Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sustainable tourist space: From reality to virtual reality?

Abstract As national and international tourism continues to develop, new forms of tourism — especially ecotourism — are emerging. Through its development, tourism has progressively lost its sense of authenticity in an effort to gain volume, a phenomenon that, in return, has triggered the emergence of new, sustainable forms of tourism. These recent developments only reflect a more insistent and contemporary expression of a concern as old as tourism itself. Although applied unevenly, a basic principle of tourism has been not to compromise development for an ill‐considered exploitation of the resources on which tourism is dependent. However, it has to be noted that frequently ecotourism tends to become a kind of mass ecotourism, which leads to a dead end and encourages some authors to further challenge the value of tourism itself. This radical attitude is unacceptable for economic and social reasons. At the same time, virtual reality is becoming more important in the world of tourism (or perhaps ‘cybertouris.
Gender wage gap in Vietnam 1993 - 98

This paper uses the Vietnam Living Standards Surveys 1992–93 and 1997–98 to examine changes in the gender wage gap. The intertemporal decomposition of Juhn et al. (1991) indicates that changes in observed variables, skill prices and wage inequality have tended to narrow the gap, but the gap effect has tended to widen it, with the net effect being one of little change. This finding is in contrast with that for the EEC but in line with the experience of China. Improving education about equity practices in the workplace to combat discriminatory attitudes, and further decentralisation to facilitate the growth of the private sector, are two of the policy implications drawn.
A novel repeated element with Z-DNA-forming potential is widely found in evolutionarily diverse eukaryotic genomes.

By Southern blotting and hybridization analysis using 32P-labeled poly(dT-dG) . poly(dC-dA) as a probe, we have found, in eukaryotic genomes, a huge number of stretches of dT-dG alternating sequence, a sequence that has been shown to adopt the Z-DNA conformation under some conditions. This sequence was found in all eukaryotic genomes examined from yeast to human, indicating extraordinary evolutionary conservation. The number of the sequence ranged from about 100 in yeast to tens of thousands in higher eukaryotes. Comparison of nucleotide sequences of dT-dG alternating regions and its flanking regions in several cloned genes showed that the repeated element [the Z(T-G) element]] consists only of dT-dG alternating sequence with variable length. The presence of another purine-pyrimidine alternating sequence was also surveyed in eukaryotic genomes by Southern blot hybridization using 32P-labeled poly(dG-dC) . poly(dG-dC) as the probe. The stretches of dC-dG alternating sequence [the Z(C-G) element] were found to be moderately repetitive in human, mouse, and salmon genomes. However, a few and no copies of the Z(C-G) element were found in yeast and calf genomes, respectively. These results provide evidence for the abundance of potential Z-DNA-forming sequences in nature.
Cross-Agency Comparisons of Quit Rates in the Federal Service

Federal agencies vary widely in the extent to which employees quit. This study seeks to understand that variation by examining the relationship between agency quit rates and a number of variables identified in the literature as significant determinants of employee turnover. Several of the variables tested, including the employment of young workers, clerical employment, agency size, union strength, and temporary employment are significantly associated with federal agency quit rates. The proportion of an agency's work force comprised of young employees, for example, demonstrates a strong positive relationship with the frequency of quits, as expected. Other variables, including professional and administrative employment and, more notably, the employment of women and minorities, appear to have no impact on variation in agency quit rates.
Energy at High Altitude

For the military doctor, an understanding of the metabolic effects of high altitude (HA) exposure is highly relevant. This review examines the acute metabolic challenge and subsequent changes in nutritional homeostasis that occur when troops deploy rapidly to HA. Key factors that impact on metabolism include the hypoxic-hypobaric environment, physical exercise and diet. Expected metabolic changes include augmentation of basal metabolic rate (BMR), decreased availability of oxygen in peripheral metabolic tissues, reduction in VO2 max, increased glucose dependency and lactate accumulation during exercise. The metabolic demands of exercise at HA are crucial. Equivalent activity requires greater effort and more energy than it does at sea level. Soldiers working at HA show high energy expenditure and this may exceed energy intake significantly. Energy intake at HA is affected adversely by reduced availability, reduced appetite and changes in endocrine parameters. Energy imbalance and loss of body water result in weight loss, which is extremely common at HA. Loss of fat predominates over loss of fat-free mass. This state resembles starvation and the preferential primary fuel source shifts from carbohydrate towards fat, reducing performance efficiency. However, these adverse effects can be mitigated by increasing energy intake in association with a high carbohydrate ration. Commanders must ensure that individuals are motivated, educated, strongly encouraged and empowered to meet their energy needs in order to maximise mission-effectiveness.
Untangling the impact of Europeanization and globalization on national utility liberalization: a systematic process analysis of two Danish reforms

