Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Child Care Subsidies and Child Skill Accumulation in One- and Two-Parent Families

I examine the role of family structure and childcare subsidies in child skill accumulation. I establish empirically that skill accumulation is more responsive to childcare price for one-parent families than for two-parent families. I analyze the effects of childcare subsidies in a model featuring endogenous family formation, parental altruism, and a baseline subsidy resembling that of the United States. I find that eliminating this subsidy generates welfare losses of 1.63 percent of lifetime consumption, that equilibrium adjustments act to mitigate these losses, and that increasing uptake among one-parent families yields the highest welfare gains per additional recipient. (JEL I21, I26, J12, J13, J24)
Audit-Firm Profitability: Determinants and Implications for Key Audit Matter Reporting

We use a novel dataset that links audit-firm and client-firm financial statement information from the U.K.’s largest audit firms to examine drivers of audit-firm profitability and its implications for audit outcomes conveyed by Key Audit Matter (KAM) disclosures. We first explore the determinants of audit-firm profitability and conclude that Big-4 and non-Big-4 audit firms have fundamentally different profitability structures. Big-4 firms earn higher profit margins than non-Big-4 firms. Furthermore, Big-4 profitability increases with client size and complexity, while non-Big-4 profitability is higher for smaller clients and clients with losses. Next, we examine the relation between audit-firm profitability and KAM reporting. We find that more profitable audit firms address more KAMs. However, audit-firm profitability is less likely to affect audit outcomes for loss-making clients (i.e., when auditors are exposed to more litigation risk). Our results are robust to several endogeneity controls such as controlling for client-firm and/or audit-firm fixed effects, employing changes specifications, and using an instrumental variables approach, as well as to examining the external validity of our findings and using alternative outcome measures. Our study contributes to the literature by being the first to provide insights into audit-firm profitability and examine in detail its implications for audit quality and audit effort.
Nutritional and Immunopotentiating Function of Methionine for Poultry

As an essential nutrient and a first limiting amino acid in several meal-based poultry diets, methionine (Met) is of rich nutritional value and physiological functions. Methionine’s multiple functions include but not limited to protein synthesis, feather development, and protection from oxidative stress, methylation of DNA reactions as well as several distinct molecules. Methionine is suggested to play an influential role in both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. This is vital as the immune system prospers immensely from adequate nutrition, constituting of a balanced diet with supplementation of certain essential nutrients. Methionine’s immunopotentiating roles include detoxification, increasing humoral immune response, stimulation of the phagocytic activity of leukocyte, triggering serum lysozyme activity, and resistance for coccidia infection. These functions increase immune responses during stress cycles and disease outbreaks in poultry and other animals. Additional research is recommended to elucidate the role of the host genetic makeup Int J Plant Anim Environ Sci 2021; 11 (3): 363-390 DOI: 10.26502/ijpaes.202111 International Journal of Plant, Animal and Environmental Sciences Vol. 11 No. 3 – September 364 involvement in the relationship between methionine and other disease factors.
Using Deep and Active Learning Classifiers to Identify Congressional Delegation to Administrative Agencies: Supplemental Information

Congressional oversight of the federal bureaucracy remains key to understanding implementation of the law. Essential to this are theories of how and why Congress delegates powers to administrative agencies. Using an active learning convolutional neural network on bill text, we classify bill sections by their role in delegating to administrative agencies, applying an iteratively improving coding scheme that enhances existing supervised learning approaches. We systematically study the statutory scope of administrative agencies and develop a first-of-its-kind dataset to study how delegation develops. First, we benchmark our measure against existing proxies for delegation. We then find evidence that, as bills advance through the legislative process, the delegation scope winnows. We also find that traditional expectations about unified versus divided government matter less when looking at all legislation, confounding the well-known ally principal. We conclude with a discussion of delegatory scope and other extensions of our method to new data.
Removal of NH3, H2S and Toluene by Biofilters Packed with Rock Wool-Compost Media

