Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Environmental Fiscal Reforms in Europe and their Prospects for Cyprus - Some Introductory Remarks

As a result of the recent economic crisis, European governments need to raise public revenue to maintain sustainable debt levels and reduce fiscal deficits. At the same time they are committed to implement EU legislation. Member States are asked to pursue the implementation of structural reforms and to consolidate public finances as part of the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy which aims at generating ‘smart, inclusive and sustainable growth’. Among different policies, environmental taxes were not viewed until recently as major revenue-raising options. It becomes increasingly evident, however, that such taxes can be important ingredients of a cost-effective fiscal consolidation strategy. Currently, European countries generate most of their revenues by levying taxes on labour and income. At the same time, activities causing environmental degradation and depletion of scarce natural resources (such as consumption of electricity, fuels and water as well as production of waste) account for a small fraction of government finances. This endangers economic growth and employment while rewarding over-exploitation of natural resources. Environmental fiscal reform can correct this disparity by shifting the focus of government taxes from labour/income to environmentally harmful and resource-depleting activities. Such a reform can rely on market-based policy instruments such as carbon taxes, emissions trading, water abstraction charges, levies on the production of waste, traffic congestion charges etc. Another important element is phasing out of environmentally harmful subsidies to fossil fuels; according to independent studies, governments across the G20 countries spend $88 billion every year subsidising the exploration of fossil fuels, whose combustion causes adverse health effects and may lead to serious
Behind human milk and breastfeeding: not only food

Abstract After birth, breastfeeding should not be considered only a normal and physiological event; in fact, it encloses both physical and the psychological aspects. Human milk cannot be compared to any formula milk. Specifically, human milk has immunological and nutritional properties and it is considered the best available option which guarantees an adequate growth and an optimal development of a child. Differences in term of mediators and hormones have been shown between infants who were breastfed and ones who were not. A key point is represented by unmeasurable environmental and psycho-affective factors. So, it may be simplistic to consider human milk only as a nutrient; since it encompasses much more. The aim of our commentary is to review clinical studies about breastfeeding, analysing its consequences on the neuro-developmental achievement, growth and risk of obesity within a holistic view.
‘People pieces’: the neglected but essential elements of community crime prevention

The cover shows protesters with a sign proclaiming "protect our kids not p(a)edophiles. " In nine contributions, UK scholars examine findings from British case studies of community-based crime prevention to assess the effectiveness of this approach and lessons for the international community. Hughes (social policy, Open U.) and Edwards (criminology, Nottingham Trent U.) introduce the issues broached in community governance of crime control, including the rise of vigilantism, interpretations of "community," and national and local politics. Postmodern reflections on these factors are also offered.
An Economic Analysis of Factor Usage and Workplace Regulation: Reply

Safety in the workplace has long been a subject of interest for economists. Much of this attention has focused on the presence of risks on the job and the tendency of workers (and others) to underestimate these risks. Adam Smith [16, 96-7] notes this optimism and, as George Stigler [19] points out, Jevons felt that workplace hazards were ignored by those most directly concerned. This lack of faith in the market to provide adequate safety (or to compensate those who face such risks) is evident in the law regulating the workplace primarily Workers' Compensation (WC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). These policies are-in the judgment of many modern economists--justified by the misperception of risks [5; 12; 13]. However, other economists have argued that despite their intentions, such laws may not have one of the primary effects they are directed to accomplish: the reduction of workplace accidents. ' Relatively little research has been devoted to another aspect of safety regulation its cost -perhaps because these costs are thought to be very small.2 It is on this issue that this paper focuses; what is the impact of workplace regulation on firm decision making? To accomplish this, a model is developed in section II which examines the impact on a firm's factor choices attributable to the imposition of workplace safety regulation. The theory examines WC and OSHA, both singly and jointly, and their effects on the level of and changes in relative factor usage. These considerations form the bulk of section III. This model yields some interesting conclusions about the effects of regulation in the workplace. The primary implication of the theory is that all increases in safety are paid for through lowered output and factor employment. Moreover, this result holds true whether the additional safety is the product of direct safety regulation (OSHA) or through indirect forms of regulation (like WC). These results are possibly more striking given the findings of empirical work done on the impact of WC and OSHA on safety. This body of research has, to
RP 00 – 06 Title : Radiation Damage to Electronics Installed in Niches of the NLC Beam Tunnel

