordered phase, one of them has a gap and the other is a Goldstone mode with zero frequency at a magnetic ﬁeld along the four-fold axis. This zero frequency mode acquires a gap at a small tilting of the magnetic ﬁeld with respect to this direction. The upper gap was found to be reduced in the doped compound Ni(Cl 1 − x Br x ) 2 -4SC(NH 2 ) 2 with x = 0 . 21. This reduction is unexpected because of the previously reported rise of the main exchange constant in a doped compound. Further, a nonresonant diamagnetic susceptibility χ ′ was found for the ordered phase in a wide frequency range above the quasi-Goldstone mode. This dynamic diamagnetism is as large as the dynamic susceptibility of the paramagnetic resonance. We speculate that it originates from a two-magnon absorption band of low-frequency dispersive magnon
Arrow of time in dissipationless cosmology

It is generally believed that a cosmological arrow of time must be associated with entropy production. Indeed, in his seminal work on cyclic cosmology, Tolman introduced a viscous fluid in order to make successive expansion/contraction cycles larger than previous ones, thereby generating an arrow of time. However, as we demonstrate in this letter, the production of entropy is not the only means by which a cosmological arrow of time may emerge. Remarkably, systems which are dissipationless may nevertheless demonstrate a preferred direction of time provided they possess attractors. An example of a system with well defined attractors is scalar-field driven cosmology. In this case, for a wide class of potentials (especially those responsible for inflation), the attractor equation of state during expansion can have the form p ≃ − &rgr; ? > , and during contraction p ≃ &rgr; ? > . If the resulting cosmology is cyclic, then the presence of cosmological hysteresis, ∮ p d V ≠ 0 ? > during successive cycles, causes an arrow of time to emerge in a system which is formally dissipationless. An important analogy is drawn between the arrow of time in cyclic cosmology and an arrow of time in an N-body system of gravitationally interacting particles. We find that, like the N-body system, a cyclic Universe can evolve from a single past into two futures with oppositely directed arrows of time.
Clinical features of different stage subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord

Subacute combined degeneration (SCD), caused by vitamin B12 disorders, leads to severe degeneration of the spinal cord. Thus, it is significant to make timely diagnosis and treatment options of SCD. The objectives were to summarize clinical features of different sate SCD. Clinical data of 42 SCD patients of spinal cord were retrospectively analyzed, which were classified into early stage, middle stage and late stage SCD. Among the patients, 9 were classified into early stage, 22 into middle stage, and 11 into late stage SCD. Total cholesterol and hemoglobin levels were relatively higher in late stage SCD. In contrast, mean corpusular volume (MCV) level was higher in early stage SCD. There were typical abnormalities only in 8 patients on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and a dynamia was a common neurological abnormality in all patients. Importantly, the differences in abnormal findings in anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) testing, visual acuity and fundus testing were statistically significant in different stage SCD (P < .05). There were correlation between most variances with SCD stage. Strikingly, there existed close relationship between enhanced levels of blood glucose (r = −0.289, P = .066), glycated hemoglobin (GHB) (r = −0.288, P = .068) and homocysteine (r = −0.563, P = .000), abnormal visual findings (r = 0.309, P = .049) and megaloblastic anemia (r = −0.295, P = .061) with different SCD stage, among which abnormal visual findings were closely associated with middle stage SCD. Moreover, levels of total cholesterol, blood glucose, homocysteine and abnormal finding of visual acuity were significant in diagnosis and clinical staging of SCD (P < .05). Although MRI scanning and serum vitamin B12 level were widely used for SCD diagnosis, neurological examination and homocysteine level may be more potentially valuable indexes for SCD diagnosis and staging.