Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Different Attitude for Mathematical Formularization between Marxian and Western Economics

Mathematical modeling is more advanced in modern economics than in Marxist economics. But why is this? One answer deals with the characteristics of modern economics, which ignore what mathematics is not good at. Another answer is that Western economics assumes that a human being is a "rational economic man," prompting economists to use the optimization theory. Many "Marxian economists" do not like this assumption. However, in my opinion, a "rational economic man" is a materialistic concept of a human being, so I built two types of Marxian models based on the optimization theory: Lenin's model of imperialism and the "Marxian optimal growth model. " One more important characteristic of mathematical modeling is that it makes science progress incrementally, which gives modern economics a tendency to avoid challenging researches in a referee system of their journals. However, this type of attitude becomes an obstacle to explain phenomena that have not been seen before or do not fit their ideologies. In this sense, mathematics has to be used by ideologically free scientists; that is, Marxists. In this paper, we also referred to characteristics of "area studies" in comparing with Marxist
LABORATORY TESTING FOR USE IN THE PREDICTION OF RUTTING IN ASPHALT PAVEMENTS

Increasing interest in methods for the quantitative prediction of rutting in asphalt pavements requires that particular attention be given to relevant laboratory materials testing. The major tools for such testing are the repeated load triaxial test and the creep test. This paper discusses experimental aspects of the repeated load triaxial test in some detail. Particular attention is given to stress application systems and the measurement of load and deformation. Where appropriate, the particular requirements of different materials are considered. In addition to the test techniques described in the literature, several novel features of recent research at the University of Nottingham are described.
“British Dialects in Animated Films: The Case of ‘Gnomeo & Juliet’ and its Creative Italian Dubbing”

Gnomeo & Juliet (Kelly Asbury, 2011) is a humorous animated adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy in which the feuding families are portrayed as garden gnomes who, after racing and fighting on lawnmowers, stealing orchids and chatting with the Bard’s statue, live happily ever after, accompanied by Elton John’s songs. The film is set in the UK and most of the characters speak British English. This paper examines how dialects are exploited in the original English version to define characters and analyses the creative domestication process whereby the story is turned into an Italian tale by using Italian regional dialects.
Mental and physical health: reconceptualising the relationship with employment propensity

While there has been significant research demonstrating the labour-market disadvantage experienced by people with mental health and physical disabilities, influential medical concepts of disability continue to shape explanations of such patterns. From this perspective, a higher rate of unemployment for people with health conditions is rational; they are impaired and are inherently less employable. The evidence from this paper challenges such conceptualisations of disability. It adopts a social model of disability and presents an empirical investigation into the impacts of mental and physical health on the propensity to be employed, yet recognises and addresses its distinct limitations in the case of mental health. Our results indicate that activity-limiting physical health and accomplishment-limiting mental health issues significantly affect the propensity to be employed. Further investigations reveal gender and ethnicity divides and that mental health is mostly exogenous to employment propensity. The empirical evidence provides quantitative and qualitative evidence that mental and physical health-related issues lead to economic exclusion.
Employment Effects of Technological and Organizational Innovations: Evidence Based on Linked Firm-Level Data for Austria

Summary This paper investigates the impact of technological and organizational innovations on subsequent employment growth using a standard labour demand model. The main novelty of the paper is the use of a unique dataset, which merges the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2006 for Austria with structural business statistics from 2006-2008, resulting in 3,070 firm observations. For manufacturing firms, quantile regressions show that product innovations lagged two-years have a significantly positive but decreasing impact on employment growth over the conditional distribution given the impact of output and wage growth. For service firms, the positive employment effect of product innovations can only be observed for firms with high conditional employment growth rates. Results are robust with respect to the measurement of product innovations (e.g. market novelties or new to firm products). Process innovations exhibit a negative impact at the higher quantiles indicating that process innovations lead to an increase in labour productivity at the expense of employment. Furthermore organizational and marketing innovations do not have a significant impact on subsequent employment growth across the different quantiles.
Nitrogen fixation by groundnut and velvet bean and residual benefit to a subsequent maize crop

