Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of An Economic Model Composed of Producer Agents

In recent years, the existence of a "social divide", comprising factors such as income and professional status, has been noted as one significant type of social issue. It has been stated that, among the disparate groups, a member belonging to one group cannot move to any other groups. Such a rigidity in terms of social status results in non-activation of the economy. In this study, we have suggested a dynamic economic model described by a multi-agent system, and have evaluated its dynamics in order to try to understand the mechanisms by which how the social divide emerges within the model. We used Gini's coefficient to evaluate the social divide and its economic efficiency. As a result, it is suggested that economies under conditions of low competitiveness, being a state composed of relatively more consumer agents than producer agents, display a higher negative relationship between Gini's coefficient and economic efficiency than those under conditions of high competitiveness.
Effects of phenology, site, and rumen fill on tall larkspur consumption by cattle.

AbStlBCt Tall I8rkspur (De~hinh burbeyj) is a m8jor cause of livestock death on mount8in ranges. The influence of plant phenoiogy, grazing site, 8nd rumen fill on tall lukapur consumption ~8s evaluated during July 8nd August, 19%7. Livestock consumption of l8rkspur ~8s determined using bite counts during 4 phenologierrl st8ges: bud, e8riy flower, flower, and pod. Further, we ex8mined i8rkspur ingestion in a shaded tree site 8nd in UI open sun site 8t 0, 50, urd 100% rumen fill levels using rumiarlly c8nnuUed steers. Steers on the 0, 50,8nd 100% fill levels consumed 9,15, and 17% Irrkspur, respectively (fiO.15). ,There ~8s 8 site effect (-0.06) with steers eating 17 8nd 11% lukspur in the shade and sun sites, respectively. Over the summer, iukspur comprised 6% of cattle diets. No llukspur ~8s consumed during the bud st8ge. Larkspur consumption pe8ked at 10% of c8ttie diets during the pod strge. Lepves of t8ii larkspur contrined >3% total 8lk8loids (dry weight) in erriy July, but declined greatly with matwtion. Lukspur ~8s very nutritious, with crude protein levels 12 to 20%, and fiber levels <20% during most of the summer. C8ttie diets, as determined with esopbnge8lly flstul8ted animals, were also high in crude prottin 8nd low ia fiber during the summer. We propose a toxic window hypdbesisn~g~~~~~mdtoxidty.Thishypo~~ predicts th8t most c8ttie losses will occur during the flowering st8ge. We found tbrt t8ll iukspur ~8s unp8l8t8bie to c8ttie from the bud st8ge until the flowering r8cemes hrd eiong8ted, md then consumption generally incre8sed with pl8nt nmtmntion. Even though p8l8tPbility md consumption lncrersc during the gr8zing season, c8ttle c8n graze tall I8rkspur with a much lower risk of toxicosis when toxicity is low lrter in the gruing se8eon.
Metabolic signatures related to diet in human urine and blood specimens

Metabolomics is an emerging methodology which has lately been used in nutrition and health research. There is large interest to develop metabolomics-based methods for reflec-tion of dietary exposure in epidemiological studies and standardized intervention studies. The aim of this BSc- thesis was to investigate the possibilities if metabolomics analyses of urine and blood specimens could be used to reflect differences in subject characteristics, lifestyles, and dietary patterns in free-living humans. Empirical data were collected using database search for articles where dietary metabolomics experiment were conducted and reported in human subjects, along with reference search in the selected articles. Metabo-lites from food, endogenous response to exposure, and gut microbial activity were found responsible for metabolic signatures of dietary intake in both blood and urine specimens. Gender, age and diurnal variation were also found responsible for unique metabolic signa-tures, characterized to some extent by likely lifestyle factors such as diet. Subject characte-ristics, lifestyle, and time of sampling are suggested to play important roles when assessing a metabolic signature of dietary patterns. Other factors to consider is for how long the die-tary effect will last, usage of proper statistical analysis, and choice of analytical platform. To conclude, food seems to have a rather large influence on human urine and blood me-tabolic phenotype and identification of metabolic signatures of dietary patterns, using me-tabolomics, is likely to be achieved.
Design of a Broadband Shortened Horn Loaded with a Flat Wire-Medium Annular Lens

In this contribution, we present the design of a flat wire-medium annular lens to be applied to the aperture of a shortened horn antenna in order to achieve gain performances similar to the ones of the corresponding optimum horn over a broad frequency range. The lens operation is based on the phase-compensation concept and the wire-medium is designed such that it behaves as an epsilon near-zero metamaterial at the frequencies of interest. The annular shape of the lens allows adjusting the phase-front of the field propagating along the short flare of the horn in order to achieve an uniform phase distribution at the horn aperture and maximizing, thus, the gain. As an example, we report the design of the proposed lens for a C-band conical horn. The length of the horn is half the length of the optimum horn, while the obtained gain performances are similar to the ones of the optimal horn over the entire mono-modal frequency band of operation of the feeding waveguide. This result may open the door to several interesting applications in satellite and radar systems.
Grouping tendencies in roe deer under agrocenosis conditions

