Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the Challenges Faced by Sri Lankan Workers in Web Based Digital Labour Platforms

Sri Lanka is identified as one of the most favorable destinations in the world for Business Process Outsourcing/Business Process Management (BPO/BPM) industry. In order to secure an employment in this sector, Sri Lankans should have at least a bachelors degree whereas only 3% of Sri Lankans have one and even less on IT field. Youth unemployment is high in Sri Lanka even though most of the Sri Lankans are competent, literate and famous around the world for their soft skills. Given that more Sri Lankans are connected via Internet and are exploring employment opportunities online, this research estimate the value of web based digital labour platform economy in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankans working on these platforms and challengers faced by them and provide policy recommendations to overcome these challengers and provide opportunities for more Sri Lankans online.
Econometric Modeling of the Public Grazing Fee's Impact on the U.S. Sheep Industry

ECONOMETRIC MODELING OF THE PUBLIC GRAZING FEE’S IMPACT ON THE U.S. SHEEP INDUSTRY by Ryan Feuz, Master of Science Utah State University, 2016 Major Professor: Dr. Man-Keun Kim Department: Applied Economics The U.S. sheep and wool industry is one of the oldest agricultural industries within the country. Since the mid 1940’s the industry has witnessed dramatic annual declines in sheep inventories. Many factors have contributed to the decline of the sheep industry including declining consumption of lamb and mutton, the growth in manmade fiber use, scarcity of labor, and predator losses. The U.S. congress has attempted to slow this decline throughout the years with various policy including the use of wool marketing loan programs. Such programs are intended to help bring stability as well as to mitigate price risk within the industry. However, despite these efforts the industry continues to experience annual declines in inventory. The United States has vast quantities of public land especially within the western states that is utilized for grazing of livestock every year. Public-land grazing is an important element within the sheep industry with a large portion of sheep producers utilizing the resources available through public-land grazing. For the vast majority of this public land, the fee to graze livestock is charged on a per AUM (animal unit month) basis and is established annually through the use of a set formula. Public grazing fee policy is a widely debated topic with many opposing viewpoints.
The Hardships of Long Distance Relationships: Time Zone Proximity and Knowledge Transmission within Multinational Firms

Using a unique dataset on worldwide multinational corporations with precise location of headquarters and affiliates, I present evidence of a trade-off between distance to the headquarters and the knowledge intensity of the foreign subsidiary's economic activity, emerging from dynamics related to the proximity-concentration hypothesis. This trade-off is strongly diminished the higher the overlap in working hours between the headquarters and its foreign subsidiary. In order to rule out biases arising from confounding factors, I implement a regression discontinuity framework to show that the economic activity of a foreign subsidiary located just across the time zone line that increases the overlap in working hours with its headquarters is, on average, about one percent higher in the knowledge intensity scale. I find no evidence of the knowledge intensity and distance trade-off weakening when a non-stop flight exists between the headquarters and the foreign subsidiary. The findings suggest that lower barriers to real-time communication within the multinational corporation play an important role in the location strategies of multinational corporations.
Do house prices influence stock prices? Empirical investigation from the panel of selected European Union countries

Abstract This study examines the long-run and causal relationship between house prices and stock prices in the panel of 22 European Union (EU) countries, covering the monthly data from January 2007 to October 2012. The results show that house prices and stock prices variables are stationary at their first difference, and Pedroni’s heterogeneous cointegration test does not confirmed the long-run relationship between the two variables; hence, it is imperative to employed dynamic OLS estimator for robust statistical inference. The results of dynamic OLS (DOLS) reveal that, among 22 countries, there are five countries which show the negative association between house prices and stock prices, while except France and Italy, the remaining 15 countries show the positive relationship between the variables. There is no significant relationship observed in the case of France and Italy. The panel results confirmed the negative impact of house prices on stock prices in the region. The results of panel causality confirmed the stock led house prices in the short-run, while the causality runs in both directions between the variables in the long-run.
Design of a myoelectric prosthetic hand implementing postural synergy mechanically

