Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-Walrasian Labor Markets , Business Cycles and Monetary Policy

This paper serves two purposes. First, it investigates to what extent a New Keynesian monetary model with the addition of a microfounded, non-Walrasian labor market based on union bargaining is able to replicate key aspects of the business cycle. Second, it explores the influence of this setting for the conduction of an optimal monetary policy in the specific class of Taylor-type rules. From a positive perspective, the presence of a representative union offers an explanation for two features of the cycle. Firstly, it generates an endogenous mechanism which produces persistent responses of the economy to both supply and demand shocks. Secondly, labor unionization reduces the elasticity of marginal costs to output. This leads to lower inflation volatility. Model simulations show the superiority of the unionized framework in reproducing European business cycle statistics relative to a model with a competitive labor market. From a normative standpoint, the union presence leads a welfare maximizing monetary authority to oppose output gap variations more strenuously and to attenuate reaction to inflation fluctuations compared with the competitive setting. Interest rate inertia preserves its welfare improving importance in a unionized labor market. ∗I wish to thank my advisors Kit Baum, Fabio Ghironi and Peter Ireland for their guidance and Matteo Iacoviello for advice. I also thank Charles Carlstrom, Luisa Lambertini, Arthur Lewbel, Fabio Schiantarelli, Mirco Soffritti, Richard Tresch, seminar participants at Boston College, Ente Einaudi, the European Central Bank, and R@BC for useful comments. I thank the Ente Luigi Einaudi and the European Central Bank for hospitality. The usual disclaimer applies. Please address correspondence to: Francesco Zanetti, Boston College, Department of Economics, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3806. Fax:+1-617-552-2308. Email: zanettif@bc.edu.
The Evolution of Genotype Phenotype Mappings as Dynamical Systems

This paper investigates the evolution of Genotype Phenotype Mappings (GPMs). Here, the GPMs are represented as dynamical systems. It is investigated to which regions of a parameterized space of GPMs evolution leads. These regions are called Regions Of Maximum Adaptability (ROMAs). These ROMAs are stable but hard to predict.
Assessing the teaching value of non-English academic books : The case of Spain

This study examines the educational value of 15,117 Spanish-language books published by Spanish publishers in social sciences and humanities fields in the period 2002-2011, based on mentions of them extracted automatically from online course syllabi. A method was developed to collect syllabus mentions and filter out false matches. Manual checks of the 52,716 syllabus mentions found estimated an accuracy of 99.5% for filtering out false mentions and 74.7% for identifying correct mentions. A fifth of the sampled books (2,849; 19%) were mentioned at least once in online syllabi and almost all (95%) were from a third of the publishers included in the study. An in-depth analysis of the 23 books recommended most often in online syllabi showed that they are mostly single-authored humanities monographs that were originally written in Spanish. The syllabus mentions originated from 379 domains, but mostly from Spanish university websites. In conclusion, it is possible to make indicators from online syllabus mentions to assess the teaching value of Spanish-language books, although manual checks are needed if the values are to be used for assessing individual books.
Adaptación de un middleware de internet de las cosas para gestionar el proceso de fermentado en la industria de manufactura del té

En este trabajo se presenta la utilización de middleware para internet de la cosas adaptado a un sistema de monitoreo, que transforma un sistema tradicional de medición de temperatura y humedad del ambiente, en una implementación basada en WSN capaz de calcular la humedad del sólido que se está analizando. Este trabajo presenta una línea de investigación dentro del proyecto denominado “Diseño de arquitecturas de soporte a la Internet del futuro y Ambientes Inteligentes para su Aplicación en Ciudades Inteligentes – Fase II” de la Universidad Gastón Dachary.
Development and validation of microsatellite markers in a protandrousfish species Eleutheronema tetradactylum (Shaw, 1804) throughcross-species amplification

