Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender occupational segregation and its impact on the gender wage differential among rural-urban migrants: a Chinese case study

Since the late 1980s, massive rural - urban migration in China has attracted considerable attention from economists and policymakers, both within and outside China. One of the most striking features of rural - urban migration is that job attainment among the migrants differs considerably between males and females. It is of great interest to know the reasons for this difference and, more importantly, whether gender occupational segregation has a large impact on the gender wage differential among migrants. This paper examines these issues using data on 1504 migrants collected in Jinan city, Shandong province. It is found that gender occupational segregation in this sector is mainly due to the unequal treatment of male and female attributes in occupational assignment and that this contributes very significantly to the gender wage differential among migrants. A comparison with another study on China's rural industrial labour market is made, which suggest that intra-occupational gender wage discrimination is lower in the labour market for rural - urban migrants than in the labour market in the rural industrial sector.
An IoT Approach for an AAL Wi-Fi-Based Monitoring System

Among sensible goals of active and assisted living paradigm is the unobtrusive monitoring of daily living activities. Based on such monitoring, anomalies and trends can be discovered, which possibly allows for early assessment of health issues and for prevention policies. However, when dealing with the home environment, and especially with older adults, obtrusiveness, usability, and cost concerns are of the utmost relevance. Smart objects can be designed to this purpose and deployed into the home: they usually feature low data rates and are customarily implemented by relying on conventional wireless sensor network approaches (ZigBee, Z-Wave, etc). This, however, results in “ad hoc” home networking, which is somehow obtrusive, complicated, and possibly expensive. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of behavioral sensors based on the familiar and ubiquitous Wi-Fi technology, suitable for a “plug-and-play” deployment. Sensors are connected to a cloud platform, embodying a genuine Internet of Things approach. With respect to conventional approaches, much better scalability, flexibility, and inexpensiveness can be attained. The main expected drawback comes from the higher power consumption, inherently needed to sustain much higher data rates. This paper focuses on such an issue, illustrating design techniques aimed at optimizing power consumption and battery lifetime. Performance results are shown, which definitely fall within a practical range and are fully comparable with more conventional approaches.
Costs of Producing Biogas at Dairy Farms in The Netherlands

By 2020, Dutch dairy chains envisage to be self-sufficient with regard to energy used by dairy farms and dairy processors. This would require dairy farms to produce 25 PJ per year, possibly by a combination of wind, solar and biogas. This paper focuses on biogas. To evaluate the project’s viability we estimated the expected technical and financial performance of 4 types of business models, i.e. “CHP-farm”, “CHP-large”, “green gas” and “central upgrading of green gas”. Data stem from among others 23 biogas plants in the Netherlands. Anticipating that CHP-models and green gas models occur with a likelihood of 40% and 60% respectively, the total number of biogas plants would amount to 232 (1% of dairy farms), including a total of 5 million tons of manure per year (14% of all cattle manure in the Netherlands) and annual government subsidies of Euro 295 million. Aggregated annual profits are expected to be positive, but over the project’s total life time there is an expected deficit of Euro 262. For this to change costs of feedstocks or digestate disposal costs would for instance have to go down. Also fully switching to green gas models dampens the deficit. Results are used in current stakeholders debates on the organization of an “energy neutral dairy chain” in the Netherlands. Further analyses incorporating uncertainty around key technical and economic parameters including financial impacts of CO 2 -reductions are underway.
Personalized scientific literature recommendation based on user's research interest

As the rapid growth of digital scientific and technical literatures, the scientific researchers need personalized retrieval to satisfy their research interests urgently. Unlike previous methods that just use simple keyword matching, we strengthen the semantic information of scientific literature by merging metadata such as title, keywords, abstract and citation in this dissertation. Then we use vector space model with tf-idf value of each term to model each scientific literature. We structure user's interest model by subject term vector with different weight. Different weight means different concern degree to each subject term by user. To emphasize the quality of recommended literature, we not only calculate the similarity between user's research interest and literatures, but also consider the total times cited of recommended literatures. As experimental dataset, we collect literatures from Web of Science under the topic of “pressure sensor”. The experimental results show that this recommendation method could well indentify user's research interest. So, it can improve efficiency of user literature retrieval and increase the accuracy of the literature recommendation.
Do Credit Spreads Reflect Stationary Leverage Ratios