This article uses the liberalization of the Danish electricity and telecommunication sectors to examine the impact of globalization and Europeanization on institutional reforms like utility liberalizations. The reform processes in the two sectors constitute a puzzle with very similar circumstances but different processes. This makes it possible to the test a hypothesis common to key theories on the impact of Europeanization and globalization, namely that the impact of external pressure increases, the stronger, more unambiguous and comprehensive the pressure is. Based on the variation in the level of external pressure between the Danish electricity and telecommunication sectors, the hypothesis is tested a in systematic process analysis. The hypothesis is supported and can account for the puzzle. The article contributes to the literature on institutional reform and liberalization by testing the direct effect of external pressure, which has received insufficient attention in the literature.
Paradigm shift in information systems auditing

Purpose - This paper seeks to identify change factors within the various elements of the IS audit universe aiming to give practitioners and management insight about the state of the IS audit profession and its future directions, especially within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) context. Design/methodology/approach - Potential change factors that are taking place in IS audit were initially identified based on a literature review and the experience of the authors within the field. These changes were then categorized within one of the elements of the IS audit universe. To validate the IS audit change factors, a questionnaire was chosen as a data collection tool. The survey was sent to relevant practitioners in the subject matter within the UAE and was completed by 62 respondents. Findings - The study concluded that the role of IS auditors in lessening in applications and infrastructures audits and is strengthening in the arena of IT management audits. Practical implications - The implication of study for IS audit practitioners is that they need to be better equipped to conduct IT management audits and to contribute value to their organization as part of IT governance endeavors rather than focusing on infrastructure and application audits. On the other hand, the implication for management is that they should be aware of the capabilities of IS audit and set their biggest value expectations in the area of IT management assurance and governance. Originality/value - The paper makes a contribution by identifying change factors within the various elements of the IS audit universe aiming to give practitioners insight about the state of the profession and its future directions.
Evaluation of a collagenase generated osteoarthritis biomarker in the synovial fluid from elbow joints of dogs with medial coronoid disease and unaffected dogs.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether synovial fluid concentrations of an osteoarthritis biomarker in dysplastic canine elbows with medial coronoid disease (MCD) are elevated compared with unaffected elbows and to determine if these concentrations correlate to the degree of articular cartilage damage. STUDY DESIGN Cross sectional clinical study. ANIMALS Dogs (n=19; 35 elbows) with MCD and dogs (8; 16 elbows) with unaffected elbows. METHODS Concentrations of a collagenase-generated cleavage neoepitope of type II collagen (Col2-3/4C(long mono), or C2C) in joint fluid from elbows were analyzed and compared between dogs with MCD and unaffected dogs. Correlation of C2C concentration with subjective grading of articular cartilage surface damage was also evaluated. RESULTS Mean (+/-SD) C2C concentration from MCD dogs was significantly higher (112.3+/-24.8 ng/mL) than in unaffected dogs (76.1+/-16.9 ng/mL; P<.05). There was a moderate correlation between cartilage damage grade and increasing C2C concentrations (P<.05, r=0.62) CONCLUSION C2C concentrations are elevated in the synovial fluid of dogs with MCD compared with unaffected elbows, and a moderate, significant correlation was identified between these concentrations and subjective grading of articular cartilage damage. CLINICAL RELEVANCE This preliminary data suggest that C2C concentrations in synovial fluid may have potential as a biomarker for diagnosis of articular cartilage damage associated with MCD and as a means of objectively determining the degree of articular cartilage damage.
Time to first antibiotic and mortality in adults hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia: a matched-propensity analysis

A matched-propensity analysis of national data from the British Thoracic Society community-acquired pneumonia audit was conducted (n=13 725). Overall, time to first antibiotic (TFA) was ≤4 h in 63%. Adjusted 30-day inpatient (IP) mortality was lower for adults with TFA ≤4 h compared with TFA >4 h (adjusted OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.94; p=0.003). Increasing TFA was associated with greater OR of 30-day IP mortality (p value for trend=0.001), but no TFA threshold was evident. Although we found an association between TFA and mortality, we cannot say whether this is causal or whether TFA might just be a quality measure for overall or other processes of care.
AS-AD Revisited: Overshooting Adjustment Dynamics under Naive Expectations

We analyse the adjustment dynamics from a short-term to a medium-term equilibrium in a standard AS-AD model a la Blanchard (2006, Macroeconomics, 4th edn, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ) for an open economy with fixed and flexible exchange rates. An explicit analysis suggests the local stability of the medium-term equilibrium. However, an overshooting adjustment dynamics is possible for the exchange rate, a result that directly relates to the famous Dornbusch (1976, Journal of Political Economy, 84, pp. 1161–1176) analysis. In contrast to the latter, in the Blanchard framework it is obtained without assuming rational expectations and without relying upon saddle-path stability.
Query AST Tree Operator Tree Task Tree Execution Engine View / Partition Matcher View / Partition Generator View / Partition Selector Materialized