In a previous study [1] it was shown that electronics installed in the NLC beam tunnel close to the beam line may receive considerable doses. These doses are due to instantaneous beam losses along the accelerator structures creating showers of secondary particles predominantly electrons, positrons, photons and neutrons. For example, doses to electronic components mounted on racks under the magnets may reach values of the order of 6 10 rad over ten years of NLC operation. Even when heavily shielded, doses were shown to be too high to allow the use of conventional electronics.
Focused fluorescence excitation with time-reversed ultrasonically encoded light and imaging in thick scattering media

Scattering dominates light propagation in biological tissue, and therefore restricts both resolution and penetration depth in optical imaging within thick tissue. As photons travel into the diffusive regime, typically 1 mm beneath human skin, their trajectories transition from ballistic to diffusive due to the increased number of scattering events, which makes it impossible to focus, much less track, photon paths. Consequently, imaging methods that rely on controlled light illumination are ineffective in deep tissue. This problem has recently been addressed by a novel method capable of dynamically focusing light in thick scattering media via time reversal of ultrasonically encoded (TRUE) diffused light. Here, using photorefractive materials as phase conjugate mirrors, we show a direct visualization and dynamic control of optical focusing with this light delivery method, and demonstrate its application for focused fluorescence excitation and imaging in thick turbid media. These abilities are increasingly critical for understanding the dynamic interactions of light with biological matter and processes at different system levels, as well as their applications for biomedical diagnosis and therapy.
INVESTORS' PERCEPTION TOWARDS CAPITAL MARKET REFORMS IN INDIA

An attempt has been made in this paper to study the relationship between capital market reforms and amount of money invested by the investors. Normally, capital market reforms have definite influence over the investment pattern of investors. But investors’ perception regarding capital market reforms would clearly indicate whether these reforms have positive or negative influence over investors'investments at the capital markets. In order to capture investors’ perception,a standard questionnaire has been developed and survey has been done in major cities in Tamilnadu. Factor and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the data. There are five factors identified from the factor analysis, namely, company reforms, growth reforms, educative reforms, attractive reforms, and innovative reforms. Subsequently, these factors, along with a few control variables, were submitted for multiple regression analysis. The result shows that educative reforms and attractive reforms were statistically significant but they had negative influence over money invested by investors at the capital market.
Mental Health Risks in the Local Workforce Engaged in Disaster Relief and Reconstruction

To build a sustainable workforce for long-term disaster relief and reconstruction, more effort must be made to promote local relief workers’ mental health. We conducted 25 semistructured interviews with local relief officials 10 months after the 2008 earthquake in China to investigate the stress and coping experiences in their personal lives as survivors. We conducted thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Traumatic bereavement and grief, housing and financial difficulties, and work–family conflict were the three main sources of stress in the respondents’ personal lives. The coping themes were finding meaning and purpose in life through relief work, colleagues’ support and understanding, suppression or avoidance of grief, appreciation for life, hardiness, optimism, letting nature take its course, and making up for loss. We suggest that relief work has a double-edged-sword effect on workers’ coping abilities. We discuss the implications of this effect for work–life balance measures and trauma and grief counseling services.
Evaluation of the fracture resistance of Ni-Ti files in continuous and reciprocating motion in curved mesial canals of human permanent mandibular molars: An in Vitro Study

Aim: NiTi rotary files have gained popularity over recent years due to their inherent advantages. Despite their increased use worldwide the unexpected fatigue after extended clinical life span is one of the major shortcomings with these file systems. So the aim of this study was to evaluate the fracture resistance of Ni-Ti file (One Shape) in continuous and reciprocating motion in curved mesial canals of human permanent mandibular molars. Materials and Method: Forty human permanent mandibular molars with mature apices were selected with an inclusion and exclusion criteria. After the access was prepared and working length determined and gylde path was achieved the teeth were divided into two groups. Group A (Continuous Motion): Complete cleaning and shaping was done with One Shape® (Micro Mega, France) file in continuous motion. The file was re used in another tooth, until the file fractured. This was repeated until all the 5 files were fractured in the group. Group B (Reciprocating Motion): Complete cleaning and shaping was done with One Shape® (Micro Mega, France) file in reciprocating motion. The file was re used in another tooth, until the file got separated / distorted. This was repeated until all the 5 files were separated in the group. The time needed for the complete preparation was also noted for both the groups. The groups were then observed under SEM. Results: The Independent-Samples T Test procedure compares means for two groups of cases. Based on the results of the study it is not advisable to use this file in multiple teeth with any motion (CW/CCW). However it showed that use of continuous motion was safer and faster than reciprocating motion. Conclusion: One Shape® file can be safely used to the working length of curved canals at least 5 times under continuous motion without any help of other files. While One Shape® can be used safely in reciprocating motion in at least 3 canals. Keywords: Continuous motion, One shape file
User interaction analysis to recommend suitable jobs in career-oriented social networking sites