Biofiltration is carried out in packing materials where attached microorganisms degrade the passing contaminant. In this work, a new packing material was introduced and evaluated for the treatment of malodorous gases-ammonia and hydrogen sulfide and a volatile organic compound-toluene in three biofilters, BF1, BF2, and BF3, respectively. The new composite rock wool-compost media consisted of rock wool and compost in 70:30 weight ratios. Above 95 % removal efficiencies were obtained as the inlet concentrations of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and toluene were increased up to 155, 150 and 260 ppmv, respectively in the biofilters at an empty bed residence time of ∼65 s. The removal efficiencies in the hydrogen sulfide (BF2) and toluene (BF3) biofilters im- mediately decreased when the frequency of water irrigation was reduced. However, hydrogen sulfide removal in the BF2 could be improved in some extent by maintaining pH of above 5. Parameters such as pH, microbial count, and pressure drop along the biofilters were also evaluated. The highest elimination capacities obtained from the study were 6.4 g-NH3/m 3 /h, 12.1 g-H2S/m 3 /h, and 57.6 g-toluene/m 3 /h, indicating that the rock
Enhancing paper sludge dewatering by waste polyester fiber and FeCl3 for preparation of Fe-rich biochar

The paper sludge conditioning effects of waste polyester textile fibers as skeleton builders combined with ferric chloride (FeCl3) were evaluated and the sludge dewatering mechanism was explored. The catalytic effect of Fe-rich sludge biochar (Fe-SB) on enhancing sludge dewaterability was evaluated. Results showed the combined fiber-FeCl3 conditioning significantly promoted the sludge dewaterability compared with conditioner alone, leading to a 77.5% decrease in specific filtration resistance and a 68.9% increase in net yield. The decrease of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) contents showed that the EPS were difficult to extract and sludge floc strength was enhanced as a result of chemical reactions such as complexation processes and charge neutralization. Hence, the enhancement of sludge dewaterability was primarily due to the sludge cake with a porous and incompressible structure formed by fiber and FeCl3, and the rigidity structure of fiber. Moreover, the Fe-SB prepared by fiber-FeCl3 conditioning sludge could effectively activate persulfate to enhance the sludge dewaterability, with water content of dewatered sludge decreasing by 14.6%. The Fe-SB had dual functions of the heterogeneous catalyst of persulfate and skeleton builder. This study presents a sludge recycling method that combined physicochemical conditioning and sludge biochar materials prepared by pyrolysis.
On the uncertainty of dynamic stiffness measurements

Urbán D.1*, Zaťko P.2, Roozen N. B.2, Muellner H.3, Glorieux C.4 1 Department of Building Structures, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Radlinského 11, 810 05 Bratislava, Slovakia, Email: ing.daniel. urban@gmail.com 2 A&Z Acoustics s.r. o. , Repašského 2, 84102, Bratislava, Slovakia 3Versuchsanstalt TGM, Fachbereich Akustik und Bauphysik, Wexstrasse 19-23, 1200 Wien 4KU Leuven, Dep. of Physics and Astronomy, Soft matter and Biophysics, Laboratory of Acoustics, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Stability Analysis of Facial Attributes for Improved Face Recognition

In this thesis we do face verification, where the main task is to decide if two images belong to the same person or to different people. To do that we use the images from the Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW) database. The images are taken in an uncontrolled environment and thus have natural variation in pose, lighting and background. We approach face verification through comparing facial attributes of two images from LFW. These facial attributes are extracted from our AFFACT network. To compare the facial attributes, we develop algorithms that perform different distance-based calculations between them. Some of our algorithms train a Support Vector Machine (SVM). After the comparison of two images, a score value is computed which deduces whether they belong to the same person and thus solve the face verification problem.
Which Students Benefit from Personalized Learning? Experimental Evidence from a Math Software in Public Schools in India ∗

