Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inclusive approaches to urban climate adaptation planning and implementation in the Global South

As cities increasingly engage in climate adaptation planning, many are seeking to promote public participation and facilitate the engagement of different civil society actors. Still, the variations that exist among participatory approaches and the merits and tradeoffs associated with each are not well understood. This article examines the experiences of Quito (Ecuador) and Surat (India) to assess how civil society actors contribute to adaptation planning and implementation. The results showcase two distinct approaches to public engagement. The first emphasizes participation of experts, affected communities, and a wide array of citizens to sustain broadly inclusive programmes that incorporate local needs and concerns into adaptation processes and outcomes. The second approach focuses on building targeted partnerships between key government, private, and civil society actors to institutionalize robust decision-making structures, enhance abilities to raise funds, and increase means to directly engage with local community and international actors. A critical analysis of these approaches suggests more inclusive planning processes correspond to higher climate equity and justice outcomes in the short term, but the results also indicate that an emphasis on building dedicated multi-sector governance institutions may enhance long-term programme stability, while ensuring that diverse civil society actors have an ongoing voice in climate adaptation planning and implementation. Policy relevance Many local governments in the Global South experience severe capacity and resource constraints. Cities are often required to devolve large-scale planning and decision-making responsibilities, such as those critical to climate adaptation, to different civil society actors. As a result, there needs to be more rigorous assessments of how civil society participation contributes to the adaptation policy and planning process and what local social, political, and economic factors dictate the way cities select different approaches to public engagement. Also, since social equity and justice are key indicators for determining the effectiveness and sustainability of adaptation interventions, urban adaptation plans and policies must also be designed according to local institutional strengths and civic capacities in order to account for the needs of the poor and most vulnerable. Inclusivity, therefore, is critical for ensuring equitable planning processes and just adaptation outcomes.
Foreign Direct Investments and Economic Growth: The Primary Drivers

In order to achieve the Global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) there is need for enhanced global partnerships in areas such as trade, health, security, environmental sustainability, food security and education. Owing to these initiatives Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), Official Foreign Development Assistance (ODAs) and other external capital flows are increasingly considered as drivers of economic growth for developing countries. By year 2000 FDIs flow to developing countries accounted for 19% of the total global FDI flow compared to 52% in 2010. Collectively FDI equates to 11% of global GDP and generates close to 80 million jobs globally. Global FDI totaled to US$ 1.2 trillion in 2010, US$ 1.4 trillion in 2011 and US$ 1.8 trillion in 2012. Similarly, the developing countries received half of the FDI and only invested a quarter of the FDI out flow. Studies show that FDIs contributes to economic growth by stimulating several macro-economic and demographic variables which are major agents of economic growth. This paper sought to explain the effect of FDI on the determinants of economic growth human capital development, financial sector development and trade openness. A sample of 30 African countries was used for the study. The data used was retrieved from UNCTAD and World Bank online databases for the period between 1980 and 2012 and analyzed through a fixed effect regression model. The results of the study show that FDI had a positive impact on measures of financial sector development and trade openness. However the effect of FDI on human capital development was negative. The study recommends the need for favorable monetary policies that elicit more FDI for enhanced economic growth. The study also suggests increased global trade liberalization and integration to boost trade. Finally the study recommends that additional FDI flows should be directed towards human capital development.
A Genetic Algorithm for Packing CAN FD Frame with Real-Time Constraints

SUMMARY As a next-generation CAN (Controller Area Network), CAN FD (CAN with ﬂexible data rate) has attracted much attention recently. However, how to use the improved bus bandwidth e ﬃ ciently in CAN FD is still an issue. Contrasting with existing methods using greedy approximate algorithms, this paper proposes a genetic algorithm for CAN FD frame packing. It tries to minimize the bandwidth utilization by considering the di ﬀ erent periods of signals when packing them in the same frame. Moreover, it also checks the schedulability of packed frames to guarantee the real-time constraints of each frame and proposed a merging algorithm to improve the schedulability for signal set with high bus load. Experimental results validate that the proposed algorithm can achieve signiﬁcantly less bandwidth utilization and improved schedulability than existing methods for a given set of signals. key words: in-vehicle network
Glutaredoxin Accelerates Glutathione-dependent Folding of Reduced Ribonuclease A Together with Protein Disulfide-isomerase (*)