Most structural models of default preclude the firm from altering its capital structure. In practice, firms adjust outstanding debt levels in response to changes in firm value, thus generating mean-reverting leverage ratios. We propose a structural model of default with stochastic interest rates that captures this mean reversion. Our model generates credit spreads that are larger for low-leverage firms, and less sensitive to changes in firm value, both of which are more consistent with empirical findings than predictions of extant models. Further, the term structure of credit spreads can be upward sloping for speculative-grade debt, consistent with recent empirical findings. Copyright The American Finance Association 2001.
Intellectual capital and performance: testing interaction effects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction effect of intellectual capital elements and how they fuse to affect financial performance in microfinance institutions. The major purpose is to explore the appropriate blend or mix of intellectual capital elements that explains the source of value creation – hence performance – in microfinance institutions.Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts the ModGraph program (Excel version) along with the Kenny and Boran approach to test conditional hypotheses.Findings – The magnitude effect of human capital on performance depends on any of structural or relational capital; hence the assumption of nonadditivity is met. However, no significant interaction effects were established between relational and structural capital.Research limitations/implications – Only a single research methodological approach was employed and future research through interviews could be undertaken to triangulate. Furthermore, the findings from the present study are cr.
Double Deflation and the Measurement of Output and Productivity in UK Manufacturing 1979–89

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of applying double deflation methods to the measurement of productivity growth in UK manufacturing between 1979 and 1989. A number of alternative indicators of output growth are considered and it is argued that double deflated value added is the superior concept to employ for the measurement of productivity. It is shown that output measured by double deflated value added fell by 0.05% over the period between 1979 and 1989 whereas the official series indicates that output rose by 12.2% over the period. Measuring productivity as output per person employed, the double deflated value added measure indicates that between 1979 and 1989productivity increased by 34%> whereas the official series indicates an increase of 51 %. Whereas the latter may indicate a productivity miracle the former does not
Attitudes Toward Ecosystem Management in the United States, 1992-1998

Ecosystem management has been formally adopted by a large number of state and federal agencies and by forest products firms and associations. But little research has examined people's attitudes toward this new approach to natural resource management. This study used computer methods to measure favorable and unfavorable attitudes towardecosystem management expressed in 1500 online news media stories over the period 1992 through 1998. We found that ecosystem management is on the downside of the "issue attention cycle," with the total quantity of discussion of this concept rising in the early 1990s, declining during the mid 1990s, and leveling out in recent years. Wealso found that about 78% of all attitudes expressed about ecosystem management in news stories have been favorable, comparable to past research based on surveys of the public. Our analysis suggests that ecosystem management may have become a "settled" (i.e., noncontroversial) issue with broad public acceptance.
Management Accountant—What Ails Thee?

F or decades management accountants have made substantial contributions to the practice, research, and teaching of business. Economists such as Holmstrom (1979), Holmstrom and Milgrom (1991), and Jensen and Meckling (1976) identified agency problems that could exist between the firm and its owners, discussed the informativeness of signals of managerial effort, and the optimal use of these signals in contracting. Management accountants calibrated the properties of the signals, identified optimal weighting schemes for the signals, determined the relative values of signals in contracts, and assessed the difficulty in designing goal congruent systems using these signals (Banker and Datar 1989; Feltham and Xie 1994; Datar, Kulp, and Lambert 2001). Terms such as ‘‘controllability,’’ ‘‘congruence,’’ and ‘‘balance,’’ which form the bedrock of modern accounting and control systems, were first discoursed in the management accounting literature. It is practically impossible to think of a major corporation that does not have a Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan and Norton 1992). Topics such as Activity Based Costing (ABC), Time Driven ABC, Customer Lifetime Value, Capacity Cost Allocation, Target Costing, and the Balanced Scorecard, are the staples of undergraduate, master’s, and M.B.A. curricula throughout the world. Privately however, management accountants appear to have had two damaging hobbies—selfflagellation, and exchanging doomsday predictions. The same people who will laugh when told that a Zombie apocalypse is imminent have no trouble declaring (almost triumphantly) that the end of management accounting is within sight. The result is that we scare away the young, further damaging our dwindling numbers. Little respect is accorded to a discipline that insists on endless debates about its own theoretical and methodological boundaries. We have no trouble teaching our undergraduate or graduate students that management accounting ‘‘measures, analyzes, and reports financial and nonfinancial information that helps managers make decisions to fulfill the goals of an organization’’ (Horngren, Datar, and Rajan 2012, 4), or that ‘‘A fundamental purpose of managerial accounting is to enhance firm value by ensuring the effective and efficient use of scarce resources’’ (Sprinkle and Williamson 2007, 415).
THE IMPACT OF 2008 GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED INDONESIAN STOCKS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

This research is a preliminary study that analyzes the impact of the US ﬁnancial markets on Indonesian ﬁnancial markets during the 2008 global ﬁnancial crisis. It speciﬁcally investigates the occurrence of contagion effect in the Indonesian IHSG index and selected LQ45 stocks with the US S&P500 index by the measurement of correlation using simple correlation, EWMA, OGARCH, and DCC GARCH. It also attempts to discuss on the decoupling of Indonesian market and provide recommendations on dealing with future similar events.
Job Polarization and Rising Inequality in the Nation and the New York-Northern New Jersey Region

