Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risks in the labor market and social insurance preferences: Germany and the USA

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to attempt to look at the link between labor market risks and social insurance demands by taking occupational unemployment rates, and specificity of skills into account. Design/methodology/approach - Occupational unemployment rate is treated as an estimate of labor market risk in addition to human capital investment. Then, the variations in Germany and the USA – with diverse labor markets and a considerable difference in terms of social insurance support – are examined. Findings - The results suggest that occupational unemployment rate is explanatory for the demands for social insurance along with income. Practical implications - Conclusions reached in the paper aim to contribute to the understanding of the political support for social insurance and hence provide tools for the design of such insurance mechanisms. Originality/value - Contrary to the widespread association between the type of human capital and social insurance preferences in the literature, the paper argues that the cross-country variations can be explained by occupational unemployment rates.
Modeling the Effects of an International Crisis on Brand Equity

ABSTRACT This research provides an analysis of the impact of an international crisis on brand equity. More specifically, the author tests a comprehensive model that examines the joint impact of animosity as well as the social pressure to avoid brands that originate from a controversial country. He explores the impact of what came to be known as the Mohammed controversy, which involved the Danish press publishing a series of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed on a Danish brand. Data were collected using a survey from 307 consumers in Kuwait. The findings show that animosity is not related to overall brand equity but is related to brand quality; moreover, subjective norms are negatively associated with overall brand equity. These results highlight the importance of subjective norms in influencing overall brand equity in times of international crises between nations.
Non-local total-variation (NLTV) minimization combined with reweighted L1-norm for compressed sensing CT reconstruction

The compressed sensing (CS) technique has been employed to reconstruct CT/CBCT images from fewer projections as it is designed to recover a sparse signal from highly under-sampled measurements. Since the CT image itself cannot be sparse, a variety of transforms were developed to make the image sufficiently sparse. The total-variation (TV) transform with local image gradient in L1-norm was adopted in most cases. This approach, however, which utilizes very local information and penalizes the weight at a constant rate regardless of different degrees of spatial gradient, may not produce qualified reconstructed images from noise-contaminated CT projection data. This work presents a new non-local operator of total-variation (NLTV) to overcome the deficits stated above by utilizing a more global search and non-uniform weight penalization in reconstruction. To further improve the reconstructed results, a reweighted L1-norm that approximates the ideal sparse signal recovery of the L0-norm is incorporated into the NLTV reconstruction with additional iterates. This study tested the proposed reconstruction method (reweighted NLTV) from under-sampled projections of 4 objects and 5 experiments (1 digital phantom with low and high noise scenarios, 1 pelvic CT, and 2 CBCT images). We assessed its performance against the conventional TV, NLTV and reweighted TV transforms in the tissue contrast, reconstruction accuracy, and imaging resolution by comparing contrast-noise-ratio (CNR), normalized root-mean square error (nRMSE), and profiles of the reconstructed images. Relative to the conventional NLTV, combining the reweighted L1-norm with NLTV further enhanced the CNRs by 2–4 times and improved reconstruction accuracy. Overall, except for the digital phantom with low noise simulation, our proposed algorithm produced the reconstructed image with the lowest nRMSEs and the highest CNRs for each experiment.
Is daily walking when living in the Paralympic village different to the typical home environment?

Background Life within the Paralympic village is exciting, and the preparation for competition of upmost importance. Due to the shear geographic size of the Paralympic village and associated competition venues, the amount of incidental walking could be different to an athlete's home environment, and any extra walking could potentially diminish athletic performance. Objectives To quantify the change (if any) in the amount of daily walking an athlete does during a typical day at home, when compared with when they are preparing for competition and competing. Methods The total number of steps per day was quantified using calibrated pedometers for 31 participants in four environments: at home, within a home-based national training camp, while abroad for an international training camp and when in the Paralympic village. Results There was a significant change in the daily step count with an average increase of 947 steps (or 13%) while in the national training camp, an increase of 3488 steps (or 53%) when in the international camp and an increase of 5472 steps (or 83%) when in the Paralympic village. Conclusion To enable the maximum possible sporting performance at the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games and beyond, athletes should monitor their incidental walking and adjust levels of activity accordingly. The layout and design of the Olympic and Paralympic village should consider the significant increase in incidental walking and provide improved mechanisms to avoid this unwanted issue.
A hybrid mobile biometric-based e-voting system

Information technology changes and gives shape to networked society all over the world today and its solutions are becoming main drivers in almost all fields of human life activity. One of those solutions is the empowerment of e-government technologies through mobile solutions. Although the acceptance rate of e-government applications is increasing, e-voting is hardly accepted as main tool in its field because it lacks in offering reliable solutions to common problems like fraud, bribery, anonymous character of the vote and absence of reliable independent observation. This paper proposes a mobile biometric-based design that solves such challenges and preserves transparency, privacy, and anonymity along with other essential services, using techniques such as Secure Sockets Layer encryption, certificate keys and 30 to 60 available seconds for security tokens. The paper also presents requirements analysis for the proposed design system of the hybrid mobile biometric-based e-voting system.
Outcomes of endoscopic sphincteroplasty using large balloon dilatation for difficult common bile duct stone removal: a single endoscopist experience.

