Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Administrative tradition and management reforms: a comparison of agency chief executive accountability in four Continental Rechtsstaat countries

ABSTRACT This article investigates perceived accountability patterns of national agencies’ chief executives in four countries with a Rechtsstaat tradition and tests theoretical expectations about potential tensions between managerial reforms and administrative values using survey data (N = 453). All countries combine old and new forms of accountability requirements, while legal and financial accountability have not been replaced with results accountability. Switzerland and the Netherlands score highest on results accountability, though in combination with legal and financial accountability, which are dominant in Germany and Austria. Nation-specific characteristics seem more important for core values of public administration than generic characteristics of the Rechtsstaat model.
The use of runs of homozygosity for intra-chromosomal estimation of inbreeding depression on female fertility in Finish Ayrshire cattle

Inbreeding increases homozygosity, which affects fertility by increasing the frequency of harmful recessive alleles. Impaired fertility reduces profitability of dairy cattle production by decreasing the lifetime milk production of the cow and increasing the costs related to inseminations and veterinary treatments. Genetic diversity is known to vary across the genome, which is why detecting the regions with lower genetic diversity could indicate inbreeding depression. The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of increased homozygosity for number of inseminations required to successfully conceive (AIS) in the Finnish Ayrshire population using runs of homozygosity (ROH) and haplotype analysis. Genomic information from 13 712 Finnish Ayrshire females with fertility phenotypes was analysed. Genotypes were obtained with the Illumina BovineLD v.2 BeadChip low-density panel and imputed to 50K density. The phenotypic records were pre-adjusted for the most important fixed effects prior to the estimation of inbreeding depression. Regional ROH-based inbreeding coefficients (FROH) were used as covariates in the mixed model equation. First, the chromosomal FROH was determined as the number SNPs in ROHs divided by the total number of SNPs in the chromosome. Based on the analyses, a 10% increase in FROH on chromosome 2 or 18 was associated with 0.04 or 0.03 more inseminations for heifers, respectively (P-values < 0.01). Similarly, FROH estimated on chromosome 15 was associated with 0.05 more inseminations for the second parity cows (P-value < 0.01). Next, an intra-chromosomal sliding window approach was applied to locate more precisely the chromosomal regions showing inbreeding depression. Here FROH was calculated as the number of SNPs in ROHs belonging to the window divided by the total number of SNPs in the window. Regions associated with inbreeding depression on AIS were found near the beginning of chromosome 2 and towards the ends of chromosomes 15 and 18. The found regions were then examined for homozygous haplotypes associated with increased AIS. The analysis revealed common homozygous haplotypes that were associated with 0.09 or 0.10 more inseminations on chromosomes 2 and 18 for heifers, respectively. Similarly a common haplotype on chromosome 15 was associated with 0.15 more inseminations for second parity cows.
Vp/Vs From Multicomponent Seismic Data And Automatic PS to PP Time Mapping

We find that post-critical angle reflected events cause errors and should not be used in the velocity analysis. The accuracy of the technique increases by decreasing the sampling interval in each variable used in the computation of semblance. This however, linearly increases the computational cost. By converting the 0 γ and the PS zerooffset times to the corresponding P-wave times, the correlation of P-wave and PS stacked sections can be implemented automatically. Correlation of the transformed synthetic data (PS to PP time using the estimated / p s V V ) is found to be good (the difference being less than 5%).
Colors of barlenses: evidence for connecting them to boxy/peanut bulges

Aims. We aim to study the colors and orientations of structures in low and intermediate inclination barred galaxies. We test the hypothesis that barlenses, roundish central components embedded in bars, could form part of the bar in a similar manner to boxy/peanut bulges in the edge-on view. Methods. A sample of 79 barlens galaxies was selected from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S 4 G) and the Near IR S0 galaxy Survey (NIRS0S), based on previous morphological classifications at 3.6 μ m and 2.2 μ m wavelengths. For these galaxies the sizes, ellipticities, and orientations of barlenses were measured, parameters which were used to define the barlens regions in the color measurements. In particular, the orientations of barlenses were studied with respect to those of the “thin bars” and the line-of-nodes of the disks. For a subsample of 47 galaxies color index maps were constructed using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) images in five optical bands, u , g , r , i , and z . Colors of bars, barlenses, disks, and central regions of the galaxies were measured using two different approaches and color−color diagrams sensitive to metallicity, stellar surface gravity, and short lived stars were constructed. Color differences between the structure components were also calculated for each individual galaxy, and presented in histogram form. Results. We find that the colors of barlenses are very similar to those of the surrounding bars, indicating that most probably they form part of the bar. We also find that barlenses have orientations closer to the disk line-of-nodes than to the thin bars, which is consistent with the idea that they are vertically thick, in a similar manner as the boxy/peanut structures in more inclined galaxies. Typically, the colors of barlenses are also similar to those of normal E/S0 galaxies. Galaxy by galaxy studies also show that in spiral galaxies very dusty barlenses also exist, along with barlenses with rejuvenated stellar populations. The central regions of galaxies are found to be on average redder than bars or barlenses, although galaxies with bluer central peaks also exist.
Blood-Gas Analyses from Free-Ranging Eurasian Black Vultures(Aegypius monachus) in Mongolia and the Republic of Korea

