Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of a Cancer Prevention Advertisement on Beliefs and Knowledge about Cancer Prevention.

BACKGROUND Outcome-expectation beliefs and knowledge may ultimately influence behavior for cancer prevention. The aims of this study were to measure changes in knowledge and beliefs about cancer prevention before and after viewing a television advertisement and identify the factors affecting receptivity to its messages. MATERIALS AND METHODS A one-group pretest-posttest design was used in this study of 1,000 individuals aged 20 to 65 years who were recruited online in November 2014. The outcome variables included cancer prevention beliefs based on the Health Belief Model (five items) and knowledge about risk factors for cancer (seven items). RESULTS Perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy increased significantly and their perceived severity and perceived barriers decreased significantly, after participants viewed the television advertisement. Correct responses to questions about risk factors also increased significantly, except for smoking. The main factors affecting changes in the outcome variables were age, interest in cancer prevention, social network, satisfaction with the ad, and pretest scores. CONCLUSIONS Television advertisements with positive frameworks can be an efficient channel of improving beliefs and knowledge about cancer prevention in a short period. The continuous development of intervention materials that consider the demographics, needs, and satisfaction of the target group will be necessary for future studies.
Axial-flux permanent magnet machines for micropower generation

This paper reports on the design, fabrication, and testing of an axial-flux permanent magnet electromagnetic generator. The generator comprises a polymer rotor with embedded permanent magnets sandwiched between two silicon stators with electroplated planar coils. Finite element simulations have been carried out using ANSYS to determine the effects on performance of design parameters such as the number of layers in the stator coils, and the rotor-stator gap. The effect of including soft magnetic pole pieces on the stators has also been studied. A prototype device with a diameter of 7.5 mm has been tested, and shown to deliver an output power of 1.1 mW per stator at a rotation speed of 30 000 rpm. The generator has been integrated with a microfabricated axial-flow microturbine to produce a compact power conversion device for power generation and flow sensing applications.
The N0‐binding region of the vesicular stomatitis virus phosphoprotein is globally disordered but contains transient α‐helices

The phosphoprotein (P) of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) interacts with nascent nucleoprotein (N), forming the N0–P complex that is indispensable for the correct encapsidation of newly synthesized viral RNA genome. In this complex, the N‐terminal region (PNTR) of P prevents N from binding to cellular RNA and keeps it available for encapsidating viral RNA genomes. Here, using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS), we show that an isolated peptide corresponding to the 60 first N‐terminal residues of VSV P (P60) and encompassing PNTR has overall molecular dimensions and a dynamic behavior characteristic of a disordered protein but transiently populates conformers containing α‐helices. The modeling of P60 as a conformational ensemble by the ensemble optimization method using SAXS data correctly reproduces the α‐helical content detected by NMR spectroscopy and suggests the coexistence of subensembles of different compactness. The populations and overall dimensions of these subensembles are affected by the addition of stabilizing (1M trimethylamine‐N‐oxide) or destabilizing (6M guanidinium chloride) cosolvents. Our results are interpreted in the context of a scenario whereby VSV PNTR constitutes a molecular recognition element undergoing a disorder‐to‐order transition upon binding to its partner when forming the N0–P complex.
Household recycling in Cyprus: attitudes, barriers and behaviour

The paper examines the factors, which influence the recycling behaviour in Cyprus, a country at an early recycling stage. These factors include socio-demographic variables, environmental attitudes and knowledge, and especially policy controllable institutional factors like barriers to recycling. A random sample of 301 consumers has been surveyed with questions on the above determinants of recycling and their actual recycling behaviour. Recycling rates were found to be higher for women and older people. Education and environmental attitudes have a positive impact on recycling, while a high level of perceived barriers has a negative association with the recycling effort. The relationship between environmental attitudes and recycling rate has been found to be moderated by the level of perceived barriers to recycling. The empirical exploration of recycling factors is a very important issue for policy makers. They can improve their recycling policies with research results based on actual recycling behaviour.
A CAN Restbus HiL Elevator Simulator Based on Code Reuse and Device Para-Virtualization

In this paper we present an approach to reduce the verification cost of distributed elevator control systems through embedded code re-use to co-simulate networked devices in a hardware-in-the-loop simulator: the CAN Restbus simulator. The approach is applied to a case study in the field of distributed control system for elevators movement. We discuss the use cases for the CAN Restbus simulator, the functionality of the devices to simulate, the rationale for the development and integration approach and the validation procedures of the implemented Restbus on the test-bench. We describe the adaptations needed to cross-compile the legacy source code for the test platform processor, the shortcomings related to the programming style and tools, the performance and integration issues arising when integrating in the test system. We also discuss the operational issues due to the limits of feasible synchronization. From this experience we conclude that the re-use of pre-validated code is a cost-effective approach to build realistic-behaviour reactive test components, the main saving found at the verification of the test component itself. Finally, we put forward an outlook about forthcoming developments of the overall test system.
Human Health Risk Assessment Related to Cyanotoxins Exposure