OBJECTIVE Endoscopic sphincteroplasty (ESPT) using a large CRETM Wireguided balloon dilatation is an alternative technique in removing a difficult common bile duct (CBD) stone. However the outcome and complications of endoscopic difficult CBD stone removal using ESPT have not been well demonstrated. The present study revealed the outcome of the technique which done by a single endoscopist. MATERIAL AND METHOD Between January 2003 and December 2009, the retrospective study of ninety-three patients with CBD stones that underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticography (ERCP) for stone removal and had difficulty were enrolled. ESPT using a large CRE Wireguided balloon dilatation was performed in 62 patients. The success rate of complete stone clearance and post ERCP complications were analyzed RESULTS In the aspect of complete stone removal, the success rate was 88.7%. Seven patients (11.3%) required adjunctive mechanical lithotripsy (ML) for complete stone clearance. This technique was associated with low complication rate (3.2%). Post ERCP bleeding was found in one patient (1.6%) with ESPT using a large CRE balloon dilatation. Mild post-ERCP pancreatitis occurred in only one patient. CONCLUSION ESPT using large diameter CRE Wireguided balloon dilatation after biliary sphinctertomy is an effective technique for a difficult CBD stone removal associated with a lower rate of complications. This procedure can avoid unnecessary surgical CBD exploration for stone removal.
Swimming Upstream, Floating Downstream: Comparing Women's Relative Wage Progress in the United States and Denmark

Applying a new decomposition method to U.S. PSID and Danish Longitudinal Sample data, the authors compare how U.S. and Danish gender wage gaps developed between 1983 and 1995. In Denmark, they find, the wage gap widened, because the worsening in women's relative returns to observable human capital attributes, as well as in their ranking relative to men in unobservable productive attributes, more than offset their wage gains from improved observable qualifications relative to men's. In the United States, in contrast, the gender convergence in qualifications offset adverse influences, including increasing wage dispersion throughout the labor market, to result in a narrowing of the gap. The largest increase in the gap in Denmark was experienced by women in the top earnings decile, and the largest decline in the gap in the United States affected those at the top and in the middle of the distribution.
Diet-to-female and female-to-pup isotopic discrimination in South American sea lions.

RATIONALE The use of accurate, species-specific diet-tissue discrimination factors is a critical requirement when applying stable isotope mixing models to predict consumer diet composition. Thus, diet-to-female and female-to-pup isotopic discrimination factors in several tissues for both captive and wild South American sea lions were estimated to provide appropriate values for quantifying feeding preferences at different timescales in the wild populations of this species. METHODS Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in the blood components of two female-pup pairs and females' prey muscle from captive individuals were determined by elemental analyzer/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA/IRMS) to calculate the respective isotopic discrimination factors. The same analysis was carried out in both blood components, and skin and hair tissues for eight female-pup pairs from wild individuals. RESULTS Mean diet-to-female Δ(13) C and Δ(15) N values were higher than the female-to-pup ones. Pup tissues were more (15) N-enriched than their mothers but (13) C-depleted in serum and plasma tissues. In most of the tissue comparisons, we found differences in both Δ(15) N and Δ(13) C values, supporting tissue-specific discrimination. We found no differences between captive and wild female-to-pup discrimination factors either in Δ(13) C or Δ(15) N values of blood components. CONCLUSIONS Only the stable isotope ratios in pup blood are good proxies of the individual lactating females. Thus, we suggest that blood components are more appropriate to quantify the feeding habits of wild individuals of this species. Furthermore, because female-to-pup discrimination factors for blood components did not differ between captive and wild individuals, we suggest that results for captive experiments can be extrapolated to wild South American sea lion populations.
Gestão Ambiental a Partir da Produção Biodinâmica: Uma Alternativa a Sustentabilidade em Uma Vinícola Catarinense