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the design of a multi-degree of freedom (DOF) prosthetic hand prototype implementing postural synergy mechanically, which is actuated by two motors via a transmission unit, and is controlled using surface electromyography (sEMG) signal. Design/methodology/approach – First, an anthropomorphic robotic hand is designed to imitate the human hand. The robotic hand has 18 DOF, 12 of which are actively driven by Bowden cables. Next, a set of different grasp modes are performed on a “full actuation” robotic hand, and principal component analysis (PCA) method is used to extract the first two postural synergies. Then, they are used to design a differential pulley-based transmission unit using two independent inputs to drive 12 output tendons. Finally, two control signals extracted from six channels of sEMG signals are used to proportionally control the two motors for achieving hand posture synthesis. Findings – Using a differential pulley-based mechanical transmission unit to i.
Employee Resourcing and Performance of Selected Oil and Gas Companies in Rivers State of Nigeria

The stiff competition in the prices of oil and gas in the global market has prompted the oil and gas companies in Rivers State to lookout for ways to keep their companies on top and afloat. The profitability and investment of these companies seem not to have increased significantly. This necessitated the study to determine how employee resourcing relates to performance of selected oil and gas companies in Rivers state. The study specifically seeks to ascertain how team deployment relates to service sustainability. The research question and hypothesis were formulated in line with the specific objective. Correlation survey research was utilized. Sample size of 400 was determined from the population of 2,395. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used for hypothesis testing. The result found out that there is a significant positive relationship between team deployment and service sustainability of these oil and gas companies in Rivers State. The findings show that unbiased team deployment strategy can help to sustain service delivery in the oil and gas companies. The study concludes that an adhoc and largely reactive approach to employee resourcing prevails within the industry in Rivers State. The study recommended that oil and gas companies in Rivers State should embrace employee resourcing in a strategic manner to acquire and maintain high quality employees that will enable them improve their performance.
Does Non-Audit Service Compromise Audit Quality?

This paper investigates the relationships between non-audit services, audit fee, audit hours and accounting quality. Previous studies have not provided consistent results for how simultaneous provision of audit and non-audit services by an independent auditor to a client company affects the audit quality. In addition, further studies have identified endogeneity in research method as the primary reason. Therefore, this study analyzed audit quality comprehensively using empirical analysis on data specific to Korea. This study employs research methods contrasting with existing studies in order to present a solution for the controversy related to the endogeneity from the effects of non-audit service provided by an independent auditor on audit quality. This study used audit compensation and abnormal accruals variables simultaneously, and audit time variable includes empirical data from Korean clients for comprehensive analysis. Study results found that the non-audit service significantly affects audit service quality before controlling for endogeneity. However, after controlling for endogeneity, even when the same independent auditor provides audit and non-audit services together, it did not affect the accounting quality.
Innovation development in service firms: a three-model perspective

This paper develops a three-model approach through the dynamic capability view to showcase the forms and dimensionalities service innovation could take. The paper explains that the different resource and capability-base for firms provide the source of variation for innovation. These capabilities allow service firms to create and implement innovation through their service mix that represents basic competitive tools for service engagement, interaction with customers and through the market as a result of external capability activation. The approach recommends the development of innovation with the service mix which is the basic competitive tool for service firms; through the customer-firm interface that enables value co-creation; and the market that allows the firm to capitalise upon its external capabilities. These service innovation dimensions therefore determine how well a service firm performs on the market in both the short and long-term.
Analysis of Dielectric Photonic-Crystal Problems With MLFMA and Schur-Complement Preconditioners

We present rigorous solutions of electromagnetics problems involving 3-D dielectric photonic crystals (PhCs). Problems are formulated with recently developed surface integral equations and solved iteratively using the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA). For efficient solutions, iterations are accelerated via robust Schur-complement preconditioners. We show that complicated PhC structures can be analyzed with unprecedented efficiency and accuracy by an effective solver based on the combined tangential formulation, MLFMA, and Schur-complement preconditioners.
Inadequacy of Perivascular Edema Hypothesis to Account for Distribution of Pulmonary Blood Flow in Lung Edema