From 2011 thru 2014 the Denver Zoological Foundation, in collaboration with colleagues from Mongolia and the Republic of Korea (R. of Korea), collected venous blood samples for blood-gas analyses, from free-ranging and rehabilitation Eurasian Black Vultures (EbV, Aegypius monachus). The birds were hand-captured, hand-netted, or canon-netted. The sample analyses were determined using the i-STAT® portable chemistry analyzer. We performed venous blood-gas analyses in Mongolia and hand-netted rehabilitation birds in the R. of Korea, within minutes of venipuncture. There was a 2-3 hr. delay prior to analysis for canon-netted birds in the R. of Korea. We cooled these samples prior to analysis. A variety of venous blood-gas analyses were performed including; acid-base analytes (pH, PCO2, and HCO3), in addition to TCO2, Base Excess, Anion Gap, and lactate levels, venous oxygenation status (PO2 and sO2), and temperature, pulse and respiration rates (TPR). For pH, PCO2, and sO2 samples we report temperature corrected and non-temperature corrected results. From the data we constructed a blood-gas analyte and TPR reference range with a 95% predictive index. Results from these analyses were useful in assessing the health status for two vultures adversely affected by capture.
Adapting Modern Portfolio Theory For Prioritising Asset Care Planning In Industry

Productivity improvement within any organisation can lead to increased turnover. This study focuses on developing a maintenance productivity improvement model that is based upon an established financial investment portfolio technique known as the Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). The model can be used as a tool to minimise and diversify the long term risk associated with variances or fluctuations in the increase in productivity in multiple maintenance service centres. This is achieved by optimising the most efficient way of splitting resources, such as time and money, between these multiple service centres, resulting in increased productivity and a more constant maintenance work load. This model is verified through the use of an efficient frontier, resulting in a graphical method to determine the link between the expected increase in productivity and the standard deviation of the increase in productivity. Ultimately this model can be adapted for use in many sectors within an organisation, over and above the application in maintenance prioritisation. This study concludes that the model offers a simple tool to aid decisionmaking among various combinations of assets within a maintenance context; and this model, adapted from MPT, was successfully validated with the use of an efficient frontier.
Intermittent existence of a southern Californian upwelling cell during submillennial climate change of the last 60 kyr

[1] Application of a high-resolution multiproxy approach to a sedimentary section drilled at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1017, located under a highly active upwelling cell off Point Conception, California, provides clear evidence for surface ocean productivity shifts on submillennial timescales during the last 60 kyr. The proxies include bulk-sediment major and minor elements, organic carbon and carbonate concentrations, δ15N, and planktonic foraminiferal species assemblage and carbon isotope determinations. The collective results demonstrate that marine productivity in this area was not simply linearly related to cold and warm cycles except during the millennial-scale climate oscillations of marine isotope stage (MIS) 3. During that interval, the upwelling cell and resulting high productivity were active during warm interstadial events and were largely inactive during cool stadial events. However, the Last Glacial Maximum was also relatively productive. Productivity increased dramatically during the Bolling warm interval, while the Allerod and Younger Dryas were much less productive. High coccolithophorid abundance commenced during the earliest Holocene after 10 ka. The complexity of the productivity response was probably related to interplay between local winds, as well as California Undercurrent strength.
Pulsar bi-drifting: implications for polar cap geometry

For many years it has been considered puzzling how pulsar radio emission, supposedly created by a circulating carousel of sub-beams, can produce the driftbands demonstrated by PSR J0815+09, and more recently PSR B1839-04, which simultaneously drift in opposing directions. Here we suggest that the carousels of these pulsars, and hence their beams, are not circular but elliptical with axes tilted with respect to the fiducial plane. We show that certain relatively unusual lines of sight can cause bi-drifting to be observed, and a simulation of the two known exemplars is presented. Although bi-drifting is rare, non-circular beams may be common among pulsars and reveal themselves by having profile centroids displaced from the fiducial plane identified by polarisation position angle swings. They may also result in profiles with asymmetric and frequency-dependent component evolution. It is further suggested that the carousels may change their tilt by specific amounts and later reverse them. This may occur suddenly, accompanying a mode change (e.g. PSR B0943+10), or more gradually and short-lived as in "flare" pulsars (e.g. PSR B1859+07). A range of pulsar behaviour (e.g. the shifting drift patterns of PSRs B0818-41 and B0826-34) may also be the result of non-circular carousels with varying orientation. The underlying nature of these carousels - whether they are exclusively generated by polar cap physics or driven by magnetospheric effects - is briefly discussed.
Annealing temperature effect on the performance of nonvolatile HfO2 Si-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon-type flash memory