Selective materialization of intermediate query results as views is an effective method for improving query performance. In this paper, we extend this technique to adaptively partition views based on the access patterns of a workload. That is, we collect information about the selection conditions of queries at runtime and utilize this information to determine fragment boundaries for the initial partitioning when materializing a view. Furthermore, we refine view partitions over time based on the selection conditions of incoming queries. We present a novel cost-benefit model for partitioned views, as well as a candidate view and fragment selection approach both of which exploit the nature of partitioned views by taking the correlation among view fragments into account. Furthermore, we present DeepSea, an implementation of these techniques built on top of Hive. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness of partitioned views, improving performance by up to an order of magnitude compared to state-of-the-art approaches.
Comparison of doxorubicin–cyclophosphamide with doxorubicin–dacarbazine for the adjuvant treatment of canine hemangiosarcoma

Canine hemangiosarcoma (HSA) is a neoplasm of vascular endothelial origin that has an aggressive biological behaviour, with less than 10% of dogs alive at 12-months postdiagnosis. Treatment of choice consists of surgery followed by adjuvant doxorubicin-based chemotherapy. We prospectively compared adjuvant doxorubicin and dacarbazine (ADTIC) to a traditional doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (AC) treatment, aiming at determining safety and assessing whether this regimen prolongs survival and time to metastasis (TTM). Twenty-seven dogs were enrolled; following staging work-up, 18 were treated with AC and 9 with ADTIC. Median TTM and survival time were longer for dogs treated with ADTIC compared with those receiving AC (>550 versus 112 days, P = 0.021 and >550 versus 142 days, P = 0.011, respectively). Both protocols were well tolerated, without need for dose reduction or increased interval between treatments. A protocol consisting of combined doxorubicin and dacarbazine is safe in dogs with HSA and prolongs TTM and survival time.
Non‐random dispersal mediates invader impacts on the invertebrate community

Dispersers are often not a random draw from a population, dispersal propensity being conditional on individual phenotypic traits and local contexts. This non-randomness consequently results in phenotypic differences between dispersers and non-dispersers and, in the context of biological invasions, in an invasion front made of individuals with a biased phenotype. This bias of phenotypes at the front may subsequently modulate the strength of ecological effects of an invasive species on invaded communities. We recently demonstrated that more asocial mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis), one of the 100 worst invasive species, disperse further, suggesting a sociability-biased invasion front. As behavioural types are related to the strength of interspecific interactions, an invasion by a biased subset of individuals should have important ecological implications for native communities. Here, we tested the impact of phenotypic biases in dispersing individuals (relative to non-dispersers) on prey communities in experimental mesocosms. We show that dispersers reduce prey abundance more than do non-dispersers during the first 4 weeks after introduction, and that the disperser's social types are likely drivers of these differences. These differences in prey communities disappeared after 8 weeks suggesting prey community resilience against predation in these mesocosm ecosystems. Consequently, we call for the integration of non-random dispersal, dispersal syndromes and more generally intraspecific variation into studies predicting the impacts of invasions.
Return Characteristics of State-owned and Non-state-owned Chinese A Shares

This study examines and compares stock returns and volatilities between state-owned (SO) and non-state-owned (NSO) firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Results vary significantly by exchange. Returns for both firm types, on both exchanges, exhibit negative skewness and high kurtosis inconsistent with a normal distribution. Returns display significant autocorrelation, even after the removal of lower-order effects. Granger causality tests reveal that Shenzhen returns significantly lead Shanghai returns. Within both exchanges, SO firms lead NSO firms. Neither SO nor NSO firm shares are dominated in terms of second-order stochastic dominance. Copyright 2005 by the Eastern Finance Association.
Change in body weight and longevity.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of body weight change on longevity. DESIGN Cohort analytic study, following men from 1977 through 1988. SETTING The study was conducted among Harvard University alumni with mean age of 58 years. PATIENTS Alumni, free of cardiovascular disease and cancer, completed questionnaires on weight, height, cigarette habit, and physical activities in 1962 or 1966 and in 1977 (n = 11,703). We assessed weight change between questionnaires, based on self-reported weights. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Mortality from all causes (n = 1441), coronary heart disease (n = 345), and cancer (n = 459), determined from death certificates. RESULTS Lowest all-cause mortality was among alumni maintaining stable weight (+/- 1 kg). With this category as referent (relative risk = 1.00), relative risks of death associated with losing more than 5 kg, losing between 1 and 5 kg, (more than 1 kg and up to 5 kg) gaining between 1 and 5 kg (more than 1 kg and up to 5 kg), and gaining more than 5 kg were 1.57 (95% confidence interval, 1.34 to 1.84), 1.26 (1.10 to 1.46), 1.06 (0.90 to 1.24), and 1.36 (1.11 to 1.66), respectively. For coronary heart disease mortality, relative risks were 1.75 (1.26 to 2.43), 1.43 (1.05 to 1.93), 1.28 (0.91 to 1.80), and 2.01 (1.36 to 2.97), respectively. Weight change did not predict cancer mortality. Findings were not explained by cigarette habit, physical activity, or body mass index. We observed similar trends for follow-up between 1977 and 1982 and between 1983 and 1988. Those losing or gaining more weight also reported greater total lifetime weight loss, which may indicate weight cycling. CONCLUSIONS Both body weight loss and weight gain are associated with significantly increased mortality from all causes and from coronary heart disease but not from cancer.
Conditional Value at Risk Optimization of a Credit Bond Portfolio, a Practical Analysis

