Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Research on environmental factors of positive DC corona inception voltage of overhead transmission lines

The corona discharge effect is one of important problems in the design and operation of transmission lines. The transmission lines pass by the high altitude region with low air pressure, which brings many special problems to the design and operation of the transmission lines. Temperature and humidity also have obvious effect on the corona characteristics of the transmission lines. Consequently, it is significant to study the impact of air pressure, temperature and humidity on the corona characteristics and discharge mechanism of transmission lines. A computation model is adopted for evaluating the corona inception voltage on conductors, which is established according to the gas discharge theory. The charge simulation method is introduced to the computation model to calculate the electric field intensity. Then the criterion of corona inception voltage which considers whether the number of positive ions in the secondary avalanches is greater or equal to that in the primary avalanche is used to calculate the corona inception voltage of conductors. The influence of air pressure, humidity and temperature on the corona inception voltage of conductors is analysed systematically. Corona inception voltage decreases as air pressure is lowered or temperature is raised. It is mainly due to the enlargement of ionization zone as a result of the increase of effective ionization coefficient. Simultaneity, corona inception voltage decreases with humidity increasing for strengthening of collisional ionization intensity.
The role of oxidative stress in acrolein-induced DNA damage in HepG2 cells

This study evaluated the role of oxidative stress in acrolein-induced DNA damage, using HepG2 cells. Using the standard single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) assay, a significant dose-dependent increment in DNA migration was detected at lower concentrations of acrolein; but at the higher tested concentrations, a reduction in the migration was observed. Post-incubation with proteinase K significantly increased DNA migration in cells exposed to higher concentrations of acrolein. These results indicated that acrolein caused DNA strand breaks and DNA-protein crosslinks (DPC). To elucidate the oxidatively generated DNA damage mechanism, the 2,7-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) and o-phthalaldehyde (OPT) were used to monitor the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glutathione (GSH), respectively. The present study showed that acrolein induced the increased levels of ROS and depletion of GSH in HepG2 cells. Moreover, acrolein significantly caused 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodGuo) formation in HepG2 cells. These results demonstrate that the DNA damage induced by acrolein in HepG2 cells is related to the oxidative stress.
Monetary Frameworks and Institutional Constraints: UK Monetary Policy Reaction Functions, 1985-2003

Monetary policy reaction functions are estimated for the UK over three periods - 1985-90, 1992-97 and 1997-2003 - in order to disentangle two effects: the switch from an emphasis on exchange rate stabilization to inflation targeting, and the introduction of instrument-independence in 1997. The external factors considered include US as well as German interest rates, and this leads to the identification of 'domestic' and 'international' models of the reaction function. The results suggest that it is the changes in the institutional arrangements rather than those in the targeting regime which have been decisive in the development of policy in this period. Copyright 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Quantification of Primary Versus Secondary C-H Bond Cleavage in Alkane Activation: Propane on Pt

The trapping-mediated dissociative chemisorption of three isotopes of propane (C3H8, CH3,CD2CH3, and C3D8) has been investigated on the Pt(110)-(1 x 2) surface, and both the apparent activation energies and the preexponential factors of the surface reaction rate coefficients have been measured. In addition, the probabilities of primary and secondary C-H bond cleavage for alkane activation on a surface were evaluated. The activation energy for primary C-H bond cleavage was 425 calories per mole greater than that of secondary C-H bond cleavage, and the two true activation energies that embody the single measured activation energy were determined for each of the three isotopes. Secondary C-H bond cleavage is also preferred on entropic grounds, and the magnitude of the effect was quantified.
Trust in public-sector senior management

Trust is widely regarded as an important ingredient of organizational effectiveness. Although there is accumulating empirical evidence supporting the important role of trust in organizational contexts, there is limited empirical evidence that focuses on the nature, determinants and influence of trust in senior management. This is particularly true in the public-sector environment. In this paper, based on a review of the literature, we propose a model that identifies key antecedents and consequences of trust in public-sector senior management. We used data collected from two public-sector organizations to identify levels of trust and correlates of trust in senior management. We also conducted a series of regression analyses to identify more clearly the extent to which each of the antecedents influenced trust in senior management and the extent to which trust in senior management influenced each of the consequences. The results suggest that effective organizational communication, procedural justice, organizational support and satisfaction with job security predict trust in public-sector senior management. The results also show that trust in senior management influences affective commitment, continuance commitment, cynicism towards change and turnover intention. Evidence was presented which suggests that trust partially, rather than fully, mediates the relationships between the antecedents of trust and the consequences of trust. In general terms, the findings will prove helpful to human resource practitioners interested in diagnosing and managing trust in public-sector organizations.
UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY CHRISTCHURCH , NEW ZEALAND Modeling the Effect of Oil Price on Global Fertilizer Prices

