Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Productivity Growth and the Speed of Convergence of Domestic Firms

textabstractWe investigate productivity convergence of domestic firms in a transition economy, Ro- mania. In estimating total factor productivity we allow for varying returns to scale and control for both the endogeneity of the productivity shock and the omitted price variable bias linked to heterogeneous firms' market power. Consistently with our priors, we find that without controlling for the omitted price variable bias absolute convergence estimates are biased upwards. In terms of conditional convergence, we find that the speed of convergence across firms depends mainly on technology transfers from the frontier and, less markedly, by a number of regional and industrial characteristics such as the distance to the capital region, the minimum efficient scale and the absorptive capacity.
Multinational Expansion in Time and Space

This paper studies the expansion patterns of the multinational enterprise (MNE) in time and space. Using a long panel of US MNEs, we document that: MNE affiliates grow by exporting to new markets; the activities of MNE affiliates persist during the affiliateâ€™s life, usually starting with sales to their host market and eventually expanding to export markets; and MNE affiliatesâ€™ entry into new locations does not depend on the location of preexisting affiliates. Informed by these facts, we develop a multi-country quantitative dynamic model of the MNE that features heterogeneity in firm-level productivity, persistent aggregate shocks, and a rich structure of costs that affect MNE expansion. Importantly, MNE affiliates can decouple their locations of production and sales, and endogenously choose to enter or exit the host and the export markets. We introduce a compound option formulation that allows us to capture in a tractable way the rich heterogeneity that is observed in the data and that is necessary for quantitative analysis. Using the calibrated model, our quantitative application to Brexit reveals that export platforms are important for understanding the reallocation of MNE activity in time and space, and that the nature of the frictions to MNE activities matters for aggregate firm dynamics.
Foundational considerations for the development of the Globalcrimeterm subontology: A research project based on FunGramKB

This paper describes the theoretical foundations, the general methodological guidelines and the specific tasks for the development of the Globalcrimeterm project, a domain-specific subontology based on a specific area of criminal law (international cooperation against terrorism and organized crime) within the architecture of FunGramKB, which is a multipurpose lexico-conceptual knowledge base for natural language processing (NLP) systems. One of the features of this subontology is, firstly, its commitment to structure its concepts under the postulates of deep semantics, unlike the more traditional approach only oriented towards surface semantics, and, secondly, to orientate the tasks of terminologists and knowledge engineers who wish to expand the general knowledge of FunGramKB Core Ontology and, at the same time, integrate the specialized knowledge through its representation in a domain-specific subontology such as Globalcrimeterm.
Penitentiary Facility in Belgrade-Belgrade, Serbia

Hare`s Psychopathy Check List – Revised (PCL-R) represents one of the most frequently used instruments for measuring psychopathy. However, there is a dispute regarding the optimal number of factors that configure its latent structure. Previous research in Serbia has shown that several tested models did not fit well with the empirical data. In this study, we have gathered and analyzed all of the available data on PCL-R collected in Serbia (406 male convicts, mean age 34 years, SD = 9.98). Exploratory factor analysis has shown that the variance of the scale items could be best explained with five latent components: Interpersonal, Affective, Impulsivity, Lifestyle and Antisocial. Several structural models were tested as well, with a special focus on two of them: the first where all of the traits are treated equally, and the second where Lifestyle and Antisocial traits were set as behavioral outcomes of the three personality traits. The second model surpassed not only the first one, but its fit indices showed a better fit than any of the other models proposed in literature. The results of the present research support models that describe psychopathy as a compound of three core traits: manipulative tendencies, affective superficiality and impulsiveness.
Endogenous expression of the glycine transporter 2 in C6 glioma cells: a preliminary study