The four fingered threadfin Eleutheronema tetradactylum (Shaw, 1804) is a prioritised species for mariculture in India. Their demand in the domestic markets is rapidly growing. Genetic stock structure analysis of fish populations is an important aspect from fisheries management perspective. The present study was conducted to develop microsatellite primers through cross-priming to elucidate the genetic structure of E. tetradactylum. A total of 13 polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed from the resource species, Pacific salmon Polydactylus sexfilis. The observed mean and the effective number of alleles were found to be 11.962 and 6.927 respectively. The mean of observed heterozygosity (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (He) values obtained were 0.784 and 0.798 respectively. These new microsatellite markers can be used as effective tools for studying genetic disparity as well as for elucidating evolutionary relationships among E. tetradactylum populations.
Adaptation Strat e gies followed by the Rice Growers to Mitigate the Impact of Climate Change

The study was conducted in Orathanadu block of Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu. Proportionate random sampling was employed to select the sample. It was observed that the variables viz., educational status and fatalism showed positive significant correlation at one per cent level of probability whereas awareness on climate change showed negative correlation. Variables like annual income, extension agency contact and awareness on crop insurance showed negative correlation at five per cent level of probability
AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TOMARKET DEFINITION IN THE ANTITRUST ANALYSIS OF HOSPITAL MERGERS by FATİH ÇAKMAK Submitted to the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

In this thesis, I first investigate the widespread methods used in antitrust investigations in the hospital markets. Then, pointing out their ineffectiveness in convincing the courts, I offer a metric called “competitive pressure rate” which is based on Google Maps travel time data as an alternative approach to market definition. I test the effects of the new metric on market prices by an OLS estimation applied to the data from California Office of Health Planning and Development. I provide strong evidence for the existence of correlation between geographic clustering of general acute care hospitals and hospital charges. In particular, I show that a one-unit increase in the competitive pressure rate for normal newborn services would have resulted in a price decrease of 0.71% in 2010 and 0.52% in 2012. This corresponds to annual savings of $9, 448, 000 in 2010 and $7, 582, 000 in 2012.
Efficacy of acupuncture in the management of fatigue related to breast cancer antineoplastic treatment: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women worldwide. Similar to chemotherapy, antineoplastic treatment is associated with many side effects, with fatigue being one of the most common. It is important to investigate potential treatments, especially non-pharmacological alternatives, to control symptoms that directly affect women’s quality of life. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to provide scientific evidence to verify the efficacy of acupuncture in the management of fatigue in patients with breast cancer. METHODS: This study involved a systematic review based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) methodology. Randomized clinical trials published in indexed scientific journals were compiled. The literature search was performed using the electronic databases, PubMed, PEDro, and BIREME, using the descriptors ‘breast cancer’, ‘fatigue’, ‘acupuncture’, and ‘randomized trial’. Inclusion criteria included fully available online articles that were classified as randomised clinical trials published from 2012 to 2017 in either English or Portuguese. Study eligibility was based on the Population, Intervention, Control, Outcome, and Study (PICO) design criteria, in which the (1) population included women 18–65 years of age with breast cancer, (2) intervention was acupuncture, (3) comparison referred to standard care or sham acupuncture, and (4) outcome was the evaluation of fatigue. The PEDro scale was applied to evaluate the quality of the studies. WebQualis was also used to evaluate the quality of the journals of the selected articles. RESULTS: In total, 66 articles were selected, but only four fulfilled all inclusion criteria, giving a total sample size of 620 women. All trials evaluated the effect of acupuncture on fatigue and other symptoms related to the treatment of breast cancer with different treatment durations. Three articles reported statistically significant results, and all articles described clinical improvement in fatigue after the application of acupuncture. The average PEDro score of the manuscripts was 6.25. All articles were published in non-Brazilian journals with WebQualis scores that ranged from B2 to A1. CONCLUSION: Scientific evidence confirms the efficacy of acupuncture in the management of fatigue reported by women with breast cancer. Acupuncture was effective in reducing fatigue in the studies selected for this review.
The Effects of Saffron ( Crocus sativus ) Aqueous Extract on TNF-α Levels in Liver , Kidney , and Lens Tissues of Diabetic Rats