This is one of the first studies to evaluate the impact of personalized learning delivered through technology in a developing country. We randomly assigned 1,528 students in grades 6-8 in 15 “model” public schools who were using a computer-adaptive learning software to: (a) a control group, in which they were only able to access the activities for their enrolled grade level (i
What We Pay in the Shadow: Labor Tax Evasion, Minimum Wage Hike and Employment

The interactions between minimum wage policy and tax evasion remain largely unknown. We study firm-level employment effects of a large and biting minimum wage increase in Latvia conditional on labor tax compliance. The Latvian labor market is characterized by the prevalence of envelope wages, i.e., unreported cash-in-hand complements to the official wage. We apply machine learning to classify firms between compliant and tax-evading using a unique combination of administrative and survey data. We then show that firms engaged in labor tax evasion are insensitive to the minimum wage shock. Our results suggest that these firms use wage underreporting as an adjustment margin, converting (part of) the envelope into legal wage. Increasing minimum wage contributes to tax rule enforcement, but this comes at the cost of negative employment consequences for compliant firms.
Evaluation of Opuntia ficus-indica potential as a natural coadjuvant for vinasse treatment

Agro-industrial waste is generated in large quantities, producing negative environmental impacts. For instance, in the distillation process of vinasses, up to 15 L are produced per alcohol produced. Therefore, it is necessary to search for ecological alternatives. Biological treatments are not recommended because vinasses contain compounds, such as melanoidins, which exert inhibitory activity against microorganisms. Thanks to this activity, melanoidins could be removed, recovered, and become a value-added product. In this study, Opuntia ficus-indica (OFI) mucilage, a natural biopolymer as coadjuvant, was used to improve the coagulation-flocculation process in the treatment of real samples of mezcal vinasses, after evaluating the individual effect of aluminum sulfate and ferric chloride. It was possible to eliminate 90% of color using ferric chloride, showing better removals than aluminum sulfate. However, the effect of ferric chloride plus OFI mucilage generated an adverse effect because the removal was under 17%. The individual effect of ferric chloride for chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was 28%. This removal was improved by the addition of OFI mucilage, as it was able to increase removal to 84%. The natural coadjuvant was shown to be effective in the COD removal in the treatment of mezcal vinasse using the coagulation-flocculation process.
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON HOMELESSNESS: THE RELATION BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EXTERNAL HOMELESSNESS1

External and psychological aspects of homelessness were investigated based on the Theory of External and Psychological At-Homeness – Homelessness Continuum (Kántor & Dúll, 2018). A structured questionnaire was presented to 181 adult individuals living in different housing conditions. Four groups were identified through cluster analysis: 1) externally and psychologically at-home, 2) externally homeless, psychologically at-home, 3) externally at-home, psychologically homeless, 4) externally and psychologically homeless. Eight variables were used to compare the clusters. The main results: 1) Among those psychologically at-home, the externally homeless are lonelier (t=-1.92, p=0.059) and less happy (t=4.50, P=0.000) than the ones that externally have a home, with higher levels of perceived stress (t=-2.07, p=0.047), dissatisfaction (t=3.62, p=0.000), hopelessness (t=2.69, p=0.008) and search for meaning in life (t=-3.14, p=0.002). 2) Among the psychologically homeless, externally at-home are happier than the externally homeless (t=2.26, p=0.027), and exhibit lower levels of perceived stress (t=-2.73, p=0.008). 3) Among the externally at-home people, those psychologically at-home are happier (t=4.19, p=0.000), more satisfied (t=5.16, p=0.000), more hopeful (t=-2.35, p=0.021), with a lower level of perceived stress (t=-2.25, p=0.027) and higher self-efficacy (t=2.01, p=0.048), than the psychologically homeless. 4) Among the externally homeless, those who psychologically feel at-home are happier (t=2.05, p=0.043) and more satisfied (t=2.88, p=0.005) than the psychologically homeless, with lower perceived stress (t=-2, 46, p=0.016). These results suggest that psychological at-homeness can be considered an important protective factor for psychological well-being, which goes hand-in-hand with a number of other psychological qualities that are significant elements of healthy psychological functioning.
1 Overview of Models of Cognitive Aging