Glutaredoxin (Grx) contains a redox-active disulfide and catalyzes thiol-disulfide interchange reactions with specificity for GSH. The dithiol form of Grx reduces mixed disulfides involving GSH or protein disulfides. During oxidative refolding of 8 μM reduced and denatured ribonuclease RNase-(SH)8 in a redox buffer of 1 mM GSH and 0.2 mM GSSG to yield native RNase-(S2)4, a large number of GSH-mixed disulfide species are formed. A lag phase that precedes formation of folded active RNase at a steady-state rate was shortened or eliminated by the presence of a catalytic concentration (0.5 μM) of Escherichia coli Grx together with protein disulfide-isomerase (PDI), its procaryotic equivalent E. coli DsbA, or the PDI analogue the E. coli thioredoxin mutant protein P34H. A mutant Grx in which one of the active site cysteine residues (Cys-11 and Cys-14) had been replaced by serine, C14S Grx, had similar effect compared with its wild-type counterpart. This demonstrated that Grx acted by a monothiol mechanism involving only Cys-11 and that RNase-S-SG-mixed disulfides were the substrates. Grx displayed synergistic activity together with PDI only in GSH/GSSG redox buffers with sufficiently low redox potential (E′0 of −208 or −181 mV) to allow reduction of the active site of Grx. In refolding systems that do not depend on glutathione, like cystamine/cysteamine or in the presence of selenite (SeO3), no synergistic activity of Grx was observed with PDI. We conclude that Grx acts by reducing mixed disulfides between GSH and RNase that are rate-limiting in enzyme-catalyzed refolding.
Drogues, médicaments et sexualité

De nombreux travaux ethnologiques et psychologiques ont porte sur les repercussions des usages de drogues et, plus recemment, des medicaments sur les fonctions sexuelles. Nous presentons dans cet article les principales dimensions degagees sur cette question. Dans un premier temps, les substances aphrodisiaques principales sont envisagees a partir des perspectives ethnologiques et experimentales. Cette recension montre la diversite des contextes et des produits employes, de meme que la variabilite des effets. La seconde section porte sur les drogues de synthese contemporaines, a leurs contextes d’utilisation ainsi qu’aux consequences sur la sexualite et la prise de risques face aux infections transmissibles sexuellement (ITS) et au VIH/sida. La troisieme partie porte sur les developpements pharmacologiques qui modulent la fonction sexuelle de meme que sur les usages detournes des medicaments a des fins sexuelles recreatives. Ce survol des recherches contemporaines met en evidence la place importante de l’erotisme dans la consommation des differentes substances et l’interet de developper un programme d’etudes plus precis dans ce domaine.
Constraints to Building and Deploying Marketing Capabilities by Emerging Market Firms in Advanced Markets

Firms can achieve a competitive advantage across different institutional environments by building and deploying marketing capabilities (MCs)—that is, their ability to sense and meet customers’ demands. However, internationalizing emerging markets firm have preferred different sources of competitive advantage thus far. Drawing from marketing research and the resource-based view of the firm, this article investigates the antecedents for building and deploying MCs by Chinese firms in Europe. Using a qualitative research approach, the authors find that deficiencies in motivation, opportunity, and ability constrain these firms from shifting to more marketing-driven business models. The authors also identify the underlying reasons for each of these antecedents, including causal ambiguity and inertia. The derived theoretical framework specifies the constraining effects of different levels of motivation, opportunity, and ability on the building and deployment of MCs in firms from emerging markets as they evolve from one stage of international marketing to another.
Optimal Selection of Passive Portfolios

In the last few years, the use of "index funds" as one part of a total investment strategy has gained acceptance among investors, particularly among corporate pension sponsors. Use has been spurred partly by the passage in 1974 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which caused many pension sponsors to re-evaluate the management of their pension portfolios. * Index funds are appealing both on economic and fiduciary grounds, because typically they have lower management fees and higher diversification than managed portfolios. This has led to considerable growth in indexed pension assets, as is demonstrated by the figures in Exhibit 1. The majority of these assets are managed by external money managers, but there is a distinct trend for corporations to manage a proportion of their pension assets in an in-house index fund. This trend is also true for public funds, as evidenced by the recent formation of a $500 million index fund run by the New York State Common Retirement Fund [5]. An index fund is a "passive" (as opposed to "active") portfolio that is designed to track closely a visi-
Melissa officinalis L .-GC Profile and Antioxidant Activity

The rich world of herbs, with thousands of varieties and species, exhibiting multiple biological effects, including antioxidant activity, demands extensive studies. Melissa officinalis L. , a representative of the Lamiaceae family, is a wellknown herb that has long been used in traditional medicine to treat many disorders, and multiple studies have been conducted to identify its healing properties. The essential oil obtained by microdistillation of aerial parts of Melissa officinalis L. (Bulgarian origin) was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Thirty-seven compounds were identified, representing 92.27 % of the total oil. The major components were terpenes with citronellal18.45 %, and geraniol15.22 % as the dominant representatives. Two water extracts were prepared to evaluate the radical-scavenging ability of M. officinalis decoction and infusion. The antioxidant activity was determined using four spectrophotometric methods (ABTS, DPPH, FRAP, and CUPRAC). The TEAC values of the herb ranged from 389.52±3.11 μM TE/g DW (DPPH-infusion) to 1228.71±46.07 μM TE/g DW (CUPRAC-decoction). A significant correlation between the total phenolic content and the antioxidant activity was also determined. All obtained results revealed M. officinalis as a potential source of natural antioxidants.
Voters as Fiscal Conservatives