W opraciu o bezpośrednie obserwacje i wizualne znakowanie, w latach 1969-1971 i 1972-1976, na terenie doświadczalnym Stacji Badawczej Polskiego Związku Łowieckiego w Czempiniu badano mechanizmy grupowania sie sarn polnych oraz czynniki wplywające na to zjawisko. Stwierdzono, ze w okresie letnim (maj-sierpien) zwierzeta te prowadzą samotniczo-rodzinny tryb zycia (Fig 1, 2, 3).
Company Characteristics and Common Stock Returns: The Indian Experience

The paper examines the relationship between selected company characteristics and common stock returns. The empirical results suggest that there is a strong size effect in the Indian stock market using both market-based as well as non-market based measures of company size. We also detect a weak value effect on stock returns, especially when E/P ratio is employed as a relative distress proxy. The study further finds that the present stock classification system in India fails to differentiate in returns on different categories of stocks. We recommend an alternative stock classification system based on company size and relative distress. The proposed classification procedure will provide better insights to investors about the risk-return characteristics of common stocks.
Putting corpora into perspective. Rethinking synchronicity in corpus linguistics

Empirical synchronic language studies generally seek to investigate language phenomena for one point in time, even though this point in time is often not stated explicitly. Until today, surprisingly little research has addressed the implications of this time-dependency of synchronic research on the composition and analysis of data that are suitable for conducting such studies. Existing solutions and practices tend to be too general to meet the needs of all kinds of research questions. In this theoretical paper that is targeted at both corpus creators and corpus users, we propose to take a decidedly synchronic perspective on the relevant language data. Such a perspective may be realised either in terms of sampling criteria or in terms of analytical methods applied to the data. As a general approach for both realisations, we introduce and explore the FReD strategy (Frequency Relevance Decay) which models the relevance of language events from a synchronic perspective. This general strategy represents a whole family of synchronic perspectives that may be customised to meet the requirements imposed by the specific research questions and language domain under investigation.
Fathers and the living arrangements , mobility and survival of young children in rural South Africa

We use longitudinal population data from the Africa Centre Demographic Surveillance System in rural KwaZulu-Natal to describe the living arrangements of fathers and their children during the first five years of life. We investigate the association between paternal factors and the migration and survival of 5,872 young children resident in the surveillance area at their birth (2000-2003). We find that two thirds of children were not comembers of households with their fathers at birth. The living arrangements of many young children are dynamic and complex; 42% of the children were recorded as migrating at least once before their 5 Birthday. Due to child mobility combined with high levels of non-residence, migration and death by fathers, only 8% of fathers were always co-resident in the same household as their child between birth and 5 Birthday. Fathers’ social, residential and vital status was significantly associated with child mobility and child survival. Controlling for maternal and household factors, children were significantly more mobile if their fathers were not comembers, were co-members but only co-resident occasionally, were observed to migrate, were not the head of household, or whose vital status was unknown by household respondents. Child survival was lower among children whose fathers were not co-members, co-members who were occasionally resident, and were not observed to migrate. We conclude that given that the majority of fathers of young children are a co-member of the household, creative approaches to data collection about non-resident fathers and father involvement are needed in South African surveys to understand and support men’s involvement in the lives of young children and households.
The diurnal cycle of precipitation over the Maritime Continent in a high‐resolution atmospheric model

Climate models can exhibit systematic errors in their mean precipitation over the Maritime Continent of the Indonesian archipelago at the heart of the tropical warm pool. These can often be traced back to an erroneous simulation of the diurnal cycle, and can lead to errors in global climate, through planetary wave propagation. Here, we examine the simulation of the diurnal cycle over the Maritime Continent in a series of high‐resolution integrations of the UK Met Office atmospheric model, with horizontal resolutions of 40 and 12 km (where the convection is parametrised) and 4 km (where the convection is explicitly resolved), as part of the Cascade project. In these models, the vertical heating profile over the islands changes from a convective profile with a mid‐tropospheric maximum in the early afternoon to a more stratiform profile with upper‐tropospheric heating and mid‐tropospheric cooling later. The convective heating profile forces a first internal mode gravity wave that propagates rapidly offshore; the deep warm anomalies behind its downwelling wavefront suppress convection offshore during early afternoon. The stratiform heating profile forces a gravity wave with a higher‐order vertical mode that propagates slowly offshore later in the afternoon. This mode has a negative, destabilising temperature anomaly in the mid‐troposphere. Together with the convergence zone between the wave fronts of the two modes, favourable conditions are created for offshore convection. In the 4 km explicit convection model, the offshore convection responds strongly to this gravity wave forcing, in agreement with observations, supporting a gravity wave–convection paradigm for the diurnal cycle over the Maritime Continent. However, the convective response in the lower‐resolution models is much less coherent, leading to errors in the diurnal cycle and mean precipitation. Hence, to improve climate model simulations, sensitivity to gravity wave forcing should be a factor in future convective parametrisation schemes. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society
THE CASE FOR RE-ENGINEERING CONTRACT PAYMENT MECHANISMS