From a case study at Vinicola Santa Augusta (Santa Augusta Winery) - VSA, this paper aims to understand the process of biodynamic production and its contribution to the sustainability of the enterprise and the environment. VSA has developed sustainable actions in its production process by growing biodynamic grapes, to meet a strategic need of the market, but with no intention of developing an environmental management strategy in the process. This study is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research, with theoretical support based on Biodynamics concepts and their contributions to the environment, beyond Environmental Management concepts from the perspective of Rohrich and Cunha (2004) and Maimon (1994). This article aims at proposing the implementation of an environmental management by the company, from the gradual adoption of sustainable practices and the maintenance of biodynamic farming in its production process. This research showed that biodynamic production is still modest in Brazil, mainly in the wine industry, and VSA is a pioneer in the segment. The study also allows for the understanding of Biodynamics as an alternative for sustainable production, conservation characteristics of non-renewable resources and respect for the limits of nature, besides allowing for quality products, with high added value.
Comparison of Interferon-Gamma Release Assay Versus Tuberculin Skin Test for Tuberculosis Screening in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

OBJECTIVES: Reactivation of latent tuberculosis (TB) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients treated with antitumor necrosis factor-alpha medication is a serious problem. Currently, TB screening includes chest x-rays and a tuberculin skin test (TST). The interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-G-IT) shows better specificity for diagnosing TB than the skin test. This study evaluates the two test methods among IBD patients.METHODS: Both TST and IGRA were performed on 212 subjects (114 Crohn's disease, 44 ulcerative colitis, 10 indeterminate colitis, 44 controls). RESULTS: Eighty-one percent of IBD patients were under immunosuppressive therapy; 71% of all subjects were vaccinated with Bacille Calmette Guérin; 18% of IBD patients and 43% of controls tested positive with the skin test (P < 0.0001). Vaccinated controls tested positive more often with the skin test (52%) than did vaccinated IBD patients (23%) (P= 0.011). Significantly fewer immunosuppressed patients tested positive with the skin test than did patients not receiving therapy (P= 0.007); 8% of patients tested positive with the QFT-G-IT test (14/168) compared to 9% (4/44) of controls. Test agreement was significantly higher in the controls (P= 0.044) compared to the IBD group.CONCLUSIONS: Agreement between the two test methods is poor in IBD patients. In contrast to the QFT-G-IT test, the TST is negatively influenced by immunosuppressive medication and vaccination status, and should thus be replaced by the IGRA for TB screening in immunosuppressed patients having IBD.
Resource Allocation for Two-Users DF-OFDMA Systems

A low complexity algorithm is proposed to jointly allocate the resources, namely subcarrier assignment and power profiles at the sources and relay nodes for two users decode and forward (DF) relaying scheme using orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). The objective is to allocate the resources to maximize the weighted sum rate subject to individual power constraint on each node. We formulate such a problem as subcarrier based resource allocation that seeks joint optimization of subcarrier assignment and power profiles at the source and relay nodes. Using high signal-to-noise- ratio (SNR) approximation, the proposed algorithm splits the subcarriers into two partitions based on channel gains' ordering, where each partition is assigned to one user. The computational complexity of finding the subcarrier assignment that maximizes the weighted sum rate for N subcarriers DF-OFDMA scenario is of O(N). The merits of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by numerical simulations.
The future of the external audit function

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities currently facing external auditors at a time of economic and financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach - The paper has a particular focus on the other contributions to this special issue of Findings - The paper puts forward various suggestions for future academic research that might improve auditing practice. Also, the principal aim of this special issue has been to spotlight differing perspectives on some of the perennial problems which have plagued auditing for generations and to suggest possible ways forward. Practical implications - Various suggestions for future academic research that might improve auditing practice are put forward in the paper. Originality/value - Major contemporary issues facing the auditing profession (or industry) are summarized. The paper highlights the diversity of value stances that exists in the audit academy and may (together with the other papers forming part of this special issue) be useful for introducing university students studying auditing at intermediate or advanced levels to a variety of current auditing issues and debates.
Retinal waves in mice lacking the β2 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor

The structural and functional properties of the visual system are disrupted in mutant animals lacking the β2 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. In particular, eye-specific retinogeniculate projections do not develop normally in these mutants. It is widely thought that the developing retinas of β2−/− mutants do not manifest correlated activity, leading to the notion that retinal waves play an instructional role in the formation of eye-specific retinogeniculate projections. By multielectrode array recordings, we show here that the β2−/− mutants have robust retinal waves during the formation of eye-specific projections. Unlike in WT animals, however, the mutant retinal waves are propagated by gap junctions rather than cholinergic circuitry. These results indicate that lack of retinal waves cannot account for the abnormalities that have been documented in the retinogeniculate pathway of the β2−/− mutants and suggest that other factors must contribute to the deficits in the visual system that have been noted in these animals.
Time Isn’t of the Essence