Chemical fertilisers are rarely avaiable to poor farmers, for whom the nitrogen (N) is often the most limiting element for cereal grain production. The objective of this study was to quantify the contribution of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) to groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) and velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) crops using the N natural abundance (δN) technique and to determine their residual effect and that of a natural fallow, on growth and N accumulation by two rustic maize varieties. The contribution of BNF calculated from δN data was 40.9, 59.6 and 30.9 kg ha, for groundnut, velvet bean and the natural fallow, respectively. The only legume grain harvested was from the groundnut, which yielded approximately 1.000 kg ha. The subsequent maize varieties (“Sol de Manhã” and “Caiana Sobralha”) yielded between 1.958 and 2.971 kg ha, and were higher after velvet bean for both maize varieties and “Sol da Manhã” groundnut, followed by “Caiana” after groundnut and, finally, the natural fallow. For a small-holder producer the most attractive system is the groundnut followed by maize, as, in this treatment, both groundnut and maize grain harvest are possible. However, a simple N balance calculation indicated that the groundnut-maize sequence would, in the long term, deplete soil N reserves, while the velvet bean-maize sequence would lead to a build up of soil nitrogen.
Rainfall or Price Variability: What Determines Rangeland Management Decisions? A Simulation-Optimization Approach to South African Savannas

Savannas cover the greater part of Africa and Australia and almost half of South America and contribute to the livelihoods of more than 350 million people. With the intensification of land use during the second half of the 20th century, savannas have become increasingly degraded through bush encroachment as a consequence of increased grazing pressure. Research on rangeland dynamics, however, provides contradicting answers with regard to the causes and possible remedies of bush encroachment. In this paper we present results from an application of a simulation-optimization model to the case of extensive rangeland management in South Africa. Our model differs from previous approaches in that it explicitly accounts for the influence of stochastic prices and rainfall on economically optimal management decisions. By showing the implications of neglecting price variation and stochasticity in rangeland models we provide new insights with regard to the determinants of bush encroachment and rangeland managers' economic utility. We demonstrate that, in the case of South Africa, optimal rangeland management is likely to lead to bush encroachment that eventually makes livestock holding unprofitable. Yet, we identify the costs of fire management to be a limiting factor for managers to counteract bush encroachment and explore the impact of policy measures to reduce fire control costs on the ecological and economic sustainability of livestock holding.
Development and Cross-language Transfer of Oral Reading Fluency using Longitudinal and Concurrent Predictors among Canadian French Immersion Primary-level Children

This thesis investigates development and transfer of oral reading fluency among early French immersion students. Using a longitudinal design, students were assessed on phonological awareness, rapid naming, word-level fluency and text-level fluency in English and in French in Grade 2 and Grade 3. In three related studies, this thesis examines transfer both within levels of fluency individually (word-level and text-level) and between levels of fluency (from word-level to text-level). The results indicated that word-level fluency significantly improved over the oneyear period in both English and in French. Language status comparing English-as-first-language students (EL1) and English-language-learners (ELLs) did not influence fluency performance in either language. Further, results showed bidirectional transfer of fluency at the word-level and the text-level independently, and unidirectional transfer from word to text fluency from French to English only. These findings provide evidence supporting cross-language transfer of oral reading fluency both within and between levels of the construct.
Effects of available nutrition and sire breeding values for growth and muscling on the development of crossbred lambs. 1: Growth and carcass characteristics

The growth and development of 387 crossbred lamb progeny from 9 Poll Dorset sires representing muscle (M), control (C), and growth (G) sire-types was studied. Sires were selected on the basis of their LAMBPLAN estimated breeding values (EBVs) for post-weaning growth (PWWT) and depth of loin muscle (PEMD). Lambs were provided with either LOW or HIGH levels of available grazing nutrition from 10 days of age onwards. Liveweight gain (LWG) throughout the study was less on LOW nutrition than on HIGH nutrition, leading to a 9.5 kg lower weaning liveweight (LW) and a 14.9 kg lower final LW in LOW lambs. After adjustment for final LW, HIGH lambs had significantly greater fat depth at the C-site (approximately 40 mm from the midline over the 12th rib) and tissue depth at the GR site (110 mm from the midline over the 12th rib) than did LOW lambs. This effect was consistent across sire-types. Depth of fat at the C-site was positively associated with the EBV of the sire for fat depth. The improvement in pre-weaning LWG, weaning weight, and final weight of lambs resulting from use of sires with a greater PWWT EBV was dependent upon the level of nutrition. This interaction was identified as different slopes (coefficients) for the regression between PWWT and trait for the 2 nutrition levels, indicating that the expression of the sire’s genetic potential for growth at these times was significantly moderated by nutrition. The additional depth of lamb loin muscle resulting from use of sires of higher PEMD EBV was consistent across both LOW and HIGH nutrition treatments, with 1 mm of PEMD leading to a 0.6-mm increase in loin depth. Other consequences of sires having a high genetic capacity for loin muscle depth were reduced carcass C-fat depth with increasing sire PEMD and a tendency for conformation score to improve with the PEMD of the sire. The wool-growth response to improved nutrition was less in M lambs than in lambs of other sire-types, suggesting a difference in priority for protein partitioning between muscle and wool in lambs differing in genetic propensity for muscle growth.
Milking frequency, estradiol cypionate, and bST alters milk yield and reproductive outcomes in dairy cows