In the UK, the normal practice in the construction industry is for the contractor to be paid monthly during the execution of the works. The value of these payments is determined by agreement between the respective Quantity Surveyors of the employer and the Contractor. Advances based on measurement is a system of payment which requires detailed and time consuming management. It does not reward achievement nor does it distinguish between the inefficient and efficient contractor. Of crucial importance, it does not deliver to the customer best value for money. The paper will review current mechanisms available to the construction industry and will demonstrate that these mechanisms fall short of facilitating best practice and ultimately client satisfaction. It will do so by highlighting issues that are affected by cash flow and of key relevance to performance and client satisfaction. It will also examine these issues from a contractor's perspective thus, underlining adverse consequences of moving away from the traditional system. The paper concludes by a call for reengineering the payment mechanism and suggesting the criteria by which new methods can developed.
Hysteresis in unemployment: an empirical research for three member states of the European Union

This empirical paper investigates the hysteresis in unemployment in the case of three European countries namely Greece, Ireland and Portugal for the period 1984-2010. This study uses three classical unit-root tests, and a number of panel unit root tests, which are known to overcome specification problems, to check the existence of hysteresis in unemployment data from three European Union countries. The empirical results do not reject a unit root in the unemployment rates. This suggests that the unemployment hysteresis hypothesis exists in all three countries.
State and Local Policy Choices and Fiscal Effort for Education: Exploratory Analysis of the Distributive Effects of State Education Reform.

Given state activism in education reform during the 1980s, a major concern in the development of education policy is whether reform states have increased their financial support for education in order to achieve desired objectives. This paper describes findings of a study that explored the distributive nature of state and local policy choices in education through comparative analyses of their long-term fiscal effort for three distinctive public services--welfare, highways, and police. The study built upon the unitary model of taxation and expenditure policies. The findings imply that policy shifts may have led to changes in educational expenditure patterns. Providing the general structures of state-level distributive effects, multilevel analyses suggest that the first wave of state reform affected not only fiscal effort for education but also distributive tendencies in education expenditures. While state reform appeared to increase the level of resources allocated to public education versus other social services, the distributive effects of state education reform tend to vary among states with different racial compositions. Redistributive tendencies in education expenditures tend to be accompanied by a low level of fiscal effort for education. In addition, developmental versus redistributive tendencies in education expenditures tend to be highly conflicting. One figure, 5 tables, and 13 endnotes are included. (Contains 36 references.) (LMI) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** State and Local Policy Choices and Fiscal Effort for Education: Exploratory Analysis of the Distributive Effects of State Education Reform
Quality control by colour measurements after different drying schedules of solid plantation teakwood (Tectona grandis L.f.)

The colouration of wood surfaces gets more and more to a determining quality criterion in industrial hardwood drying. The task of kiln drying particularly in hardwood processing is not merely the remove of water, but rather the colour scheme of hardwood surfaces. In the present study planed heartwood surfaces of fast grown plantation teakwood (Tectona grandis L.f.) from Costa Rica were investigated after different convection drying procedures. For each of the three applied drying schedules all relevant drying parameters were changed in order to analyse the influence on wood colouration. Adjoining boards dedicated exactly to their origin logs were dried under different drying conditions to final moisture content of 8.5 %. The facing board surfaces of each kiln drying were analysed, using the CIE-L*a*b* colour measuring system. Colour difference was calculated according to ΔL*, Δa*, Δb* and results in ΔE* respectively ΔC* and Δh* values, which contain information of overall changes in colour, saturation and hue. Imperceptible discolouration with no significant influence on discolouration of the wood surface was observed after investigated and compared kiln operations. It could be noticed that increasing drying temperature and lower equilibrium moisture content causes a darker, more greenish and bluish wood surface after drying regarding to plantation teakwood. Present research work provides a correlation between different kiln operations and their influence on the colouring of plantation teakwood.
Salmonella in sewage effluent raises ecological and food-safety concerns