West and co-workers obtained inversion of pulmonary blood flow per unit lung volume (Q˙/V) in isolated, perfused dog lungs under special pressure-flow conditions in acute edema with high venous pressure. Repeating their experiments, we determined Q˙/V by the 133xenon scanning procedure and weighed the lungs continuously to determine the rate of edema formation. Edema slowly developed spontaneously in six lungs in which pulmonary artery pressure exceeded alveolar pressure, which exceeded venous pressure (zone II). We found no Q˙/V changes. In six other zone II lungs we induced edema rapidly with alloxan. We found no changes in Q˙/V. In six lungs with high venous pressure in which both pulmonary arterial and venous pressures exceeded alveolar pressure (zone III), we obtained flow inversion when driving pressure was less than 3 mm Hg and blood flow less than 100 ml/min. This confirms West's findings but shows that flow inversion is not related to pulmonary edema in general. We rapidly froze two additional lungs in each set. All showed interstitial perivascular edema, particularly below the hilum. Alveolar walls were more congested and blood vessels more distended at all levels in lungs with high venous pressure than in the other types. We found no vascular compression, kinking, or nipping in lungs showing Q˙/V inversion. The perivascular spaces of lungs with spontaneous and alloxan-induced edema were distended with fluid, although flow distribution remained normal. We conclude that closure of dependent lung vessels by the accumulation of interstitial perivascular edema is not an adequate explanation for this phenomenon.
Tax Havens, Accounting Experts, and Fee-Setting Rules

Tax havens differ in the specific tax planning arrangements multinational firms can use to reduce their tax liabilities. Given the complexity and cost associated with identifying the most effective tax haven to use, an accounting firm can act as an intermediary between tax havens and multinational corporations. We analyze a model with horizontally differentiated multinationals and tax havens to study the role accounting firm intermediation has on tax haven prices, multinational tax planning choices, accounting firm profits, and tax revenues. In equilibrium, uniform accounting firm fees generate higher accounting firm profit, less tax avoidance, and higher tax revenues than either full price discrimination or haven-specific fees.
Pseudo-Predictability in Conditional Asset Pricing Tests: Explaining Anomaly Performance with Politics, the Weather, Global Warming, Sunspots, and the Stars

Ferson, Sarkissian and Simin (2003) warn that persistence in expected returns generates spurious regression bias in predictive regressions of stock returns, even though stock returns are themselves only weakly autocorrelated. Despite this fact a growing literature attempts to explain the performance of stock market anomalies with highly persistent investor sentiment. The data suggest, however, that the potential misspecification bias may be large. Predictive regressions of real returns on simulated regressors are too likely to reject the null of independence, and it is far too easy to find real variables that have "significant power" predicting returns. Standard OLS predictive regressions find that the party of the U.S. President, cold weather in Manhattan, global warming, the El Nino phenomenon, atmospheric pressure in the Arctic, the conjunctions of the planets, and sunspots, all have "significant power" predicting the performance of anomalies. These issues appear particularly acute for anomalies prominent in the sentiment literature, including those formed on the basis of size, distress, asset growth, investment, profitability, and idiosyncratic volatility.
Mechanisms of reduced contractility in an animal model of hypertensive heart failure

1. Alterations in intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis have frequently been implicated as underlying the contractile dysfunction of failing hearts. Contraction in cardiac muscle is due to a balance between sarcolemmal (SL) and sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ transport, which has been studied in single cells and small tissue samples. However, many studies have not used physiological temperatures and pacing rates, and this could be problematic given different temperature dependencies and kinetics for transport processes.
CHANGES IN COMPETITION AND BANKING OUTCOMES FOR SMALL FIRMS

This paper examines how a set of small firm banking outcomes are related to changes in the state of competition among financial institutions. The state of competition is measured by an owner assessment of bank competition for their financial business as well as a traditional measure of deposit concentration. A significant positive association is found between changes in bank competition reported by owners and their reports of changes in service delivery and credit availability, but no association with loan terms. Deposit concentration was not significant in explaining any outcome. The possibility that owners assume that a good outcome is a result of increased competition for their banking business is rejected. Evidence is provided that is consistent with owners recognizing changes in bank competition in their markets regardless of the outcomes experienced.
Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinase Inhibitor U0126 in an Asthma Mouse Model1