Since the 1980s, employment opportunities in both the United States and the New York–northern New Jersey region have become increasingly polarized. While technological advances and globalization have created new jobs for workers at the high end of the skill spectrum and largely spared the service jobs of workers at the low end, these forces have displaced many jobs involving routine tasks—traditionally the sphere of middle-skill workers. Moreover, these same forces have pushed up wages for high-skill workers disproportionately, contributing to increased wage inequality. The rise in inequality has been especially sharp in downstate New York and northern New Jersey, where the wage gap is now markedly larger than in the nation.
Does investments in ICT impact Trade in Africa? A trend analysis of trade flows in Africa.

The past few decades have witnessed a growth in the use of information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure as a catalyst for development in many countries. The growth in the worldwide ICT has resulted in globalization, enabling integration of financial markets among different countries in small geographical regions. This has led to intra-regional cooperation and trade. Trade is one of the cornerstones of economic development. It creates a larger regional economy from small and unequal national economies thereby promoting growth and sustainable development. The importance of intra-regional trade is to stimulate production capacity and competitiveness through exposing the domestic industries to intra-regional competition. This facilitates the regions’ ability to compete in international markets. In Africa, global and intra-regional trade has declined since 1970. In this study, the trend analysis of trade flows in Africa was explored. The analysis implies that the low level of trade was influenced by colonial legacy and that the lack of adequate ICT infrastructure is also one of the strong opposing factors to intra-African trade flows.
Effects of Ambient Illumination, Luminance Contrast, and Stimulus Type on Subjective Preference of VDT Target and Background Color Combinations

This study investigated the effects of the target and background color combination on subjective preference, i.e., aesthetic appearance, legibility and visual comfort, of stimuli presented on a visual display terminal under various ambient illuminations, luminance contrasts, and stimulus types. Analysis showed the main effect of color combination was significant for the three dependent variables. Black-on-white and blue-on-white were the most preferred combinations, while turquoise-on-green and turquoise-on-red were the least preferred. A sign was rated better than text. The significant interaction between color combination and luminance contrast indicated that more preferred color combinations were rated better under higher luminance contrast, whereas less preferred color combinations had better ratings under lower luminance contrast.
Gibbon ape leukemia virus and the amphotropic murine leukemia virus 4070A exhibit an unusual interference pattern on E36 Chinese hamster cells

The gibbon ape leukemia virus (GaLV), the amphotropic mouse leukemia virus (A-MLV) 4070A, and the xenotropic mouse leukemia virus (X-MLV) exhibit wide but not identical species host ranges. However, most Chinese hamster cells resist infection by all three viruses. We have now determined that the Chinese hamster cell line E36 differs from other Chinese hamster cell lines in that it is susceptible to infection by wild-type GaLV, A-MLV, and X-MLV. Surprisingly, analysis of the interference pattern of GaLV and A-MLV in E36 cells indicated that GaLV and A-MLV interfere in a nonreciprocal fashion. E36 cells productively infected with GaLV were resistant to superinfection by both GaLV and amphotropically packaged recombinant retroviral vectors. In contrast, E36 cells infected with A-MLV were resistant to superinfection with an amphotropic vector but could still be infected by a GaLV vector. These results imply the existence of a receptor on E36 cells that interacts with both GaLV and A-MLV.
ASSESSING THE PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACTS OF DECENTRALIZATION REFORM: A PARTICIPATORY, QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL, AND MULTI- METHOD APPROACH

Over the last thirty years, international organizations have invested heavily in efforts aimed at increasing the provision and improving the efficacy of public services within developing countries. Health sector decentralization have been one of the most common manifestations of this effort to reform governance. However, generalizing about appropriate methodology for evaluating and identifying the effects of such reforms proves difficult. For example, evaluations of governance reforms are often hampered by problems of establishing counterfactuals, endogeneity, as well as accounting for selection effects with respect to the reform interventions. Additionally, robust policy evaluations need to address heterogeneity in treatment, staggered timing, and the theoretical underpinnings about expected effects. Nonetheless, the increased popularity as well as the substantial financial investments in efforts to augment health-sector governance demand systematic and rigorous empirical evaluation strategies. In this paper we present a participatory, quasi-experimental, and multi-method approach for evaluating the public health effects of decentralization reforms, illustrating such an approach with and example from our research on decentralized health service delivery models in Honduras.
Distribution and Cellular Localization of Prostacyclin Synthase in Human Brain