This review focuses on the risk assessment associated with human exposure to cyanotoxins, secondary metabolites of an ubiquitous group of photosynthetic procariota. Cyanobacteria occurr especially in eutrophic inland and coastal surface waters, where under favorable conditions they attain high densities and may form blooms and scums. Cyanotoxins can be grouped according to their biological effects into hepatotoxins, neurotoxins, cytotoxins, and toxins with irritating potential, also acting on the gastrointestinal system. The chemical and toxicological properties of the main cyanotoxins, relevant for the evaluation of possible risks for human health, are presented. Humans may be exposed to cyanotoxins via several routes, with the oral one being by far the most important, occurring by ingesting contaminated drinking water, food, some dietary supplements, or water during recreational activities. Acute and short-term toxic effects have been associated in humans with exposure to high levels of cyanotoxins in drinking and bathing waters. However, the chronic exposure to low cyanotoxin levels remains a critical issue. This article identifies the actual risky exposure scenarios, provides toxicologically derived reference values, and discusses open issues and research needs.
Domestic Politics and European Community Policy-Making*

The apparent stagnation of the European Community in the 1970s and early 1980s and the consequent abandonment of neofunctionalism after 1975 had a chilling effect on integration theory. Most scholars (at least in the United States) migrated to other areas; those who remained interested in the ec (primarily Europeans) focused on how the Community actually worked, steering far clear of grand theory. Studies of ec decisionmaking proliferated as scholars tried to understand how the Community functioned in practice. These studies often relied on the theoretical concepts developed during the halcyon days of neofunctionalism and quietly laid the groundwork for later theoretical advances.
A Hedonic Price Function for Australian Premium Table Wine

A hedonic price function, relating the price of Australian wine to its attributes, is estimated. Six attribute groups are found to be statistically important in explaining deviations from average wine prices, i.e., quality, cellaring potential, grape variety/style, grape region, grape vintage and producer size. Various interaction terms between these variables and the impact of the year of marketing are also modelled. The consequent marketing implications for producers and consumers are discussed.
Employment equity, affirmative action and managing diversity: assessing the differences

Affirmative action in the USA, and employment equity in Canada, are policy frameworks that have developed through the use of legislation, regulation and decisions by courts and administrative tribunals, as mechanisms for addressing discrimination in employment. Managing diversity, in contrast, is a voluntary initiative by corporate decision makers, at the level of the firm, in response to the growth of diversity in the workforce and marketplace. Provides a framework for comparing and assessing the three approaches and choosing between them.
Decentralization: The latest fashion in development administration?

During the last decade, there has been a growing interest in decentralization among the governments of a number of Third World countries, especially, but not only, in Africa. Countries that have introduced significant organizational reforms described as, or having elements of, ‘decentralization’ – or are in the process of doing so – include Tanzania, Zambia, the Sudan, Nigeria and Ghana in Africa (Adamolckun & Rowlands, 1979; Conyers, 1981a; Mawhood & Davcy, 1980; Rondinelli, 1981; Tordoff, 1980), Sri Lanka (Craig, 1981) and a number of countries in the South Pacific, including Papua New Guinea (Conyers, 1981a, 1981b; Ghai, 1981; Tordoff, 1981). Several other countries in Africa and Asia are attempting to achieve some degree of decentralization within the existing organizational structure. In Latin America, government structures have generally remained more centralized and there appears to be little prospect of any major change in the near future; nevertheless, calls for decentralization recur periodically and there have been a few attempts, albeit generally of limited duration and success, to introduce some measure of decentralization (Graham, 1980).
Role of the rs6923761 Gene Variant in Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Receptor Gene on Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Weight Loss after Biliopancreatic Diversion Surgery

Background: Studies of the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor (GLP-1R) have been directed at identifying polymorphisms in the GLP-1R gene that may be a contributing factor in the pathogenesis of obesity. Objective: We decided to investigate the role of the rs6923761 GLP-1R polymorphism on outcomes after biliopancreatic diversion. Design: A sample of 137 morbidly obese patients was operated. Weight, blood pressure, basal glucose and lipid profile were measured at the basal visit and at each following visit (basal, 3, 9, 12 and 18 months). Results: Body mass index, weight and waist circumference were lower in non-A allele carriers than A allele carriers 12 and 18 months after surgery. The initial weight percent loss at 12 months (45.6 vs. 39.8%; p < 0.05) or 18 months (49.6 vs. 41.3%; p < 0.05) was higher in patients with GG genotype than A allele carriers. Conclusion: Our study showed a higher weight loss 12 and 18 months after bariatric surgery in GG variant than A allele carriers. The biochemical parameters and cardiovascular comorbidity rates improved similarly in both genotypes.
Feasibility study: Highly integrated chipset design for compact synthetic aperture radar payload on micro-satellite