Career-oriented social networking sites are very much useful for job seekers to find a suitable job and useful for recruiters as well to find the right candidate for a job. Job recommendation system helps job seekers to find appropriate jobs matching with their profile. So, it can be considered as recruiters approaching a suitable candidate whenever they have an appropriate job for them. In this paper, we present a research technique of developing a job recommendation system for the online job hunting websites to predict suitable job postings that are likely to be relevant to the user i.e., the job postings with which the users can possibly interact. Relevant jobs are those job postings on which a user may click, bookmark or reply to the recruiter. Here, we have considered all possible factors related to users as well as job items available in a publicly available partial big data set of a widely used international job hunting website. We have split the interaction data into training and test data for the purpose of evaluating our proposed system. After that we have developed an algorithm for job recommender system which can calculate similarity for user-user, item-item and hybrid of user-user and item-item perspective between training and test data set based on weighted scores using our proposed similarity computation algorithm for different jobs and users all the information present in the dataset. We have used Collaborative Filtering (CF) algorithm separately for user-user and item-item based approach and for hybrid approach, we have calculated the intersection between user-user and item-item based recommended list and select top-k job items as recommended lists from the intersection. After that, we have compared the predicted recommended list based on all three approaches with the actual list and made offline evaluation of the job recommender system accuracy based on obtained score. Finally we have found that hybrid approach performs better than user-user and item-item based approach for entire 90% sparsity of the training data.
Fertigation of newly planted ‘Queen Cox’/M.9 apple trees: Establishment, early growth and precocity of cropping

The effects of a compound soluble 19:6:6 fertilizer applied in trickle irrigation (fertigation) at rates between 10 and 80 g N per tree per year were compared with irrigation alone, broadcast fertilizer at 80 g N per tree per year and no fertilizer or irrigation on trees planted in 1987. Trees receiving irrigation had shoot growth similar to the unirrigated trees either with or without broadcast fertilizer except in 1990 when irrigation substantially increased shoot growth compared with the other two treatments. Trees receiving fertigation at 10 and 20 g N per tree had similar total shoot lengths to those receiving irrigation but fruit set on spur and terminal flower clusters was increased and this was reflected in an increased cumulative yield of apples from 1988-90. Compared with all other treatments, fertigation at 40 and 80 g N per tree caused large increases in total shoot growth associated with an excessive production of axillary floral buds that abscinded leaving unproductive bare wood. Yield of ap.
Modeling Moving Droplets: A Precursor Film Approach

Modeling moving droplets: A precursor film approach by Benjamin P. Bryant May 2003 We investigate the behavior of moving droplets and rivulets, driven by a combination of gravity and surface shear (wind). The problem is motivated by a desire to model the behavior of raindrops on aircraft wings. We begin with the Stokes equations and use the approximations of lubrication theory to derive the specific thin film equation relevant to our situation. This fourth-order partial differential equation describing the height of the fluid is then solved numerically from varying initial conditions, using a fully implicit discretization for time stepping, and a precursor film to avoid singularities at the drop contact line. Results describing general features of droplet deformation, limited parameter studies, and the applicability of our implementation to the long-term goal of modeling wings in rain are discussed.
Discretely monitored lookback and barrier options : a semi-analytical approach

All the explicit formulae for the valuation of lookback and barrier options available in the financial literature assume continuous monitoring of the underlying asset. In practice, however, monitoring is always discrete, and the gap between continuously and discretely monitored option values can be very large. In this paper, we provide explicit formulae for discretely monitored lookback and barrier options. They allow for non-constant volatility, interest rate, dividend rate and barrier parameters that vary as step functions of time. They can deal with any number and spacing of monitoring dates. They are not restricted to particular payoffs or strike price specifications. We also provide a simple rule for the numerical integration of these high-dimensional formulae, as well as an efficient interpolation method.
An effective therapy for both undifferentiated (including Burkitt's) lymphomas and lymphoblastic lymphomas in children and young adults.