The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of crude oil price on global fertilizer prices in both the mean and volatility. The endogenous structural breakpoint unit root test, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, and alternative volatility models, including the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model, Exponential GARCH (EGARCH) model, and GJR model, are used to investigate the relationship between crude oil price and six global fertilizer prices. Weekly data for 2003-2008 for the seven price series are analyzed. The empirical results from ARDL show that most fertilizer prices are significantly affected by the crude oil price, which explains why global fertilizer prices reached a peak in 2008. We also find that that the volatility of global fertilizer prices and crude oil price from March to December 2008 are higher than in other periods, and that the peak crude oil price caused greater volatility in the crude oil price and global fertilizer prices. As volatility invokes financial risk, the relationship between oil price and global fertilizer prices and their associated volatility is important for public policy relating to the development of optimal energy use, global agricultural production, and financial integration.
Differential effects of stress and amphetamine administration on Fos‐like protein expression in corticotropin releasing factor‐neurons of the rat brain

Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) appears to be critical for the control of important aspects of the behavioral and physiological response to stressors and drugs of abuse. However, the extent to which the different brain CRF neuronal populations are similarly activated after stress and drug administration is not known. We then studied, using double immunohistochemistry for CRF and Fos protein, stress and amphetamine‐induced activation of CRF neurons in cortex, central amygdala (CeA), medial parvocellular dorsal, and submagnocellular parvocellular regions of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVNmpd and PVNsm, respectively) and Barrington nucleus (Bar). Neither exposure to a novel environment (hole‐board, HB) nor immobilization (IMO) increased Fos‐like immunoreactivity (FLI) in the CeA, but they did to the same extent in cortical regions. In other regions only IMO increased FLI. HB and IMO both failed to activate CRF+ neurons in cortical areas, but after IMO, some neurons expressing FLI in the PVNsm and most of them in the PVNmpd and Bar were CRF+. Amphetamine administration increased FLI in cortical areas and CeA (with some CRF+ neurons expressing FLI), whereas the number of CRF+ neurons increased only in the PVNsm, in contrast to the effects of IMO. The present results indicate that stress and amphetamine elicited a distinct pattern of brain Fos‐like protein expression and differentially activated some of the brain CRF neuronal populations, despite similar levels of overall FLI in the case of IMO and amphetamine. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2007.
Transmitting UWB-OFDM Using 16-QAM over Hybrid Flat Fading Channels

This paper derives a simulation based comparison for UWBOFDM with different multipath channel models. Several multipath channel models such as (AWGN, Rayleigh and Rician) has been simulated and compared with a proposed hybrid combination of Rayleigh, Rician and AWGN to observe a realistic multipath faded environment. These cases are based on no fading and flat Rayleigh- fading, multiple-diversity reception Rayleigh-fading, and flat Ricean-fading. These simulations are used to determine both signal to noise ratio and bit error rate for multi-amplitude constellations. The combination of Rayleigh and AWGN channels give BER and SNR of 0.5025 and 15.25dB respectively in flat fading mode, whereas combination of Rician and AWGN produces BER and SNR upto 0.4999 and 16.63dB. The proposed Hybrid combination of Rayleigh, Rician and AWGN produces a decay in BER and SNR approximately 2% and 3.5% respectively.
MORTALITY DECLINE, RETIREMENT AGE, AND AGGREGATE SAVINGS

We use an overlapping-generations model with endogenous retirement and saving to study the trade-off between saving and retirement age in response to mortality decline. When life expectancy increases by one year, people delay retirement by about four months. With this magnitude of delay in retirement age, the percentage of lifetime spent in working decreases, and people have to save more for postretirement years. Neither the pure form of sole adjustment through savings nor the proportionality hypothesis is consistent with our results, but the proportionality hypothesis is a better rule of thumb in predicting future behavior. Our choice of the modified Boucekkine et al. (2002) survival function gives a convenient one-to-one correspondence between life expectancy increase and a change in the survival parameter.
Radiation‐induced melanoma‐associated leucoderma, systemic antimelanoma immunity and disease‐free survival in a patient with advanced‐stage melanoma: a case report and immunological analysis

Background Melanoma is an immunogenic tumour. The development of skin depigmentation or melanoma‐associated leucoderma (MAL) has been associated with favourable clinical outcome in patients with metastatic melanoma, especially after immunotherapy. Evidence for clinically meaningful enhancement of melanoma‐directed autoimmunity, as indicated by MAL, after radiotherapy without immunotherapy has not yet been published.
Implementation of a balanced scorecard in a care home for the elderly: Useful or not?