Voters penalize federal and state spending growth. This is the central result of my analysis of voting behavior in Presidential, Senatorial, and gubernatorial elections from 1950–1988. The composition of federal spending growth seems irrelevant. The vote loss to the President's party from an extra dollar of defense or nondefense spending is the same. However, in gubernatorial elections, expansion of state welfare spending exacts a disproportionate political price. Deficit financing of federal or state spending does not appear to matter politically. I conclude by discussing the obvious question of why government budgets have grown in the face of this voter hostility.
What makes for memorable wildlife encounters? Revelations from ‘serious’ wildlife tourists

A meaningful understanding of the constituents of a memorable wildlife encounter is required to underpin wildlife tour operators' and destinations' marketing, product development and management strategies based on the premise that consumers' future expectations and behaviours are often based on memories of prior experiences. To this end, this paper presents the results of a qualitative study based on the stories and experiences of ‘serious’ wildlife tourists. When asked to describe their most memorable wildlife encounters, participants gave a wide range of responses which depended upon a number of key factors such as the charisma of the species, spontaneity, seeing something for the first time, the degree of close proximity, embodied experiences and species congregated in large numbers. On tour, ‘wildlife moments’ can vary in duration from lasting only a matter of seconds to long undisturbed views of wildlife. They can also come in close succession making the importance of what is being seen lost in the moment; it is only later that the true meaning becomes ‘hard-wired’. Surprisingly, unforgettable wildlife experiences are not necessarily made up of the exotic. Highlights can also include endemic birds and animals which visit participants' wildlife-friendly gardens.
Credibility of European Monetary System Interest Rate Policies: A Markov Regime-Switching Approach

The Markov regime-switching modelling framework, with time-varying transition probabilities, is utilized to study the credibility of monetary policy in five member countries of the European Monetary System during the period 1979-98 (Austria, Belgium, France, Italy and the Netherlands). The output-gap variability and the inflation variability variables are incorporated in the determination of the monetary policy preferences of the five countries. Empirical evidence is provided to show that although all the countries in our sample followed a credible monetary policy regarding price stability, they had different preferences regarding the trade-off between the stabilization of output-gap variability and inflation variability. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd and The Victoria University of Manchester, 2004.
Cost of fluoridation: 44 Florida communities.

Previous data relating to the cost of fluoridation often do not include annualized costs or costs for labor and maintenance. The purpose of this study was to estimate accurately current costs for initiating and maintaining fluoridation and to develop a methodology that can be used to provide the cost basis for further cost-effectiveness studies. The data were collected from 44 Florida communities that had initiated community water fluoridation between 1981 and 1989. Equipment, installation, and engineering costs were derived from copies of actual invoices for equipment and services and then adjusted to 1988 dollars. The chemical costs were calculated from operational reports listing flow rate and pounds used. The cost was then adjusted according to whether the hydrofluosilicic acid was supplied as 15-gallon carboys, 55-gallon drums, in bulk, or as sodium silicofluoride or sodium fluoride. The initial cost was annualized at 2 percent and 4 percent over 15 years. Calculated operational costs included chemical costs, labor costs, and maintenance and repair costs. The operational costs were then added to the annualized depreciation costs and opportunity costs for the initial investment, to produce an estimated cost per person served. The total mean cost per person for all installations was $1.14 per year at 2 percent and $1.25 per year at 4 percent. The mean cost at 4 percent for communities of fewer than 10,000 was $2.12; for communities between 10,000 and 50,000 it was $0.68; and for communities over 50,000 it was $0.31. The total mean cost per person across all installations was $0.41 at 2 percent and 0.45 at 4 percent. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Do Budget Rules Work?