Recently, research has been published in which optimal portfolios of credit risky bonds are determined that are less risky, while having at least the same expected return, using the CreditMetrics model. In this paper, we investigate whether the "optimal" bond portfolios are really an improvement by analyzing the characteristics of the individual bonds in the optimal portfolio. We find that a portfolio manager should be careful in following blindly the trades as suggested by the optimal portfolio because optimal portfolios are dominated by only one or two bonds. Moreover, the composition of such an optimal portfolio is very sensitive to small changes in the expected forward price of its main constituents. However, the portfolio optimization can be used in combination with some common sense restrictions to produce portfolios that both have a lower risk and higher return than a fully diversified portfolio. We also improve on the portfolio by replacing the dominant bond in the optimal portfolio by similar bonds. As a risk measure we use the Conditional Value at Risk, which at a given percentile equals the expected value of the losses that exceed the Value at Risk at that percentile. Conditional Value at Risk also provides information about the losses larger than the Value at Risk. Furthermore, the Conditional Value at Risk can be optimized using linear programming.
Child labour in Yaoundé-Cameroon: Some lessons drawn from a survey on children

Although child labour is a phenomenon widely studied around the world, there are few papers that tackle the problem in Cameroon. The objective of this paper is to fill the gap by questioning the subject in Yaounde, the capital city. But child labour phenomenon is analysed here from a questionnaire that has two distinctive features: (i) the questionnaire is exclusively devoted to child labour, and (ii) all the participants in the survey are exclusively children themselves. No adult (parent, guardian, elder, employer, etc.) was consulted and given a chance to answer on behalf of a child. This process is extremely rare in child labour, since in general individuals other than children are requested to testify and answer inslead of children. While some results obtained from a standard Logit model on the determinant of child labour are well known, the others are either not known or insignificant. We suspect that the reason is the data collection. JEL Classification: C25, D13, O12
Entrepreneurial families and family firms

While studies of entrepreneurship and family business have to a great extent developed independently, there are some indications that they are now moving closer to each other. The purpose of this special issue is to contribute to an increased scholarly interest in research that integrates the areas of entrepreneurship and family business. This introductory article elaborates upon the meaning of entrepreneurial families and family firms. Based on a review of a significant amount of previous literature and the articles in this special issue, we generate a guiding framework around three themes – actor, activity and attitude. We argue that research focusing on specific topics within these themes has great potential to contribute to our theoretical and empirical understanding of entrepreneurship and family firms. We also share a note on why we believe Entrepreneurship and Regional Development is a suitable arena for publishing research with this orientation. We then introduce the five papers that are included in this special issue using the framework developed to position the papers and thereby to reveal their respective contributions and their advancement of our knowledge. We conclude with reflections on some unexplored themes, which are still very relevant to examine in future research on entrepreneurship and family businesses.
Scheduling fuel cell electric vehicles as power plants in a community microgrid

This paper presents a community microgrid with renewable generation, storage, and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) that are used when renewable sources are scarce. To fairly distribute the demand for FCEV power among cars, a Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) power scheduling mechanism is implemented using as a criterion the number of times every car has been started up for power generation. It can be concluded that with the fair scheduling mechanism the system can be self sufficient most of the months. At the end of a year, this results in a bell-shaped distribution of the number of start-ups per car and in using, on average, each FCEV about three times per week.
National parties and group membership in the European Parliament: ideology or pragmatism?

This contribution investigates the factors behind political group membership in the European Parliament. In June 2009, more than 150 national parties, from the 27 member countries, joined one of the seven transnational groupings. Two main explanations for group membership are advanced. A first, traditional argument is based on the ideological or policy compatibility of the member parties. National parties will join the political group that best matches their programmatic position. A second argument focuses, instead, on the structure of incentives in the Parliament, positing that the pragmatic goals of national parties are better advanced by joining the largest and most influential groups. These arguments are tested by fitting a multinomial logit model for political group ‘choice’ based on the 2009 Euromanifestos data. The findings suggest that ideological compatibility is the most important factor behind transnational affiliation, even if some caution is needed for the ‘new’, post-communist members.