Strategic management is a process of motivation and inspiration of top management and all employees to urge them, in a maximum way, to take action that enables the organization – in this case more specifically a care home for the elderly – to better realize the mission, goals and strategies. In that way, several innovative healthcare executives have recently introduced a new business strategy implementation tool: the balanced scorecard (Inamdar et al., 2002). Performance measurement is an important part of a strategic management process. Performance measurement systems encourage healthcare organizations to focus on their mission and vision by aligning their strategic objectives and resource-allocation decisions with customer requirements (Stewart & Lockamy, 2001).
The economics of US imperialism at the turn of the 21st century

At the turn of the 21st century, US imperialism appears very strong. The paper focuses on economic mechanisms. Both direct investment abroad and portfolio investment contribute extensively to the remuneration of capital in the United States, under the form of interest, dividends and profits of transnational corporations retained abroad. The rates of return on these investments are high, in particular when compared to the returns of foreigners when they invest in the United States. The major contradiction results from the growing external trade imbalance. The outflow of dollars to the rest of the world is invested back in the country by foreigners. Their stock of assets on the United States is now the double of the stock of assets of this country on the rest of the world; the flow of income paid to foreigners is equal to that received from the rest of the world. These deficits are due to the tremendous wave of consumption by the richest fraction of the population, which followed the restoration of the income and wealth of these classes in neoliberalism. This path is unsustainable in the long run. A new phase is, therefore, on the agenda: a new configuration of neoliberalism or beyond neoliberalism?
Les causes du chômage en France

Nous proposons une estimation multivariee du modele ws-ps sur donnees macroeconomiques francaises. Partant d’une presentation theorique des determinants structurels de la formation des salaires et des prix, nous estimons, a l’aide d’un var-ecm partiel, les relations entre le taux de chomage, le cout reel du travail et ses determinants sur la periode 1970-1/1996-4. L’estimation conduit a un niveau du chomage d’equilibre proche de son niveau effectif en fin de periode. La montee du chomage d’equilibre, de dix points en vingt-cinq ans, s’expliquerait essentiellement par celle des prelevements fiscaux et sociaux, par le ralentissement de la productivite du travail et par la degradation de la securite de l’emploi mesuree par le taux de sortie de l’emploi vers le chomage. Les termes de l’echange, qui ont varie essentiellement sous l’influence des chocs petroliers, et le mesappariement entre qualifications offertes et demandees sur le marche du travail, n’expliqueraient qu’une faible part de la montee du chomage d’equilibre. L’etude conduit en outre a mettre en doute l’influence de nombreux autres determinants : la moindre degressivite des prelevements sociaux n’aurait pas eu d’influence sur la montee du chomage d’equilibre, et il en irait de meme de la hausse du taux de remplacement, de la reduction de la duree du travail, de la hausse du smic et de celle des taux d’interet reels qui n’auraient pas eu d’influence directe en dehors de leurs effets sur la productivite du travail.
Capital Structure Decisions around the World: Which Factors Are Reliably Important?

Abstract This article examines the international determinants of capital structure using a large sample of firms from 37 countries. The reliable determinants for leverage are firm size, tangibility, industry leverage, profits, and inflation. The quality of the countries’ institutions affects leverage and the adjustment speed toward target leverage in significant ways. High-quality institutions lead to faster leverage adjustments, whereas laws and traditions that safeguard debt holders relative to stockholders (e.g., more effective bankruptcy procedures and stronger creditor protection) lead to higher leverage.
Adverse effects of excess DL-methionine in calves with different body weights.

Adverse effects of excess methionine were examined using 12 Holstein bull calves trained to maintain reflex closure of the reticular groove even after weaning at 5 wk of age. Two nitrogen balance experiments were conducted for 2 wk each from 6 wk (Stage 1; BW = 62 kg) and 12 wk of age (Stage 2; BW = 103 kg) by dividing the calves into three groups at each stage. Calves were fed a corn-soybean meal diet at 62 g/kg of metabolic BW at both stages. At Stage 1, feed efficiency (gain:feed intake) and nitrogen retention did not differ between the group supplemented with . 333 g of DL-methionine and . 111 g of L-lysine monohydrochloride/kg BW per day and the group supplemented with isonitrogenous diammonium citrate, although the level of DL-methionine was considered to be enough to induce toxicity. Conversely, administration of isonitrogenous casein increased nitrogen retention. At Stage 2, administration of the same levels of methionine and lysine resulted in reduced feed intake, depressed nitrogen retention, and BW loss. Conversely, administration of the isonitrogenous casein did not increase nitrogen retention compared with the supplement of isonitrogenous diammonium citrate. Administration of excess methionine and lysine increased plasma methionine concentrations up to 230 (Stage 1) or 190 micromol/dL (Stage 2). Plasma lysine concentrations were less than 24 micromol/dL at every stage. Administration of the amino acid mixture decreased plasma concentrations of branched-chain amino acids and phenylalanine more obviously at Stage 2 than at Stage 1. These results indicated that abomasal administration of . 333 g of DL-methionine/kg BW per day induced methionine toxicity at Stage 2 but methionine imbalance at Stage 1.
Pricing in a Service Sector Context: Accounting and Marketing Logics in the Hotel Industry