®Copyright 2018 by Turkish Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism Association Turkish Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism published by Türkiye Klinikleri The Effects of Saffron (Crocus sativus) Aqueous Extract on TNF-α Levels in Liver, Kidney, and Lens Tissues of Diabetic Rats Safran (Crocus sativus) Sulu Ekstresinin Diyabetik Sıçanların Karaciğer, Böbrek ve Lens Dokularındaki TNF-α Düzeylerine Etkileri
The Mediation Role of Brand Image in Achieving Customers Brand Satisfaction and Commitment in the Egyptian Banking Sector

صخلملا ةدمثمتملا تايدحتلا نم ريثكمل ةيرصملا كونبلا ضرعتت يدددت تدددتلا يددديي لا كودددنبلا ندددم اودددللا مفتدددنتلا تدددف رددي ةددالتملا تددسسمملا اددنت ددلج ىةيرددصملا اوددسلا ىةددالتعلا ةيتددكتلا ات ةددثييحلا تددا ولونكتلاو ىةدداكنبلا ةدددددد يبلا تددددددف تددددددستاسلاو ايتددددددصتارا را رلتددددددسرا يددددددعو ءتنبو . ةطاحملا ةيرت تلا تملاعلا حبصأ يلف ىهامع نمدد ةاددسفتنت مدديم ددمع زوددصحمل تددسولا ودد أ يددحأ ةدددالاعلا دددحبلا اتددد ااتدددنيو . ةيردددصملا اودددسلا كودددنب ةديرت تلا تدملاعلا دمع رثمملا ا ريغتملا نيب دثم ىءلاددمعلا اتد ءروو ءلادمعلا كا ريج ىءلاددمعلا ةددبر ت ءلادددمعلا – ةدددعبتتلا ا رددديغتملاو – تددد و وا مدددتلاو ءتددد ر تدددملاعمل ادددسولا روي دددحبلا ااتدددني تدددمك . ءلادددمعلا . ضعبدلا تاد عبو ت ركت قبتسلا تالاعلا نيب ةير تلا ا رديغتمب رتد لا ءتدصلتسرا يايدعتب دحتبلا وتدا يداو تدددددبتررا ددددديمحت واي تدددددستب تدددددنتابلا ددددديمحتو ددددحبلا رداظأ يداو . ةامكاالا ةليتعملا جتومن ءتنبو رايحنراو تتنلا ندم دك نيدب ةديرت تلا تدملاعمل اودنعملا رويدلا ج كودنبلا وتدمت ا وممتدسا تمم ىةعبتتلاو ةملتسملا ا ريغتملا ت رويدددددبو تددددداب ءلادددددمعلا ةددددداعوتو ةددددديرت تلا تدددددملاعلتب زلاددد ندددم ةدددبومطملا ةادددسفتنتلا مددديملا دددمع زودددصحمل نوي ةددديرت ت ةدددملاع واي تدددستب ءلادددمعلا وا مدددتلاو ءتددد ر . ت ري Abstract
Formation of boiling-stable resistant cassava starch using the atmospheric argon-plasma treatment

In the current study, structural, morphological properties and in vitro digestibility of argon-plasma treated starches were characterized. Granular cassava starch was treated by an atmospheric DBD Plasma device at 4-9 kV input for 0-40 min. Structural properties of treated sample were characterized using a FTIR measurement. The degree of crosslinking was reached at 8 kV and 10 min of treatment and it was 2-times higher than that of raw starch. Under scanning electron micrographs, treated granules were melted and linked to each other under plasma treatment. Besides, under enzymatic hydrolysis, a rough surface was found in both non-treated and treated granules. However, treated sample showed enzymatic erosion resistance than that of raw starch. Actually, the positive correlation between the degree of cross-link and resistant starch was found. Furthermore, the increase of heat-stable DCL leading to the formation of boiling-stable resistant starch.
Cumulative administrations of gadolinium-based contrast agents: risks of accumulation and toxicity of linear vs macrocyclic agents