Is it easier to inhibit inappropriate behaviors if one pauses before acting? An important finding for theory and intervention is that children’s inhibitory control improves if an adult imposes a delay before they can act. Such findings have suggested that the passage of time allows impulsive urges to dissipate passively. However, in prior studies with imposed delays, children were also reminded about what they should be doing, which may have aided their activation of goal-relevant information. We tested this possibility by independently manipulating delays and task reminders, and measuring 3-year-olds’ abilities to inhibit opening boxes in a go/no-go box-search task. Task reminders, but not adult-imposed delays, improved children’s response inhibition. However, as in prior work, children who spontaneously delayed their action longer on go trials exhibited better response inhibition on no-go trials. These results pose a challenge to the view that the passage of time plays a causal role, suggest that spontaneous delays index other processes that improve inhibitory control, and highlight the importance of goal activation in developing inhibitory control.
On Measuring Economic Growth

ECONOMIC growth may be thought of as improvement in economic welfare or as expansion in productive capabilities. Thanks to a rich literature on the matter, we have been generously informed about the pitfalls in measuring gains in welfare. ' It is appealing to believe that some of them are avoided when growth is measured in terms of productive capabilities: here there is seemingly no problem of changing or otherwise incomparable tastes, since the thing being measured is the capacity to satisfy wants, not the degree of satisfaction itself. Moreover, this would seem to be a "neutral" measure with the same meaning for every economy at any time: in each case what is supposedly being measured is the growing ability of an economy to fulfil whatever demands might be placed upon it.2 The question then arises whether this is what production indexes are supposed to measure. They measure something, and there seems to be general agreement that it is not economic welfare in the normal sense. There is also an intense interest in economic growth, and production indexes are continually referred to as measures of it. The discussion that follows centers on these issues. In large part, it is simply a restatement of well-known, often trite, propositions; it has seemed useful to repeat them, nonetheless, in order to preserve continuity of thought and to reveal my full line of reasoning. The drift of the argument is that there is no simple way to measure growth in productive capabilities and that existing measures are by no means "Cneutral. "
Union membership variation in Europe: A ten-country comparative analysis

This article investigates covariates of union density in ten West European countries. It adds to previous research by showing that collective bargaining coverage plays a substantial role. Hence future analyses of union density should emphasize the collective bargaining coverage variable, since trade unions may influence both the extent of coverage and the content of agreements. Of course, the question of the direction of the causality remains.
How Do Country‐Level Governance Characteristics Impact the Relationship between R&D and Firm Value?

This article addresses the question of how country‐level governance characteristics moderate the market valuation of research and development (R&D). Using a valuation model and panel data from companies in the European Union, United States, and Japan, we find that effective corporate governance allows the market to better assess a firm's R&D investments. This finding is the conjunction with the effect of the legal system, the financial system, and mechanisms of control. First, as effectiveness of investor protection increases, the market valuation of R&D projects also increases. Second, more developed financial systems do a better job assessing R&D. Third, effective control mechanisms reinforce the positive effect of R&D on a firm's market value. In sum, our findings shed light on how policymakers can increase the benefits from firms' R&D spending and thus foster economic growth and social welfare using these country‐level governance characteristics.
Does Job Security Matter for Consumption? An Analysis on Italian Microdata

This paper investigates if labour income uncertainty, particularly as related to the development and diffusion of fixed and short-term work contracts, may have played a role in determining the recent decline of the marginal propensity to consume of Italian households. We analyse this issue in the framework of a standard precautionary saving model, proxing labour income uncertainty with subjective job security measures. Due to the lack of a unique dataset containing all the relevant information, we adopt a two-step two-sample procedure. Estimation results, based on cross-section data for the year 2000, point to a potentially substantial effect of job security perception on household’s nondurables consumption. Its actual capability to prompt aggregate consumption adjustments is however likely to be very limited.
The valuation effects of long‐term changes in capital structure

Purpose – This paper aims to test the irrelevance proposition whereby changes in capital structure do not affect firm value. Design/methodology/approach – The long-run effect of changes in capital structure on firm value is examined, using a sample of 243 French firms over the period 1987-1996. Findings – The null hypothesis cannot be rejected. No evidence is found to support a significant relationship between the changes in debt ratios and the changes in value. To assess the strength of this finding, control for reversion towards the target debt level induced by the static trade-off theory is introduced. Similar results were obtained. Originality/value – This paper is one of the first to analyze the long-term relationship between financial structure changes and value, and to propose a direct test for the irrelevance proposition.