This chapter reviews major theories of cognitive aging. Theories such as the sensory deficit hypothesis, speed of processing, and inhibitory deficit hypothesis are based largely on behavioral findings and focus on a single process that is purported to account for a number of cognitive changes with age. Specific to memory, theories focus on age deficits in recollection and binding. Over the past twenty-five years, brain-based models have begun to pervade the literature. These have focused on concepts such as compensation, dedifferentiation, and suppression of the default mode network. The scaffolding theory of aging and cognition integrates many of these concepts into a single comprehensive model, including consideration of enrichment and depletion factors that operate over the life span. We conclude the chapter with some debates, critiques, and consideration of future directions, particularly considering the contributions of cognitive neuroscience methods. Behavioral Models of Aging In this section, we reviewmodels considering what cognitive abilities may be impaired with age, based largely on behavioral data. Each of these models primarily focuses on one ability, suggesting that losses in this ability can account for more widespread changes to memory or other cognitive abilities with age. Sensory Deficit Hypothesis The sensory deficit hypothesis proposes that cognitive changes associated with aging may be attributed to changes in sensation (i.e., deficits in vision and hearing). Specifically, processing of visual and auditory information is based on abilities that deteriorate with age (e.g., Stine, Wingfield, & Poon, 1989; Chapter 10). Numerous studies have found that the correlation between sensory function and cognitive performance is stronger in old age than during earlier periods of adulthood (Anstey, Lord, & Williams, 1997; Anstey, Luszcz, & Sanchez, 2001; Anstey, Stankov, & Lord, 1993; Baltes & Lindenberger, 1997; Lindenberger and Baltes, 1994; Lindenberger & Ghisletta, 2009). For example, Baltes and Lindenberger (1997) found that the average proportion of individual differences in perceptual speed, reasoning, knowledge, fluency, and, importantly,
Role of Human Capital in Market Orientation – Innovation Relationship

Academics and practitioners have regarded innovation as a source to gain sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) over rival firms. Although market orientation (MO) and human capital (HC) were found to impact a firm’s ability to innovate independently of each other, yet how they interact with each other has not been studied earlier. Drawing from the theory of organizational learning, this study proposes that human capital (HC) mediates the relationship between MO and innovation. The proposed relationship was empirically tested using the data collected from managers working in the textile sector of Pakistan. The results revealed that HC and MO independently affect innovation, while HC partially mediates the relationship between MO and innovation. Practical and future research implications of the current study are also discussed.
Highly Magnetized Encoded Hydrogel Microparticles with Enhanced Rinsing Capabilities for Efficient microRNA Detection

Encoded hydrogel microparticles mounting DNA probes are powerful tools for high-performance microRNA (miRNA) detection in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and multiplex detection capability. However, several particle rinsing steps in the assay procedure present challenges for rapid and efficient detection. To overcome this limitation, we encapsulated dense magnetic nanoparticles to reduce the rinsing steps and duration via magnetic separation. A large number of magnetic nanoparticles were encapsulated into hydrogel microparticles based on a discontinuous dewetting technique combined with degassed micromolding lithography. In addition, we attached DNA probes targeting three types of miRNAs related to preeclampsia to magnetically encoded hydrogel microparticles by post-synthesis conjugation and achieved sensitivity comparable to that of conventional nonmagnetic encoded hydrogel microparticles. To demonstrate the multiplex capability of magnetically encoded hydrogel microparticles while maintaining the advantages of the simplified rinsing process when addressing multiple samples, we conducted a triplex detection of preeclampsia-related miRNAs. In conclusion, the introduction of magnetically encoded hydrogel microparticles not only allowed efficient miRNA detection but also provided comparable sensitivity and multiplexed detectability to conventional nonmagnetic encoded hydrogel microparticles.
Delayed Contralateral Nephrectomy Halted Post-Ischemic Renal Fibrosis Progression and Inhibited the Ischemia-Induced Fibromir Upregulation in Mice