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascade plays a pivotal role in the activation of inflammatory cells. Recent findings revealed that the activity of p42/44 MAPK (also known as extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)) in the lungs was significantly higher in asthmatic mice than in normal controls. We hypothesized that inhibition of ERK activity may have anti-inflammatory effects in allergic asthma. BALB/c mice were sensitized with OVA and, upon OVA aerosol challenge, developed airway eosinophilia, mucus hypersecretion, elevation in cytokine and chemokine levels, up-regulation of VCAM-1 expression, and airway hyperresponsiveness. Intraperitoneal administration of U0126, a specific MAPK/ERK kinase inhibitor, significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited OVA-induced increases in total cell counts, eosinophil counts, and IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and eotaxin levels recovered in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in a dose-dependent manner. U0126 also substantially (p < 0.05) reduced the serum levels of total IgE and OVA-specific IgE and IgG1. Histological studies show that U0126 dramatically inhibited OVA-induced lung tissue eosinophilia, airway mucus production, and expression of VCAM-1 in lung tissues. In addition, U0126 significantly (p < 0.05) suppressed OVA-induced airway hyperresponsiveness to inhaled methacholine in a dose-dependent manner. Western blot analysis of whole lung lysates shows that U0126 markedly attenuated OVA-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of ERK1/2. Taken together, our findings implicate that inhibition of ERK signaling pathway may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of allergic airway inflammation.
Altered agonist sensitivity and desensitization of neuronal mGluR1 responses in knock‐in mice by a single amino acid substitution at the PKC phosphorylation site

mGluR1 and mGluR5 of the metabotropic glutamate receptor family are coupled to inositol trisphosphate–Ca2+ signal cascades and evoke distinct Ca2+ responses in neural cells and heterologously expressing cells. In heterologous cells, stimulation of recombinant mGluR1 evokes a single‐peaked Ca2+ response whereas mGluR5 elicits an oscillatory Ca2+ response. The distinct Ca2+ responses are interchangeable by single amino substitution of aspartate for threonine at the corresponding position of the carboxy‐terminal cytoplasmic regions of mGluR1 and mGluR5, respectively. In this investigation, we generated knock‐in mice, termed mGluR1 D854T mice, in which aspartate of mGluR1 was replaced with threonine. We examined the effect of this D854T substitution on Ca2+ and current responses mediated by mGluR1 in cultured cerebellar Purkinje cells. Stimulation of mGluR1 D854T by a group 1 mGluR agonist, 3,5‐dihydroxyphenylglycine (DHPG) evoked, as in wild‐type mGluR1, only single‐peaked Ca2+ responses as measured by Ca2+ fluorometric analysis. We then examined mGluR1‐induced inward currents carried by nonselective cation channels during whole‐cell recordings from cultured Purkinje cells. The mGluR1 D854T mutation abolished the responsiveness of mGluR1 to low concentrations of DHPG (0.5–500 nm) and reduced its desensitization during prolonged agonist application. mGluR1 D854T homozygous mutants showed no apparent behavioural abnormality as analysed by motor movement tests. These results indicate that, although additional modulatory mechanisms seem to be required to produce oscillatory Ca2+ responses of mGluR1, the single amino acid substitution at position 854 of mGluR1 is capable of influencing the kinetics of neuronal mGluR1 responses, most probably through PKC‐mediated phosphorylation.
Food insecurity in rural Tanzania is associated with maternal anxiety and depression

Food insecurity is a major health problem that has pervasive effects on many human biological outcomes. In particular, there are compelling theoretical and empirical reasons to expect that the relationship between food insecurity may be directly related to mental health morbidities, and may be quantifiable in developing country settings. This preliminary study examined whether caretaker reports of food insecurity were associated with anxiety and depression among four ethnic groups in two communities of rural Tanzania. In‐home interviews were conducted in June–August of 2005 among female caretakers (n = 449). In addition to collecting household and demographic data, modified versions of the USDA's food security module and Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) were used to measure food insecurity and anxiety and depression. Consistent with predictions, the results showed a strong positive correlation between a caretaker's score on the food insecurity instrument and her summed response on the HSCL (P < 0.0001). This association was maintained in all four ethnic groups, even when controlling for individual‐level covariates such as caretaker's age and marital status. Issues of causality and hypotheses that might explain this robust finding are discussed, as are methodological and theoretical implications. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:359–368, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.