SUMMARY Prostacyclin (PGI2) is a labile, lipid-derived metabolite of arachidonic acid synthesized through the sequential action of cyclo-oxygenase (COX) and prostacyclin synthase (PGIS). In addition to its well-characterized vasodilatory and thrombolytic effects, an increasing number of studies report an important role of PGI2 in nociception in various animal species. In this study we investigated the regional distribution of PGIS in human brain by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. PGIS-immunoreactive (ir) protein was localized to blood vessels throughout the brain. Neuronal cells and glial cells, such as microglia and oligodendrocytes, also showed intense labeling. The strongest expression of PGIS was seen in large principal neurons, such as pyramidal cells of the cortex, pyramidal cells of the hippocampus, and Purkinje cells of the cerebellum. Abundance of PGIS mRNA was observed in blood vessels and large neurons and correlated well with the immunohistochemical findings. The expression of PGIS in human brain was further demonstrated by immunoblotting and detection of 6-keto-PGF1α, the stable degradation product of prostacyclin in human brain homogenate. These results demonstrate a widespread expression of PGIS in the central nervous system and suggest a potentially important role of prostacylin in modulating neuronal activity in human brain.
Use of Green Fluorescent Protein-Expressing Aspergillus fumigatus conidia to Validate Quantitative PCR Analysis of Air Samples Collected on Filters

This study used green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing Aspergillus fumigatus conidia to compare quantitative PCR (qPCR) enumeration with direct epifluorescent microscopic filter counts of conidia collected on filters in a test chamber. In separate experiments this study initially compared white versus fluorescent light microscopy for counting A. fumigatus conidia, then compared fluorescent microscopy counting of corresponding filter halves, and finally compared qPCR enumeration to counting by fluorescent light microscopy. The use of GFP-expressing conidia with epifluorescent microscopy yielded significantly higher conidia counts (p = 0.026, n = 41, mean of 4.1 conidia per counting field) and 40% faster counting times when compared to conventional counting using white light microscopy. GFP-expressing conidia were aerosolized in a test chamber and collected onto filters. Filters were divided in half and GFP-expressing conidia enumerated. There was no significant difference in the average conidia count per field between corresponding filter halves (p = 0.3, n = 9 filters, mean of 7.8 conidia per counting field). Thus, one filter half could be counted optically and would provide a reliable estimate of filter loading of the corresponding half, which could then be analyzed by qPCR. Filters (n = 38) loaded with GFP conidia in the aerosol chamber were divided in half and analyzed by either fluorescent microscopy or qPCR. The estimated filter loadings ranged from 15–30,000 conidia per filter. There was a linear relationship with a nearly 1:1 ratio between qPCR and direct microscopic estimates of filter loading (y = 1.06× + 404; R 2 = 0.91) showing that the outlined qPCR analysis method is in agreement with an external reference method and is reliable for enumerating A. fumigatus conidia collected on filters. The comparative data derived using GFP-expressing conidia confirmed that qPCR provides sensitive and accurate quantification of DNA from airborne conidia collected on filters.
Heparin Cofactor II Determination - Levels in Normals and Patients with Hereditary Antithrombin III Deficiency and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

Summary A technique is described to completely remove antithrombin III (AT) from small amounts of human plasma by immunoaffinity chromatography on antibodies against human AT linked to Sepharose 4B. The level of heparin cofactor II (HCII) was not affected by the immunoadsorption. HCII activity was then determined by measuring the rate of human thrombin inhibition by 3 ways: a) activation with heparin in AT-free plasma, b) activation with dermatan sulfate in normal plasma and c) activation with dermatan sulfate in AT-free plasma. The normal range of HCII varied between 0.7-1.5 U/ml, as compared to a normal plasma pool containing by definition 1 U/ml. Highly significant correlations between assays as obtained from 40 normal plasmas proved the suitability of the 3 assays, although the progressive thrombin inhibition by AT, when not removed, contributed about one fifth to the thrombin inhibition by HCII in the presence of dermatan sulfate. There were also highly significant correlations between HCII activity and antigen, as determined by rocket immunoelectrophoresis using specific antibodies against HCII. Levels of HCII and AT were examined in 7 patients with hereditary AT deficiency and 7 patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). In hereditary AT deficiency, whereas the AT activity was reduced by half, levels of HCII activity and antigen were in the normal range. In DIC, a parallel decrease of HCII and AT suggests that HCII may participate in the inhibition of thrombin released during DIC and thus provides an inhibitor reserve, once the AT level becomes subnormally low.
Topology and power flows in power grids

In complex networks, such as electrical power grids, their properties depend on their interconnection topology. This paper studies the relationship between interconnection topology and power flows in power grids, and shows that by altering the interconnection topology one can alter the loadability of the grid. This has significance both in terms of the cost of a network and in terms of its robustness to cascading failure.