C6 glioma cells have been proposed as a cell model system to study regulation of endogenously-expressed glycine transporter 1 (GlyT1). However, there are no reports demonstrating expression of glycine transporter 2 (GlyT2) in this cell line. To explore this possibility, immunoprecipitation, western blotting, confocal microscopy, as well as glycine uptake assays using selective inhibitors to GlyT1 or GlyT2 were employed. Glycine uptake assays using a selective inhibitor against GlyT2 provided evidence that this transporter could also be expressed in this cell line. Immunoprecipitation, immunoblotting, and confocal microscopic analysis also showed presence of both GlyT1 and GlyT2 in this cell line. Taken together, results provide evidence that in addition to GlyT1, GlyT2 is also endogenously expressed in C6 glioma cells. Results presented here will help researchers to carefully evaluate use of this cell line in studies involving GlyT1.
Infomax Algorithm for Filtering Airwaves in the Field of Seabed Logging

This research focuses on applying Independent Component Analysis (ICA) in the field of Seabed Logging (SBL). ICA is a statistical method for transforming an observed multidimensional or multivariate dataset into its constituent components (sources) that are statistically as independent from each other as possible. ICA-type de-convolution algorithm, Infomax is suitable for mixed signals de-convolution, is proposed and considered convenient depending upon the nature of the source and noise model, in the application of seabed logging. Infomax is applied in the domain of marine Controlled Source Electro Magnetic (CSEM) sensing method used for the detection of hydrocarbons based reservoirs in seabed logging application. The task is to identify the air waves and to filter them out. The infomax algorithm of ICA is considered for filtering the airwaves.
Development and evaluation of a community-based approach to promote health-related behaviour among older adults in a socioeconomically disadvantaged community

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the reach and effectiveness of a community-based intervention designed to promote physical activity and healthy eating among older adults in a socioeconomically disadvantaged community in the Netherlands. Methods: The intervention was evaluated with a controlled pre-and post-test quasi-experimental study design, with 430 randomly selected older adults participating in the intervention group and 213 in a control group at baseline. The intervention included a local media campaign and environmental approaches (e.g., community involvement) and was implemented during a three-month high-intensity period, followed by a six-month low-intensity one. Levels of physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption were assessed at baseline and at three and nine months after baseline. Results: At the follow-up measurements, the intervention had reached 68 and 69% of the participants in the intervention group, respectively. No significant differences were found between the intervention group and the control group in changes regarding any outcome except for transport-related physical activity at three and nine months follow-up. Conclusions: The systematically developed community-based intervention reached a relatively large proportion of the participants, but had only small effects on the levels of physical activity and healthy eating in older adults in the short and medium term.
Use of lactic strains isolated from Algerian ewe's milk in the manufacture of a natural yogurt

Fifty three strains of thermophilic and mesophilic lactic acid bacteria were isolated from the ewe’s milk. Identification reveals the presence of nineteen strains (36%) of Lactobacillus sp. , seventeen strains (32%) of Lactococcus sp. , nine strains (17%) of Streptococcus thermophilus and eight strains (15%) of Leuconostoc sp. The strains were characterized for their technological properties. A high diversity of properties among the studied strains was demonstrated. On the basis of technological characteristics, two strains (Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus) were screened with respect to their acid and flavour production for the preparation of a natural yogurt and compared to a commercial starter cultures. Sensorial analyses revealed that the product manufactured on the basis of the isolated strains have a cohesiveness and adhesiveness corresponding to standard products. The pH and the acidity recorded are also within accepted levels during all the period of conservation.
Catastrophic drought insurance based on the remotely sensed normalised difference vegetation index for smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe

Abstract Index insurance, which indemnifies agricultural producers based on an objectively observable variable that is highly correlated with production losses but which cannot be influenced by the producer, can provide adequate protection against catastrophic droughts without suffering from the moral hazard and adverse selection problems that typically cause conventional agricultural insurance programmes to fail. Using historical maize and cotton yield data from nine districts in Zimbabwe, we find that catastrophic drought insurance contracts based on the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) can be constructed whose indemnities exhibit higher correlations with yield losses than the conventional rainfall index. In addition the NDVI contracts can be offered within the 5 to 10 per cent premium range considered reasonably affordable to many poor smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe.
Abri Cantongnesis Modulates Detoxifying Enzymes to Ameliorate Hepatotoxicity in Rats