Micro and nano satellites are attractive due to the low development and launching costs. Carried by micro and nano satellites, synthetic aperture radars (SARs) have great potential for urban, oceanography, land use, agriculture usages. Different than conventional satellites, the payload of Micro and nano satellites is limited. This imposes great challenges on the SAR system design. Traditional SARs adopt thousands of millimeter wave integrated circuit (MMIC) components; they are bulky and power hungry. This paper investigates the feasibility to deploy the emerging technologies to shrink the volume, reduce the cost and improve the power efficiency of the SAR system. Highly integrated radar transceiver integrated circuits (ICs) are reviewed, and a SAR transceiver IC is developed. Design technologies of low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) and high-power amplifiers (HPAs) are compared and Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology is proposed. A novel micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) based delay line is also proposed for satellite SAR to reduce the system size. Existing issues and expected improvements of these technologies are also elaborated. This work shows a clear route map for the future shrinkage of SAR system, and would be a useful guideline to the development of compact SARs for micro-satellites.
Small Businesses in Springfield, Massachusetts: A Look at Latino Entrepreneurship

One of the most pressing challenges for Springfield is increasing the labor force participation and employment rates of its residents. The city’s labor force participation rate is extremely low even when compared with other older industrial cities in the region. In Springfield’s Latino neighborhoods less than half of the working-age population is in the labor force. Through data analysis and interviews of business owners, this study focuses on business ownership as a potential strategy for job creation in the city and for income generation in impoverished areas. Springfield has self-employment rates similar to that of comparison cities in New England and in the past ten years, the number of Latinos self-employed in the city grew by 150 percent, a much faster rate than wage/salary workers. However, Springfield lags in the number of Latino-owned firms relative to the share of Latino population. Latino-owned businesses play an important role in providing additional services and support to Latino residents. Nevertheless, existing funding and technical assistance programs that are generally available to small businesses appear not to be reaching Latino entrepreneurs in Springfield, which tends to inhibit their survival and growth.
The Case for an International Court of Civil Justice

This Essay aims to start a conversation on a novel institutional solution to the problem that de facto (not de jure) there is today no forum in which foreign plaintiffs can obtain enforceable judgments against American corporations that commit mass torts overseas. That solution is the establishment of an International Court of Civil Justice (ICCJ). The Essay starts by describing what the author refers to as “the problem of the missing forum” – the global absence of an effective court for cross-border mass torts. It then provides a blueprint for an ICCJ. In so doing, it explains why an ICCJ is politically viable and may, specifically, appeal to rather than repel corporate America.
Signaling Status: The Impact of Relative Income on Household Consumption and Financial Decisions

This paper investigates the importance of status in household consumption and credit decisions using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances linked to tract-level data in the American Community Survey. We find that relatively richer households in the census tract use more debt and spend more on high-status cars. Also, county-level evidence shows that the consumption of high-status cars is higher in more unequal counties. These results suggest that greater income heterogeneity might shape household consumption and credit decisions, as relatively richer households signal their higher status to their neighbors through the consumption of visible status goods. This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance.
Albinism: Particular Attention to the Ocular Motor System

The purpose of this report is to summarize an understanding of the ocular motor system in patients with albinism. Other than the association of vertical eccentric gaze null positions and asymmetric, (a) periodic alternating nystagmus in a large percentage of patients, the ocular motor system in human albinism does not contain unique pathology, rather has “typical” types of infantile ocular oscillations and binocular disorders. Both the ocular motor and afferent visual system are affected to varying degrees in patients with albinism, thus, combined treatment of both systems will maximize visual function.
Strategy formation in the innovation and market domain: emergent or deliberate?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the nature of the strategy formation and its impact on firm performance in relation to market development and product innovation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an empirical study of 91 Austrian SMEs which covers a time period of ten years. Strategy formation was captured by an analysis of strategic intentions and corresponding actions in two surveys carried out in 1995 and 2003. Findings – The study finds no direct association between strategy formation and performance, though, emergent strategists had less often a growth orientation. Taking into account industry dynamics, shows, contrary to our expectations, that companies which employed an emergent market development strategy achieved higher sales growth in stable than in dynamic industries. Originality/value – The question of the superiority of planned vs emergent strategies has a long debate in strategy formation literature. The authors contribute to this question by investigating t.
Real-time inflectional processing by children with specific language impairment: effects of phonetic substance.