The paper analyses hotel room pricing via an application of institutional economic theory. The institutional framework considers the impact of accounting and marketing templates that help hotel managers make sense of complex pricing decisions. From an institutional perspective, the spread and implementation of these templates is influenced by specific historical factors and may be subject to path dependency. The institutional theory is applied to a case study using a pragmatic constructivist methodology. The case site revealed that whilst long run cost structures are important in locating the market niche of the business and that hotels use conventional cost control techniques, costs play relatively little role in price determination with a dominant role for marketing templates that concentrate on revenue management. The study suggests how the synthesis between institutional economics and pragmatic constructivism offers a research framework that could be replicated in further studies.
Risk Factors of Recurrent Venous Thromboembolism: The Role of Residual Vein Thrombosis

In 313 consecutive symptomatic outpatients with proximal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) who had a conventional anticoagulation, an ultrasound assessment of the common femoral and the popliteal vein was performed three months after the acute episode, and then at 6, 12, 24, and 36 months. Veins were considered as recanalized in case of a vein diameter < 2.0 mm in a single determination, or < 3.0 mm in two consecutive determinations. Of the 58 patients who experienced recurrent episodes, 41 occurred while the patient still had residual thrombosis. The hazard ratio of recurrent thromboembolism was 2.4 (95% CI, 1.3 to 4.4; p =0.004) for persistent residual thrombosis versus early vein recanalization. In conclusion, residual venous thrombosis should be regarded as an important risk factor of recurrent thromboembolism.
The Origins of Voluntary Compliance: Attitudes toward Taxation in Urban Nigeria

Voluntary compliance is an important aspect of strong tax regimes, but there is limited understanding of how social norms favoring compliance emerge. Using novel data from urban Nigeria, where tax enforcement is weak, this article shows that individuals with a positive experience of state services delivery are more likely to express belief in an unconditioned citizen obligation to pay tax. In addition to support for this fiscal exchange mechanism, social context is consequential. Where individuals have access to community-provided goods, which may substitute for effective state services provision, they are less likely to adopt pro-compliance norms. Finally, the article shows that norm adoption increases tax payment. These findings have broad implications for literatures on state formation, taxation and public goods provision.
Subdural hematomas in pulmonary arterial hypertension patients treated with prostacyclin analogs

Prostacyclin analogs therapy has been associated with development of thrombocytopenia. Little is known whether this treatment increases the risk of intracranial hemorrhage in pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) patients. We queried the Cleveland Clinic billing database to identify cases of nontraumatic sudural hematoma (SDH) in patients with PAH. We identified those individuals who were receiving prostacyclin analogs therapy at the time of the neurological event and assessed whether these patients were also taking antiplatelet or anticoagulation therapies. We identified three cases of nontraumatic SDH in 856-patient-year of prostacylin analog treatment. All patients were women, had low normal platelet counts or thrombocytopenia, and were concomitantly receiving anticoagulation therapy in the appropriate therapeutic anticoagulation range. All three patients were managed conservatively and had no neurologic sequelae. Nontraumatic acute subdural hematoma is a rare event in patients with PAH treated with prostacyclin analogs. All affected patients were concomitantly receiving anticoagulation therapy.
Islam, Authoritarianism, and Female and Empowerment: What Are the Linkages?

In a path-breaking cross-national statistical analysis, M. Steven Fish contends that Islamic culture inhibits democracy and represses women's rights and that authoritarian government and suppression of women's rights in turn reinforce each other. The analysis in this article builds on Fish's work, but reaches somewhat different conclusions. First, both authoritarian government and suppression of women are more common in Arab countries than in other Islamic countries. Second, the authors find little global evidence that authoritarian government and the suppression of women reinforce each other. Finally, the relationship of cultures to democracy can change quite quickly and radically, as evidenced in many Catholic countries. The reasons for an association of Islam—especially in Arab countries—with autocracy and suppression of women may therefore be as much a consequence of political history as of culture.
Influence of Electrical Stimulation of the Limbic Structure on Ovarian Steroidogenesis in Hypophysectomized and Adrenalectomized Rats

The effects of electrical stimulation of the medial amygdala (AMYG) and dorsal hippocampus (DHPC) on the rates of 14C transfer from 14C-1-acetate into ovarian steroids in hypophysectomized and adrenalectomized rats (H-A rats) were investigated. The 14C transfer rates into estrogen were increased by stimulation of AMYG and DHPC. The 14C transfer rates into progesterone and 20 alpha-hydroxy-pregn-4-en-3-one (20 alpha-OH-P) were increased by the AMYG stimulation but decreased by the DHPC stimulation. From these results, it might be suggested that these limbic structures were involved in the regulation of ovarian steroidogenesis without participation of pituitary and adrenal.