Abstract Ever since gadolinium was found to deposit in the brain of patients with normal kidney function by Kanda et al. in 2014, several studies have been conducted to evaluate its effect on the patients’ health. However, conflicting results were obtained regarding imaging in gadolinium retention. These finding were attributed to the chelating structure of the administered gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA): linear agents were found to accumulate in the dentate nucleus (DN) and the globus pallidus (GP) of subjects even after one dose. There are some contradictory results when assessing macrocyclic agents. In the following article, we review the basis of GBCAs characteristics and their side effects, as well as, the MRI studies that assessed the accumulation of gadolinium in the brain. Based on the results of several studies, in 2017, the European Medicine Agency requested the suspension of the marketing authorizations for three linear GBCAs: gadodiamide (Omniscan®), gadoversetamide (Optimark®) and gadopentate dimeglimine (Magnevist®) and limited the use of gadoxetate disodium (Primovist/Eovist®) and gadobenate dimeglumine (MultiHance®) to hepatic uptake for imaging poorly vascularized hepatic lesions. Accordingly, the FDA did not restrict GBCA use, but will continue to study their safety and urged clinicians to use these agents sparingly. All macrocyclic GBCAs continued however to be used as no available valid evidence linked them to brain gadolinium retention. Regardless of possible accumulation in the brain, there is no evidence to-date that gadolinium retention leads to any disease or disorders in subjects with normal renal function. Further investigations with long-term follow-up are needed.
THE EFFECT OF METABOLIZABLE ENERGY CONCENTRATION ON PERFORMANCE AND DIGESTIBILITY IN GROWING RABBITS

Growing rabbits in a simulated tropical environment were used in a growth trial and a balance trial. Experiment 1 involved 24, six week old, weaned male Californian (C) and New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits (weight, 1.11 kg) pair-fed diets formulated (using ruminant metabolizable energy values) to contain an M/D of 8, 10, or 12 ME MJ/kg DM. Crude protein was 160g/kg DM and ground wheat straw was the main fibre source. Diets were pelleted and fed ad libitum until slaughter at 2.2 kg live weight. Average daily weight gains were 24.41, 32.03 and 31.00 (SED = 1.24g) for 8, 10 and 12 M/D dicta respectively and breeds did not differ. Total DM consumption wee greater (PC 0.05) on the 8 MID diet. Carcass fat content differed with diet (P<0.01); rabbits on the 8 M/D diet had lower fee. In Experiment 2, the diets were fed individually and ad libitum to 12 male, 14 week old C rabbits (mean weight 2.16 kg) in metabolism crates. Total faeces were collected over 6 days. Digestibilities of crude fibre (0.07 + 0.05) and crude protein (0.77 + 0.04) did not differ between diets. Neutral detergent fibre digestibilities were different (P<0.05) 0.19, 0.32 and 0.44 (SED = 0.04) for 8, 10 and 12 M/D diets respectively. Metabolizable energy (digestible energy less urinary energy) contents (MJ/kg DM) were 6.80, 9.39 and 12.44 (SED 0.33) The results indicate that despite low digestion of fibre, rabbit. will grow on a law energy intake. Ruminant metabolizable energy values, especially for fibrous foods, are likely to overestimate their values for rabbits.
Beneficial Metabolic Effects of Mirabegron In Vitro and in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Mice