We have used a single intensive chemotherapy regimen in the treatment of young patients with diffuse, aggressive, malignant lymphomas. There were two major histologic types of lymphoma in our series: lymphoblastic lymphomas, which presented most often with mediastinal tumor (64%), and undifferentiated lymphomas (mostly Burkitt's lymphomas), which occurred predominantly in the abdomen (86%). Our objective was to examine the determinants of prognosis in a uniformly treated patient group that included 31 children (2-16 yr) and 34 young adults 17-35 yr). Patients with extensive bone marrow involvement (greater than 50% replacement by tumor cells) were included in the study. Treatment consisted essentially of a 4-drug combination (cytoxan, adriamycin, vincristine, and prednisone) alternating with a 42-hr methotrexate infusion, followed by leukovorin rescue, and included intrathecal prophylactic therapy against central nervous system (CNS) disease. Patients with localized or resected undifferentiated lymphoma received 6 therapy cycles; all other patients received 15 cycles. Radiation therapy was used only in exceptional circumstances. Fifty-eight of 65 patients (89%) achieved complete remission: 97% of children and 82% of adults. The estimated 3-yr survival was 60% (SE 6.4%) with a median follow-up of 3 yr. Analysis of factors associated with remission duration and survival indicated that bone marrow involvement at referral and extensive disease were poor prognostic variables. Patients with lymphoblastic lymphomas and patients with completely resected undifferentiated lymphomas had the best prognosis (81% +/- 12% and 94% +/- 6% estimated 3-yr survival, respectively). Patients with extensive intraabdominal undifferentiated lymphoma (stage D) had the worst prognosis (33% +/- 11% estimated 3 yr survival), but even in this subgroup, bone marrow involvement was an adverse factor (estimated survival in stage D patients with and without bone marrow involvement was 14% +/- 13% and 43% +/- 15%, respectively). Elevated uric acid and/or lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) were also of prognostic significance, but predominantly reflected state, i.e., extent of disease. Age did not significantly influence prognosis. In the undifferentiated lymphoma subgroup, histology (i.e., Burkitt's lymphoma versus non-Burkitt's lymphoma) was not of prognostic significance. Total white count was below 1,000/cu mm in 39% of cycles, and fever associated with granulocytopenia occurred in 17% of cycles. Stomatitis of moderate to severe extent occurred in 50% of cycles. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Using Tolerance Induced Via the Anterior Chamber of the Eye to Inhibit Th2-Dependent Pulmonary Pathology1

Anterior chamber-associated immune deviation (ACAID), a manifestation of ocular immune privilege, prevents Th1-dependent delayed hypersensitivity from developing in response to eye-derived Ags, thereby preserving vision. Since Th2-type cells have recently been shown to mediate destructive inflammation of the cornea, we wondered whether pre-emptive induction of ACAID could inhibit Th2 responses. Using a murine model of OVA -specific, Th2-dependent pulmonary inflammation, we pretreated susceptible mice by injecting OVA alone into the anterior chamber, or by injecting OVA-pulsed, TGF-β2-treated peritoneal exudate cells i.v. These mice were then immunized with OVA plus alum strategy that generates Th2-mediated OVA-specific pulmonary pathology. When pretreated mice were challenged intratracheally with OVA, their bronchoalveolar lavage fluids contained far fewer eosinophils and significantly less IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 compared with that of positive, nonpretreated controls. Similarly, lung-draining lymph node cells of pretreated mice secreted significantly less IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 when challenged in vitro with OVA. Moreover, sera from pretreated mice contained much lower titers of OVA-specific IgE Abs. We conclude that Ags injected into the anterior chamber of the eye impair both Th1 and Th2 responses. These results reduce the likelihood that ACAID regulates Th1 responses via a Th2-like mechanism. Thus, immune privilege of the eye regulates inflammation secondary to both Th1- and Th2-type immune responses.
Co-Movements of Shanghai and New York Stock Prices by Time-Varying Regressions

We estimate a time-varying regression model to study the relationship between returns in the Shanghai and New York stock markets, with possible inclusion of lagged returns. The parameters of the regressions reveal that the effect of the current stock return for New York on that for Shanghai steadily increases after the 1997 Asian financial crisis and turns significantly and persistently positive after 2002, when China entered WTO. The effect of the current return for Shanghai on New York also becomes significantly positive and increasing after 2002. The upward trend has been interrupted during the recent global financial crisis, but reaches the level of about 0.4 to 0.5 in 2010 for both markets. Our results show that China’s stock market has become more and more integrated into the world market in the past twenty years, with interruptions occurring during the recent global economic downturn.