(1) Background: Ischemia reperfusion (IR) is the leading cause of acute kidney injury (AKI) and results in predisposition to chronic kidney disease. We demonstrated that delayed contralateral nephrectomy (Nx) greatly improved the function of the IR-injured kidney and decelerated fibrosis progression. Our aim was to identify microRNAs (miRNA/miR) involved in this process. (2) Methods: NMRI mice were subjected to 30 min of renal IR and one week later to Nx/sham surgery. The experiments were conducted for 7–28 days after IR. On day 8, multiplex renal miRNA profiling was performed. Expression of nine miRNAs was determined with qPCR at all time points. Based on the target prediction, plexin-A2 and Cd2AP were measured by Western blot. (3) Results: On day 8 after IR, the expression of 20/1195 miRNAs doubled, and 9/13 selected miRNAs were upregulated at all time points. Nx reduced the expression of several ischemia-induced pro-fibrotic miRNAs (fibromirs), such as miR-142a-duplex, miR-146a-5p, miR-199a-duplex, miR-214-3p and miR-223-3p, in the injured kidneys at various time points. Plexin-A2 was upregulated by IR on day 10, while Cd2AP was unchanged. (4) Conclusion: Nx delayed fibrosis progression and decreased the expression of ischemia-induced fibromirs. The protein expression of plexin-A2 and Cd2AP is mainly regulated by factors other than miRNAs.
Sevoflurane and Desflurane Exposures Following Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Confer Multifaceted Protection against Delayed Cerebral Ischemia

Numerous studies have demonstrated the ability of isoflurane conditioning to provide multifaceted protection against aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)-associated delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI); however, preclinical studies have not yet examined whether other commonly used inhalational anesthetics in neurological patients such as sevoflurane or desflurane are also protective against SAH-induced neurovascular deficits. We therefore sought to identify the potential for sevoflurane and desflurane conditioning to protect against DCI in an endovascular perforation mouse model of SAH. Neurological function was assessed daily via neuroscore. Large artery vasospasm and microvessel thrombosis were assessed three days after SAH or sham surgery. Four groups were examined: Sham, SAH + room air, SAH + 2% Sevoflurane, and SAH + 6% Desflurane. For the SAH groups, one hour after surgery, mice received 2% sevoflurane, 6% desflurane, or room air for one hour. We found that conditioning with sevoflurane or desflurane attenuated large artery vasospasm, reduced microvessel thrombosis, and improved neurologic function. Given their frequent clinical use and strong safety profile in patients (including those with SAH), these data strongly support further studies to validate these findings in preclinical and clinical studies and to elucidate the mechanisms by which these agents might be acting.
Orchiepididymitis in the context of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in a child with Covid-19 from Syria: a very rare presentation for SARS-Cov-19 in children

ABSTRACT The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still striking the global population affecting all age groups. So far, many clinical features associated with COVID-19 illness remain under-identified, especially atypical manifestations. It is essential to characterize associated rare symptoms to better recognize complications. As severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children (MIS-C) in severe infection manifesting as a generalized inflammatory reaction and immune response in many body systems, potential involvement of the male urogenital tract by SARS-CoV-2 should be considered. Herein, we report a case of a pediatric patient with orchiepididymitis associated with COVID-19 infection, emphasizing the importance of considering other manifestations such as genital involvement of MIS-C in children with COVID-19 and highlighting the need to monitor the genitourinary function after infection. Therefore, andrological consultation is necessary to evaluate fertility as a long-term follow-up, especially as the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on male reproductive function are still to be thoroughly researched.