Abri cantongnesis in combination with herbs are used for treatment of diseases. However, the detail of its pharmacological activities is lacking. In this study, the chemoprotective effects of the active fraction of Abri cantongnesis on toxicant-induced liver toxicity in rats were studied. The Abri cantongnesis extract was orally administered to SD rats for three days before treatment of rats with trichloroethylene once for two days. Rat urines and hepatic enzymes were collected for analysis. The results showed that CYP 1A and CYP 2E1 and glutathione transferase increased over 45% while the activity of diaphorase increased by 30%. These enzyme activities were increased with the extract concentration. However, only UGT showed a decrease in activity upon treatment with Abri cantongnesis. The treatment of rats with Abri cantongnesis caused an increase in catalytic activities of CYP 1A and CYP 2E1, GST and diaphorase in the rat. The results show that Abri cantongnesis enhanced elimination of trichloroethylene and its metabolites; thus the treatment of Abri cantongnesis can reduce liver toxicity in rats. The findings suggest that Abri cantongnesis has chemopreventive effects on toxicants-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. The Abri cantongnesis can be used as a chemo-protective agent for the liver.
Effect of Eyestalk Ablation and Eyestalk Extract Injection on Oxygen Consumption in the Crab, Ocypode macrocera (H. Milne-Edwards 1852)

The effects of eyestalk ablation and eyestalk extract injection on oxygen consumption of Ocypode macrocera were studied on 30 specimens over a period of 10-days. Statistical analysis of the results show significant differences between stalked and destalked animals as well as stalked and eyestalk extract injected ones. Oxygen consumed in destalked animals was higher than in stalked ones, whereas oxygen consumed by eyestalk extract injected animals was lesser than stalked ones. The differences were discussed on the hormonal basis.
BIOSTATISTICS OF TRISSOLCUS VASSILIEVI (HYM., SCELIONIDAE) DEVELOPED ON SUNN PEST EGGS COLD- STORED FOR DIFFERENT DURATIONS

The common sunn pest (CSP) Eurygaster integriceps Puton is the most important pest of wheat and barley in Iran. A few egg pararsitoid from Trissolcus, Telenomus, Ooencyrtus, etc. attack CSP eggs. Often the host eggs are stored in cold temperatures for subsequent use with negative effects on the parasitoids which increases by time. This study focused on quantitative changes of biostatistics including parasitism rate, emergence rate, sex ratio, fecundity, immature development, longevity and body size of Trissolcus vassilievi (Mayr) reared on host eggs stored for different periods in 5±1°C. The results revealed that all above mentioned statistics were affected by storing with an increasing intensity by duration. Parasitism rate and sex ratio decreased more strongly than adult emergence rate. A maximum 35% decrease in fecundity was also observed with stronger effect in long term storages. An increasing effort to compensate the initial lag however was observed in first week of the reproductive life of those wasps that accessed to older eggs. Developmental time increased by a sigmoid trend by storage time. Head capsule width and hind tibia length as measurements of body size both decreased suddenly in those wasps that obtained from >2 week old eggs, but the width of the head capsule decreased more rapidly in females than males that may imply stronger fitness loss in females. As a conclusion host eggs stored < 1 month may use with negligible negative effects on the parasitoid efficacy, while longer storage times may cause serious negative syndromes.
Conformism-driven phases of opinion formation on heterogeneous networks: the q-voter model case