In this study, we examined the processing of low-phonetic-substance inflections (e.g., third-person-singular -s, past-tense -ed) versus a higher-phonetic-substance inflection (e.g., present-progressive -ing) by children with specific language impairment (SLI) in two types of receptive tasks. Twenty-one children with SLI (Age: 8 years;6 months), 21 chronological age matched (CA; Age: 8;7), and 21 receptive syntax matched (RS; Age: 6;8) children participated in a word-recognition reaction time (RT) task and an off-line task requiring grammaticality judgments. On the RT task, the children with SLI demonstrated RT sensitivity only to the presence of a higher-phonetic-substance inflection, unlike the CA and RS controls who displayed sensitivity to both higher-substance and low-substance inflections. On the grammaticality judgment task, the children with SLI performed more poorly than the CA controls only on sentences missing obligatory low-substance inflections (e.g., "Carl already jump over the fence"). The findings are discussed within the framework of the surface account, which predicts that children with SLI should have greater difficulty processing and making grammatical judgments about low-substance inflections compared to higher-substance inflections.
The retirement behaviour of the self-employed in Britain

We analyze the retirement behaviour of older self-employed workers, using a life cycle framework and a multinomial logit model of dynamic employment and retirement choices. Using data from the two-wave Retirement Survey, we find that greater actual or potential earnings decrease the probability of retirement among the self-employed. In contrast to employees, none of gender, health or family circumstances appear to affect self-employed retirement decisions. The dynamic analysis reveals that relatively few employees and virtually no retirees switch into self-employment in later life. The switches that do occur are motivated less by attempts to use self-employment as a bridge job or ‘stepping stone’ to full retirement, than by self-employment being a last resort for less affluent workers with job histories of weak attachment to the labour market. We compare self-employed and employee retirement behaviour and discuss the policy implications of our results.
Yellow mealworm larvae (Tenebrio molitor) inclusion in diets for male broiler chickens: effects on growth performance, gut morphology, and histological findings

Abstract This study evaluated the effects of Tenebrio molitor (TM) larvae meal inclusion in diets for broilers. A total of 160 male broiler chicks (Ross 708) at one‐day of age were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments: a control (C) group and three TM groups, in which TM meal was included at 50 (TM5), 100 (TM10), and 150 (TM15) g/kg, respectively. The experimental diets were isonitrogenous and isoenergetic. Each group consisted of five pens as replicates (8 chicks/pen). After the evaluation of growth performance and haematochemical parameters, the animals were slaughtered at 53 days and carcass traits were recorded. Morphometric investigations were performed on duodenum, jejunum, and ileum and histopathological alterations were assessed for liver, spleen, thymus, bursa of Fabricius, kidney, and heart. The live weight (LW) showed a linear (12 and 25 days, P < 0.001 and P < 0.05, maximum with TM15 and TM10) and quadratic (53 days, P < 0.05, maximum with TM5) response to dietary TM meal inclusion. A linear (1 to 12 and 12 to 25 days, P < 0.001, maximum with TM15) and quadratic (12 to 25 days, P = 0.001, maximum with TM15) effect was also observed for the daily feed intake (DFI). The feed conversion ratio (FCR) showed a linear response (25 to 53 and 1 to 53 days, P = 0.001 and P < 0.05, maximum with TM15). Haematological and serum biochemical traits, carcass traits and histopathological findings were not affected by dietary TM meal inclusion (P > 0.05). TM15 birds showed lower villus height (P < 0.05), higher crypt depth (P < 0.05), and lower villus height to crypt depth ratio (P = 0.001) compared with C and TM5. In conclusion, increasing levels of dietary TM meal inclusion in male broiler chickens may improve body weight and feed intake, but negatively affect feed efficiency and intestinal morphology, thus suggesting that low levels may be more suitable. However, no effect on haematochemical parameters, carcass traits, and histological findings were observed in relation to TM meal utilization.
On the Relation Between Earnings, Changes, Analysts’ Forecasts and Stock Price Fluctuations

A strong, direct relation exists between unexpected earnings changes and share price fluctuations. Actual and unexpected earnings changes explain up to 20 per cent of the variation in individual security returns. Furthermore, regressions of annual stock returns against forecast errors and against actual earnings indicate that firms that experience relatively high return performance are characterized by both substantial increases in earnings and by earnings that surpass the expectations of professional analysts. An examination of analysts' revisions of their forecasts indicates that forecasts for the eventual top-performing firms become more optimistic as time passes, while forecasts for the worst firms become more pessimistic. Earnings announcements (either favorable or unfavorable) appear to be the primary stimuli behind major forecast revisions. Securities that are the subject of significant revisions (a 5 per cent or more change) tend to experience significant excess returns over the remainder of the year. This suggests that investors may improve their performance by immediately purchasing stocks that have experienced an upward revision in the consensus forecast and selling stocks for which the consensus forecast has been revised downward.