Salmonella bacteria continue to be an important public-health problem and have a serious economic impact on the U.S. poultry industry. Although the majority of human infections traceable to Salmonella enteritidis are related to egg consumption, this serotype has also been isolated from a variety of nonegg food items such as meat, vegetables and fish. In Southern California, S. enteritidis phage type 4 infection is the predominant serotype found in human patients. However, the organism has also been found in municipal sewage effluent and in rodent and poultry environments. S. enteritidis phage type 4 was first detected in human patients in Southern California in 1990, but wasn't isolated from food-producing animals until its occurrence at a Southern California egg-layer ranch in 1994. An epidemiological study revealed that the layer flock was infected via effluent originating from a nearby municipal sewage-treatment plant. Human sewage effluent was the primary environmental source, combined with wildlife that further amplified and disseminated the bacteria. This discovery has important implications for understanding the ecology of S. enteritidis infection in poultry and humans and developing appropriate methods to prevent its further spread.
Consumer Sales Promotion Effectiveness: An Examination of Sales Promotion Technique Preferences of Nigerian Consumers

Very little is understood about the Nigerian consumers their purchase behaviour, especially with regard to how respond to the various sales promotion strategies used marketers. Thus, the thrust of this paper is twofold. First, paper examined the effectiveness of selected consumer promotion tools such as coupons, price-off, free premiums, and point-of-purchase (POPs) in the fast mo consumer goods (FMCG) category. Second, this examined the extent to which environmental susta · content in a consumer sales promotion tool can consumer sales promotion technique preference. Con with similar extant studies, this paper recognises that demographic factors such as education and income consumers could potentially confound the relationships hence, these factors were controlled. hypotheses were formulated. A total of 112 consumers Awka and Enugu metropolis were surveyed using a Iikert type structured questionnaire. Using product trial as proxy of consumer sales promotion effectiveness, the show that price-offs, free samples, premiums, and POPs significantly connected to product trial. Interestingly, the shows that in Nigeria POPs, a non-monetary consumer promotion tool, is a stronger predictor of product trial monetary promotions, such as price-off, free samples,
User Perceptions of Hand Sanitizer in Water-Constrained Communities: A Field Study in Hubli, India

N/A Copyright Information: All rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. Contact the author or original publisher for any necessary permissions. eScholarship is not the copyright owner for deposited works. Learn more at http://www.escholarship. org/help_copyright. html#reuse User Perceptions of Hand Sanitizer in Water-Constrained Communities: A Field Study in Hubli, India Christopher Andersen
Microbial Spectrum Of Pelvic Inflamatory Diseases In Nguru, Nigeria

Pelvic inflammatory diseases, a leading gynecological problem worldwide, are associated with socio-economic and psychological costs. A retrospective study of 1350 high vaginal swabs analyzed between Jan-Dec. 2005, showed that 845 (62.8%) were positive for 9 microorganisms by culture/or wet preparation. Microbial growth was found in 645 (76.3%) cases. Polymicrobial growth was found in 90 (10.7%), fungal growth in 110 (13.0%) cases, and 3(0.4%) yielded anaerobic growth. Staphylococcus aureus accounted for 355 (42.0%) cases, followed by Escherichia coli 190 (22.5%), Trichomonas vaginalis 100 (11.8%) Candida spp and Neisseria gonorrhoeae 70 (8.3) and the least, Pseudomonas spp 5 (0.6%) Microbial-associated infection was prominent in the group 21-30 years old (46.6%) and 31-40 (23.9%) years respectively. Antibiotic susceptibility pattern showed that mean susceptibility greater than 50% were recorded with ofloxacin 80%, ceftazidime 80%, rifampicin 81.9% compared to mean susceptibility less that 50% recorded with trimethoprim-sulthamethoxazole 34.7%, and ampicillin 26.1%. In conclusion, the reported microbial-associated infection in PID with a prevalence of 62.8% is of public health importance. Early diagnosis of causative agents and prompt institution of chemotherapeutic agents will help to prevent clinical complications that are expensive to treat. Keywords : pelvic inflammatory diseases, microorganisms, antibiotic susceptibility. African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology Vol. 9 (3) 2008: pp. 157-165
Sire-dam pedigree in MACE - results from a full-scale pilot study

Earlier studies (e.g. De Jong, 2003) have indicated that international genetic evaluations are sensitive to definition of genetic groups. De Jong (2003) suggested using sire-dam pedigree instead of sire-MGS pedigree in order to get the phantom parent groups further away from the animals with data. Based on this hypothesis Van der Linde et al. (2005) collected sire-dam pedigree, made appropriate changes to the HAUSA MACE software (Klei, 1998; Klei & Weigel, 1998) and conducted a pilot study for seven countries participating in the evaluation for the Holstein breed for protein yield. Van der Linde et al. (2005) estimated genetic correlations and predicted breeding values using both the sire-dam pedigree and the sireMGS pedigree. The genetic correlations were rather similar independent of the pedigree structure (average decrease of 0.017) while the CPU time increased with a factor 28. For breeding value prediction the computing time changed with a factor 9 when changing the pedigree structure. Van der Linde et al. (2005) also looked at predictability of proofs and found an increase in predictive ability when using the sire-dam pedigree compared to the sire-MGS pedigree.