The objective of this study was to determine how milking frequency, estradiol cypionate (ECP) postpartum therapy given at 1 week after calving, and biweekly bovine somatotropin (bST) administration alter lactational and reproductive outcomes in dairy cattle. Holstein cows (n=144) were randomly assigned to eight treatments (18 cows per treatment): 1) twice daily milking frequency (2x), 10-mg injection of ECP at 1 week after calving (ECP), and bST (given biweekly according to label beginning in the ninth week of lactation); 2) 2x milked, oil (cottonseed oil vehicle for ECP), bST; 3) 2x milked, ECP, and no bST; 4) 2x milked, oil, and no bST; 5) four-times daily milking frequency (4x; first 30 days in milk then 2x thereafter), ECP, and bST; 6) 4x milked, oil, and bST; 7) 4x milked, ECP, and no bST; and 8) 4x milked, oil, and no bST. Milk yields were recorded at each milking during the first 90 days of lactation. Milk samples were collected weekly at each milking and composited to determine milk components (percentages of fat, protein, lactose, solids-not-fat [SNF], milk urea nitrogen [MUN], and somatic cell count [SCC]). Energy-corrected milk yields were calculated for the first 90 days and for whole lactation yields (305-2xME standardized lactation records). Ovulation before first AI was synchronized beginning between 59 and 72 DIM using 100 :g of GnRH given 7 days before 25 mg of PGF2", followed in 24 hr by 1 mg of ECP. Cows were inseminated after detected estrus or at 48 hr after ECP. Pregnancy rates were assessed by transrectal ultrasonography 28-30 days after AI. Postpartum ECP therapy increased milk production for first-lactation 2x cows, but decreased milk yields of the multiparous 4x cows until bST restored those yields. Pregnancy rates were greater for the 4x cows given the postpartum ECP therapy injection, despite fewer cows cycling before AI. In conclusion, postpartum ECP therapy increased pregnancy rates in 4x cows, but had a detrimental effect on milk yields of 4x milked cows unless bST was administered.
Analysis of Contemporaneous Pseudorandom Data from Two Springs in the Orakei Korako Geothermal Field of New Zealand

The Orakei Korako geothermal field in the North Island of New Zealand is an unexploited field consisting of over 30 small active geysers and about 100 hot springs. It provides an excellent opportunity to examine the naturally occurring fluctuations in geothermal surface activity. Contemporaneous measurements of conductivity, temperature, water level, barometric pressure and rainfall were collected at 5 minute intervals over a 2 month period from two springs 150 metres apart. Spectral analysis by both wavelet and Fourier transforms was used to minimise the effects of non-Gaussian signal spikes and examine spectral windows of each set of data. Analysis shows that spring fluctuations are driven predominantly by solar thermal effects with negligible influence from soli-lunar gravity tides. In addition to solar thermal tidal variations, the springs have periodic fluctuations of 11.5 minutes and 24 minutes respectively. A low barometric efficiency indicates that transmissivity in the reservoir is low. System dynamics modelling of one spring suggests that it could be driven by a low vertical flux of geothermal steam interacting with transient groundwater flow.
A Measurement Model to Link Process Operational Measures to Risks Associated with Attainment of Business Critical Success Factors

There is currently no evidence of a measurement model to associate IT Service Management (ITSM) maturity with financial profitability which prompts the research question: how can a model and method be developed to link ITSM process capability and process performance with financial performance? The purpose of this study was to develop and apply a measurement model and present a pragmatic and cost effective method to link ITSM process capability and financial performance by operationalizing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to support Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and associating CSFs with business risks to determine CSF risk levels.This paper presents a conceptual measurement model derived from the literature, a description of the mixed method approach to collect data from the organization, the application of the model to the Incident Management process at Company X and a discussion of lessons for practice, theoretical contributions, limitations and an agenda for further research. The study found that the measurement model and method developed can be used as a starting point for self-improvement for businesses, identifying gaps in processes, benchmarking within an organization as well as guiding an organization’s improvement efforts. The measurement model can be used to conduct What-If analyses to model the impacts of future business decisions on KPIs and CSFs. The measurement model presented in this study can be quickly implemented, adapted and evolved to meet the organization’s needs.This study employs the resource-based view of the organization to exhibit a firm’s IT capability characteristics of, and its relationship to, organizational performance. The research offers an example from which other organizations can learn to measure their financial return on investment in ITSM improvement.
Serum uric acid concentrations and SLC2A9 genetic variation in Hispanic children: the Viva La Familia Study.