The design of budget rules and institutions, long a neglected area in public finance and macroeconomics, has recently been thrust to center stage by the debate over a balanced budget amendment and other deficit-reduction measures in the United States. This paper describes the existing evidence on how budget rules affect fiscal policy outcomes. It contrasts the `institutional irrelevance view,' which holds that budget rules can be circumvented by modifying accounting practices and changing the nominal timing or other classification of taxes and expenditures, with the `public choice view' in which fiscal institutions represent important constraints on the behavior of political actors. Several distinct strands of empirical evidence, from the U.S. federal experience with anti-deficit rules, from U.S. state experience with balanced budget rules, and from international comparisons of budget outcomes in nations with different fiscal institutions, suggest that fiscal institutions do matter. These results reject the institutional irrelevance view. The existing evidence is not refined enough, however, to provide detailed advice on how narrowly-defined changes in budget rules might affect policy outcomes.
Corporate social responsibility for solving the housing problem for the poor in South Africa

Purpose – This paper aims to integrate the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the South African quantity surveying firms (SAQSF) as an approach for solving the housing problem for the poor.Design/methodology/approach – A research methodology consisted of a literature review and field study designed to accomplish four objectives. Firstly, the literature review studied the housing problem in South Africa, the quantity surveying profession and the CSR concept. Secondly, the field study investigated the perception and application of the CSR concept by SAQSF. Thirdly, an innovative business improvement framework integrating the concept of CSR within SAQSF is developed. Finally, research conclusions and recommendations are summarised.Findings – There is a severe housing problem for the poor in South Africa. Government initiatives for delivering housing for the poor have to be supported by quantity surveyors through utilising their practical knowledge and expertise in social context. SAQSF a.
Rapid growth and rapid internationalization: the case of smaller enterprises from Canada

Purpose – The main objective of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of high growth and rapid internationalization characteristics in terms of: empirically characterizing growth deriving the profile of high‐growth enterprises, exploring influential factors in high‐growth, pointing out the factors that stimulate internationalization, presenting the combined influence of these factors in both the high‐growth and early internationalizing enterprises, and formulating research‐based policy recommendation for longer and higher growth rates and for decreasing the chances of demise in such younger firms.Design/methodology/approach – The authors have built a longitudinal sample of more than 1,140 micro, small and medium‐sized enterprises that have grown at exceptionally high rates for at least five years at the earlier stages of their life‐cycle, and even from inception in some cases. The data‐base's origin is a popular Canadian business publication, the Canadian Business Magazine, which annually identi.
The Real Economics of Climate Engineering

In 2008 Scott Barrett wrote a paper on “The incredible economics of geoengineering” in which he argued that the potentially low cost of climate engineering (CE) measures together with the quick response of the earth’s temperature to such interventions will change the whole debate about the mitigation of climate change. Whereas Barrett was mostly focusing on the cost of running CE measures, we point out that several determinants of overall economic cost like price or external effects are not yet sufficiently accounted for and that the question of dynamic efficiency is still unresolved. Combining the existing theoretical investigations about the topic from the literature, we show that even though these new measures provide new options to deal with climate change, several of them might also reduce our scope of action. Consequently, we suggest that economic research should shift its focus to portfolios of CE measures and put more emphasis on those measures which control atmospheric carbon concentration and therefore allow extending our scope of action. Additionally, economic research should address the question of phase-in and phase-out scenarios for measures which directly influence the radiation balance.
Copper-associated Chronic Hepatitis and Cirrhosis in a European Shorthair Cat

A 2-year-old, castrated, male European Shorthair cat was presented with inappetence, vomiting, and fever. Ascites and an irregularly nodular liver were observed on laparotomy; in view of the poor prognosis, the animal was euthanatized. Histopathologic examination of the liver showed a chronic hepatitis with cirrhosis associated with massive accumulation of copper in hepatocytes and macrophages, particularly in the fibrotic areas between the regenerative nodules. Electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis revealed lysosomal accumulation of copper in the hepatocytes. Analytical determination showed very high copper concentrations in the liver. No evidence for increased dietary or environmental copper could be found. This and the pattern of hepatic copper storage, the associated inflammation and fibrosis, strongly suggest a primary copper storage disorder.
When Is a Change Big Enough to Be a System Shift? Small System-shifting Changes in German and Finnish Pension Policies

In the wake of Esping-Andersen's and Pierson's landmark publications, comparative welfare state research has revolved around the retrenchment of social policy and the transformation of welfare state regimes. One of the chief problems of these studies is the treatment of time. Very often, changes are incremental and their real impacts are not immediately visible but take years or even decades before the consequences fully materialize. The purpose of this paper is to discuss those incremental processes—that consist of series of smaller “not-system-shifting changes”—which may gradually change central features of a welfare state. Pension programmes, spanning long time periods, provide a good example. Only in some rare cases were pension schemes reformed in one step and in such a way that one can definitely ascertain a system shift. Most changes, however, are gradual, and recurrently enacted minor adjustments seem to leave the basic principles of the scheme intact. In this paper pension reform policies in Germany and Finland will be used to answer the question of when a change is big enough to be labelled as a system shift. It is argued that small “not-system-shifting” changes of the last two decades will eventually alter the basic characteristics of old-age security in both countries.