The q-voter model, a variant of the classic voter model, has been analyzed by several authors. While allowing us to study opinion dynamics, this model is also believed to be one of the most representative among the many defined in the wide field of sociophysics. Here, we investigate the consequences of conformity on the consensus reaching process, by numerically simulating a q-voter model with agents behaving either as conformists or nonconformists, embedded on heterogeneous network topologies (as small-world and scale-free). In fact, although it is already known that conformity enhances the reaching of consensus, the related process is often studied only on fully-connected networks, thus strongly limiting our full understanding of it. This paper represents a first step in the direction of analyzing more realistic social models, showing that different opinion formation phases, driven by the conformist agents density, are observable. As a result, we identify threshold values of the density of conformist agents, varying across different topologies and separating different regimes of our system, ranging from a disordered phase, where different opinions coexist, to a gradually more ordered phase, where consensus is eventually reached.
Steady-state soil organic matter approximation model: application to the Pasture Simulation Model

Spin-up runs usually used to initialize mechanistic biogeochemical models highly increase the time required to make simulations. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of linear and quadratic regression models, as an alternative way to initialize such models. This option is illustrated with the grassland ecosystem Pasture Simulation model (PaSim) under a range of climate, soil and management conditions. Coupled to the CENTURY model for the soil processes, PaSim simulates fluxes of C, N, water and energy at the soil-plant-animalatmosphere interface for managed grasslands at the plot scale. This study demonstrates the feasibility of approximating steady state SOM (Soil Organic Matter) by a quadratic regression. For instance, PaSim initialization using a quadratic regression with P-ET0 (Climatic Water Balance indicator) is about 500 times faster than using spin-up runs. However, quadratic SOM regression provides a 10-15% gap, due to the existing variability in SOM response to climate (e.g. ~7% standard deviation for one P-ET0 value of the climate year). Anyway, these quadratic regressions could be used in future vulnerability assessments that require a prohibitive number of simulations for complex models.
Has the Post-communist Transformation Led to an Increase in Educational Homogamy in the Czech Republic after 1989?

This article analyses trends in educational homogamy in Czech society from 1988 to 2000. Two hypotheses are tested: (1) that educational homogamy strengthened as a result of growing economic uncertainty during the 1990s, and (2) that educational homogamy is higher among younger newlyweds than among people who get married after 30 years of age. The authors analyse vital statistics data on all new marriages for the years 1988, 1991, 1993, 1997 and 2000. Using a log-linear analysis the first hypothesis was refuted, as no change in the ten- dency towards homogamous marriages was observed during the 1990s in the Czech Republic. Stronger support was found for the second hypothesis, as edu- cational homogamy is indeed much higher among younger than older couples. Finally, the article includes a discussion of some possible explanations for the absence of a trend towards homogamy that was detected. Sociologický casopis/Czech Sociological Review, 2004, Vol. 40, No. 3: 297-318
MOLECULAR SYSTEMATICS OF IRIDACEAE: A COMBINED ANALYSIS OF FOUR PLASTID DNA SEQUENCE MATRICES

Iridaceae are one of the largest families of Lilianae and probably also among the best studied families of monocotyledons. To further evaluate generic, tribal and subfamilial relationships, we have produced four plastid DNA data sets for 57 genera of Iridaceae plus outgroups: rps4, rbcL (both protein coding genes), and the trnL intron snd the trnL-F inter-gene spacer. All four matrices produce highly congruent, although not identical trees, and we thus analysed them in a combined analysis, which produced a highly resolved and well supported topology. In each of the individual trees, some genera or groups of genera are misplaced relative to Goldblatt’s and Rudall’s morphological cladistic studies, but the combined analysis produced a pattern much more similar to these previous ideas of relationships. In the combined tree, all subfamilies were resolved as monophyletic clades, except Nivenioideae, which formed a grade in which Ixioideae were embedded. The achlorophyllous Geosiris (sometimes referred to Geosiridaceae or Burmanniaceae) fell within the nivenioid grade. Most of the tribes are monophyletic, except for Ixieae, Watsonieae and Sisyrinchieae, but the topology within Ixioideae is not strongly supported due to extremely low levels of sequence divergence. Isophysis is sister to the rest of the family, and Diplarrhena falls in a well supported position as sister to Irideae/Sisyrinchieae/Tigridieae/Mariceae; Bobartia of Sisyrinchieae is supported as a member of Irideae.
THE ROLE OF PREDICTION IN NEW VENTURE INVESTING