BACKGROUND Elevated concentrations of serum uric acid are associated with increased risk of gout and renal and cardiovascular diseases. Genetic studies in adults have consistently identified associations of solute carrier family 2, member 9 (SLC2A9), polymorphisms with variation in serum uric acid. However, it is not known whether the association of serum uric acid with SLC2A9 polymorphisms manifests in children. OBJECTIVE The aim was to investigate whether variation in serum uric acid is under genetic influence and whether the association with SLC2A9 polymorphisms generalizes to Hispanic children of the Viva La Familia Study. DESIGN We conducted a genomewide association study with 1.1 million genetic markers in 815 children. RESULTS We found serum uric acid to be significantly heritable [h(2) ± SD = 0.45 ± 0.08, P = 5.8 × 10(-11)] and associated with SLC2A9 variants (P values between 10(-16) and 10(-7)). Several of the significantly associated polymorphisms were previously identified in studies in adults. We also found positive genetic correlations between serum uric acid and BMI z score (ρG = 0.45, P = 0.002), percentage of body fat (ρG = 0.28, P = 0.04), fat mass (ρG = 0.34, P = 0.02), waist circumference (ρG = 0.42, P = 0.003), and waist-to-height ratio (ρG = 0.46, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Our results show that variation in serum uric acid in Hispanic children is under considerable genetic influence and is associated with obesity-related phenotypes. As in adults, genetic variation in SLC2A9 is associated with serum uric acid concentrations, an important biomarker of renal and cardiovascular disease risk, in Hispanic children.
Predictors of engagement with mental health services among mothers of children at risk of maltreatment.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this research was to examine the factors associated with various levels of engagement with mental health services in a large sample of mothers at high risk of maltreating their children. METHODS Data were collected by LONGSCAN (the Consortium for Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect) for 909 mothers of six-year-old children. These women reported on recent use of mental health services, with four levels of engagement: no use of services (76%), consideration of services (8%), use of and dissatisfaction with services (4%), and use of and satisfaction with services (11%). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to predict level of engagement in services. RESULTS Predictors of considering services included being formerly married, previous receipt of services, physical victimization, psychological intimate partner victimization, and depressive symptoms. Predictors of satisfaction with services were social support and lack of sexual victimization. CONCLUSIONS It is important to take a broad approach to assessing mental health needs, including not only current functioning, but social networks, prior experiences with services, and trauma exposure. Further research is needed on the process of engagement in mental health services, including examination of the factors associated with satisfaction with these services.
Optimizing cycle time average and variation for a wafer fabrication factory with a dynamic dispatching rule

A dynamic dispatching rule is proposed in the present work to improve the performance of reducing the average cycle time and cycle time variation in a wafer fabrication factory. The dynamic dispatching rule is an extension from the four-factor bi-objective nonlinear fluctuation smoothing rule (4f-biNFS) by dynamically adjusting the factors in 4f-biNFS in a Pareto optimization manner. In addition, the radical transition among successive rules is smoothed by circulating rules of the same type through their weighted geometric mean as an intermediary rule. We have also investigated some theoretical properties of the dynamic dispatching rule. Through validating the effectiveness of the dynamic dispatching rule with a simulated case, some evidences were found to support its effectiveness, from which we also derived several directions that can be exploited in the future.
Talent Management in the Ghanaian Gold Mining Industry: A Critical Exploration

Privatisation of Ghanaian state-owned enterprises has resulted in domination of Western multinational companies (MNCs) in the gold mining industry. Consequently, expatriate managers dominate industry. The Government of Ghana, realising the problem of national managerial gap in industry has made development of national managers pre-condition for granting of mining lease to MNCs entering the industry. This is an attempt to ‘empower’ national managers for eventual takeover from expatriates. The paper reports on a research project that sought to investigate the operation of MNCs in the gold mining industry of Ghana with respect to considering how their HR policies and practices are enhancing the development of local managerial talent. Twenty-six national managers were interviewed to collate views on their talent development (by MNCs) in industry. Resultant data discussed using critical discourse analysis, a problem identification of problem solving method based on text and language. Discussion of qualitative data reveals domination of Western ideas and practices in developing national managers – approach which does not go well with local managerial talent development. The paper concludes by recommending further research into