In this article, we demonstrate the effect of the postdeposition annealing for the HfO2 trapping layer on the performance of the Si-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon-type flash memories. It was found that the memory window becomes larger while the retention and endurance characteristics get worse as the annealing temperature increases. This was ascribed to the larger amount and the shallower energy levels of the crystallization-induced traps as compared to the traps presented in the as-fabricated HfO2 film. Finally, in the aspect of disturbances, we show only insignificant read, drain, and gate disturbances presented in the three samples in the normal operation.
Pension wealth gaps in a system with disintegrated retirement arrangements

This paper examines the application of the gap concept to determine pension wealth differentials across different retirement arrangements and over a range of retirement ages. The gap concept allows for comparisons of equality outcomes without having to rely on the optimal savings paradigm. The micro simulation analysis draws a clear picture of inequalities generated by a pension system as opposed to other sources of inequality within the generation in retirement.
THEORETICAL STUDY OF SOLVENT EFFECTS AND NMR SHIELDING TENSORS OF DLPC

The effect of the polarity of the environment on the conformation zwitterionic membrane dilauroyl phosphatidylcholine (DLPC) has been investigated with calculation at the Hatree-Fock level using the 6-31G* basis set with Onsager continuum solvation model. The ‘Gauge Including Atomic Orbital’ (GIAO) approach is used to investigate Ab initio GIAO calculations of NMR chemical shielding tensors carried out within SCF-Hartree-Fock approximation are described. In order to compare the calculated chemical shifts with experimental ones, it is important to use consistent nuclear shielding for NMR reference compounds like TMS. Conformation of DLPC was evaluated with four different solvents with different dielectric constant (Water (e = 78.39), Dimethyl Sulfoxide (e = 46.7), Acetone (e = 20.7) and Heptane (e = 1.92). In concern with conformational energy, Water could be the most suitable solvent for DLPC. Moreover, as the polarity of the medium increase, the conformational stability of this molecule increases faster than that of DLPC in the gas phase. Consequently, the relative energy of DLPC also depends on the polarity of the environment. This subject was considered as well as the most variable in some dihedral angles degree and NMR isotropic shift were in the less dielectric constant (e = 1.92). It could be in polar medium DLPC conformer becomes additionally stabilized by intermolecular ionic and hydrogen bond interactions with polar neighboring molecules. On the basis of this work it can be concluded that the effect of the polarity of the environment clearly are influenced on the isotropic values by geometry variation due to intermolecular motion in molecule.
Does seasonal variation influence the phytochemical and antibacterial properties of Carpobrotus edulis

Carpobrotus edulis L. (family Aizoaceae) has been used by locals over the years to treat microbial infections. Extracts of varying polarities were prepared from the leaf debris and filtrate of a spring and an autumn harvest of C. edulis. Thin layer chromatography was used to analyze the phytocompounds of the extracts as well as to assay the plant for antioxidant compounds. The spring harvest showed equal distribution of the phytochemicals within the leaf debris and the filtrate, but there was a high prevalence of phytocompounds within the leaf debris extracts of the autumn sample. An antioxidant compound was intensely pronounced in the autumn extracts of intermediate polarity and in the polar extract. The plant was evaluated for antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus by using a two-fold serial microdilution method as well as bioautography. The spring extracts were more potent against all test organisms, having MIC values that were lower than the autumn extracts. When taking the total activity of each extract into account, the autumn extracts showed higher efficacy than the extracts from the spring sample. The antibacterial activity observed in the extracts of both seasons somewhat validated the ethnomedicinal use of C. edulis.
Who’s afraid of Financial Markets?