Early stage investors openly discount/ignore the predictions that entrepreneurs show in their business plans as they pitch to investors. At the same time, many predictions about the venture continue to anchor investor evaluations. However, investors’ use of predictive and non-predictive information varies based on their own approach to dealing with uncertainty, their own entrepreneurial experience, and the steps in the evaluation process (i.e. screening, due diligence, and funding). Evaluating data from more than 2,700 individual investor evaluations of 150 new ventures, we find that investors with more entrepreneurial experience are more effectual in how they approach the development of new ventures. We also find that investors grade their area of emphasis more stringently, i.e. those who weight predictive information grade it “tougher. ” Overall, investors emphasize predictive information more than they might suppose, especially early in the selection process, but once a venture has moved through the funding process to due diligence and investment, non-predictive information is the key factor.
Adhesion strength of orthodontic brackets to acrylic surfaces. A systematic review on in vitro studies.

Mónica Morado Pinho*, Maria Conceição Mansob,c, Conchita Martind, Júlio C. M. Souzae,f, Ricardo Faria Almeidag, Afonso Pinhão Ferreirag a School of Dentistry, School of Health Sciences (FCS), Universidade Fernando Pessoa (UFP), Porto, Portugal b Faculty of Health Sciences, FP-ENAS, University Fernando Pessoa, Porto, Portugal c REQUIMTE, University of Porto, Portugal d School of Dentistry, University Complutense of Madrid (UCM) e Center for Microelectromechanical Systems (CMEMS), University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal f Post-graduate Program in Dentistry (PPGO), Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianópolis/SC, Brazil g School of Dentistry (FMDUP), University of Porto (UP), Porto, Portugal
Low-cost data acquisition systems for photovoltaic system monitoring and usage statistics

This paper presents the design of a low-cost data acquisition system for monitoring a photovoltaic system’s electrical quantities, battery temperatures, and state of charge of the battery. The electrical quantities are the voltages and currents of the solar panels, the battery, and the system loads. The system uses an Atmega328p microcontroller to acquire data from the photovoltaic system’s charge controller. It also records individual load information using current sensing resistors along with a voltage amplification circuit and an analog to digital converter. The system is used in conjunction with a wall power data acquisition system for the recording of regional power outages. Both data acquisition systems record data in micro SD cards. The data has been successfully acquired from both systems and has been used to monitor the status of the PV system and the local power grid. As more data is gathered it can be used for the maintenance and improvement of the photovoltaic system through analysis of the photovoltaic system’s parameters and usage statistics.
Academic performance beyond cognitive ability: personality, emotional intelligence and self-efficacy – a mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Burgeoning research on Personality-related measures and proximal behaviours demonstrates that academic performance at all levels is facilitated by such individual difference variables that complement and support cognitive ability. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of trait and domain specific measures on academic performance and examine behaviour (absenteeism). Participants (N = 120) comprised of male (N = 47) and female (N = 73) students at a secondary level college in Merseyside. A within-participant design was employed utilising a quantitative cross-sectional survey method (based on self reports) with a longitudinal component linked to archival indicators of performance data (i.e. GCSE exam results) which were aggregated into a Grade Point Average (GPA). The study’s hypotheses were tested through bivariate and multivariate analysis. Good quality of data was evidenced by low levels of skewness and kurtosis and high. Correlation analysis revealed that Openness, Conscientiousness, ESE and ASE were positively associated with GCSE GPA. Agreeableness was negatively associated with academic performance. Hierarchical Regression demonstrated that the best predictor of grades was Agreeableness. Results are comparable with much existent research signifying the relevance of individual difference studies at secondary level.