There has recently been an upsurge in social studies of finance, which maintain that economics performs, shapes and formats the economy and consider the formation and functioning of economic markets. They address market activities as global microstructures that are situated, reflexive accomplishments, focusing on the way in which the models, theories, procedures and techniques shape them. In all, financial sociology can attend to the interplay between actors’ cognitive states and the enactment of financial models as situated, historical processes. This promises to develop a broader social scientific account of financial markets as situated, sequentially achieved global socio-material actions.
A Study on Sub-Clinical Narcissistic Personality Score and Its Relationship with Academic Performance-An Indian Experience

Sub-clinical narcissism is the presence of narcissistic personality traits in otherwise normal people. People with high levels of these traits said to have inflated self-esteem and possibly a high egotism. A 40 itemed Narcissistic Personality Inventory is used to measure this type of personality traits. Those individuals who score above 20 points from the available 40 points of NPI-40 Inventory is considered to be having higher levels of Subclinical Narcissism and prone to exhibit socially dislikeable personality traits. This study tried to address the relationship between supposedly negative personality traits of Sub-clinical Narcissism using NPI-40 Score against past and present academic performance of a group of students in a Private University setup. The study included 202 participants from a Business School Division of a Private University. Analysis showed that only at the current academic levels of the respondents, NPI-40 scores were significantly correlating with their academic performance. Research implications are discussed.
Influence of Stress and Dietary Natural-Source Vitamin E on Nonspecific Immunocompetence, Tissue Tocopherol Composition, and Postslaughter Fillet Oxidative Stability in Sunshine Bass

Abstract We evaluated the effects of stressor exposure and super-requirement levels of RRR-α-tocopheryl acetate (natural-source vitamin E [NSVE]) on production performance and nonspecific immunocompetency of juvenile sunshine bass (female white bass Morone chrysops × male striped bass M. saxatilis). Stressor exposure elicited physiological changes consistent with the generalized stress response, and the magnitude of responses generally mirrored stressor severity. Stressor exposure resulted in lower fillet peroxides and greater aldehydes after short-term frozen storage, whereas increasing dietary NSVE was associated with a nonsignificant reduction in aldehydes after long-term storage. Fillet α-tocopherol content increased linearly with dietary NSVE, exceeding reported tissue levels achieved with synthetic vitamin E (SYNE). Although we observed no significant immunological effects of stress or dietary NSVE content, sampling time and high individual-to-individual variation probably restricted our ability to .
Prevalence of preschool caries among 6-year-old school children from different socioeconomic backgrounds in Amman, Jordan

Objective: The objectives of the present study were to describe the dental health status among 6-year-old schoolchildren in Amman, Jordan, and to investigate the association between selected sociodemographic, oral health behaviour and attitude variables and the presence of dental caries. Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 838 (Male = 436, Female = 402) children were examined in primary schools; the prevalence and severity of dental caries were measured using World Health Organization criteria. A two-stage cluster sampling technique was used. Sociodemographic factors and oral health behaviours and attitudes were assessed by a self-administered questionnaire. Results: The prevalence of dental caries in the primary dentition was 41.6%. The mean number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (dmft) was 2.59 (SD=2.67). The decayed component (d) constituted 67% of the total number of decayed, missing (19%) and filled teeth (14%). The chi-square association test demonstrated that the variables: mother education and employment, type of dental care, type of school, tooth brushing, presence of dental plaque and family size were statistically significant in relation to the presence or absence of dental caries (P 0.05). Moreover, there was no significant difference between the number of children who had dental plaque on their teeth and others who did not (P>0.05). Conclusions: The present study showed that dental caries level was higher than that of children in industrialized countries and lower than that in children of the Middle Eastern Arab countries. However, the early caries development seen in children from the lower socio-econo mic classes reinforces the need for preventive programs. Dental caries can be largely prevented or controlled in its early stages of development by simple and relatively cheap methods of personal care, involving attention to general nutrition, diet and oral hygiene. Dental care information and oral hygiene instructions should be given as early as possible to the expectant mothers at prenatal counselling. Access to dental care must be improved to enable any preventive care to be implemented.
A Review of Size Dependant Survival During Pre-recruit Stages of Fishes in Relation to Recruitment

The theory of recruitment in fishes and hypotheses pertaining to causes of recruitment fluctuation are summarized. In spite of considerable research effort over several decades there has been no significant improvement in identifying clear causal mechanisms of recruitment in marine fish stocks. Starvation has not been demonstrated to be a primary mechanism controlling survival of fish larvae. Studies matching food levels and year-class strength continue to provide indirect evidence that growth during the first year of life is dependent on food supply and may be important in determining survival. The hypothesis that survival is a direct function of growth provides a rational theoretical framework for recruitment research and is suggested as a basis for future work. Growth rate must be studied as a function of both ration and temperature. Studies examining the relationship of growth rate to survival should be specific to each life history stage and ideally integrated throughout the pre-recruit period. It remains to be demonstrated that survival is a direct function of growth, mediated through size-dependent predation.