Mirabegron, a β3-adrenergic receptor agonist, has been shown to stimulate the activity of brown fat and increase the resting metabolic rate in humans. However, it is unknown whether mirabegron can reduce body weight and improve metabolic health. We investigated the antiobesity effects of mirabegron using both in vitro and in vivo models. Mouse brown preadipocytes and 3T3-L1 cells were treated with different concentrations of mirabegron (0.03–3 µg/ml), and the expression of brown fat-related genes was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Furthermore, male C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat diet for 10 weeks, and mirabegron (2 mg/kg body weight) or a vehicle control was delivered to the interscapular brown adipose tissue (iBAT) using ALZET osmotic pumps from week 7 to 10. The metabolic parameters and tissues were analyzed. In both mouse brown preadipocytes and 3T3-L1 cells, mirabegron stimulated uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) expression. In animal studies, mirabegron-treated mice had a lower body weight and adiposity. Lipid droplets in the iBAT of mirabegron-treated mice were fewer and smaller in size compared with those from vehicle-treated mice. H&E staining and immunohistochemistry indicated that mirabegron increased the abundance of beige cells in inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT). Compared with vehicle-treated mice, mirabegron-treated mice had a higher gene expression of UCP1 (14-fold) and cell death-inducing DNA fragmentation factor alpha-like effector A (CIDEA) (4-fold) in iWAT. Furthermore, mirabegron-treated mice had improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. Taken together, mirabegron enhances UCP1 expression and promotes browning of iWAT, which are accompanied by improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity and prevention from high-fat diet-induced obesity.
Government Financial Assets and Debt Sustainability, WP/17/173, July 2017

Do government financial assets help improve public debt sustainability? To answer this question, we assemble a comprehensive dataset on government assets using multiple sources and covering 110 advanced and emerging market economies since the late 1980s. We then use this rich database to estimate the impact of assets on two key dimensions of debt sustainability: borrowing costs and the probability of debt distress. Government financial assets significantly reduce sovereign spreads and the probability of debt crises in emerging economies but not in advanced economies, and the effect varies with asset characteristics, notably liquidity. Government finacial assets also help discriminate countries across the distribution of sovereign spreads, thus signaling information about emerging economies’ creditworthiness. JEL Classification Numbers: E62, F34, G15, H63.
Effect of flecainide derivatives on sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium release suggests a lack of direct action on the cardiac ryanodine receptor

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Avaliação in vitro da rugosidade produzida por escovas dentais e dentifrícios em resina para base de prótese In vitro evaluation of roughness produced by toothbrushes / toothpastes on denture base resin

The purpose of this study was to verify the superficial roughness produced by the association toothbrush-dentifrices on acrylic resin samples. Metallic molds (47x20x2 mm) were included in metallic flasks (Safrany) and removed after the gypsum setting. The molds obtained were then, filled with heat-cured acrylic resin (Clássico). They were divided into four groups according to the used toothpaste, that is, Sorriso (Anakol), Liqui Fresh (Gessy Lever), an experimental toothpaste (specific for prosthesis) and water (control). Each group was subdivided into three sub-groups, according to the used toothbrush: Denture (Anakol, specific for prosthesis), Doctor (Anakol) and Oral-B 30 (Gillete do Brasil). Guimarães Dutra Patrão et al.
Digital Watermarking Using Machine Learning Approaches

In recent years digital watermarking has gained substantial attraction by the research community. It promises the solution to many problems such as content piracy, illicit manipulation of medical/legal documents, content security and so on. Watermarked content is usually vulnerable to a series of attacks in real world scenario. These attacks may be legitimate, such as common signal processing operations, or illegitimate, such as a malicious attempt by an attacker to remove the watermark. A low strength watermark usually possesses high imperceptibility but weak robustness and vice versa. On the other hand, different set of attacks are associated with distinctive watermarking applications,which pose different requirements on a watermarking scheme. Therefore, intelligent approaches are needed to adaptively and judiciously structure the watermark in view of the current application In addition, traditional watermarking techniques cause irreversible degradation of an image. Although the degradation is perceptually insignificant, it may not be admissible in applications like medical, legal, and military imagery. For applications such as these, it is desirable to extract the embedded information, as well as recover the sensitive host image. This leads us to the use of reversible watermarking. An efficient reversible watermarking scheme should be able to embed more information with less perceptual distortion, and equally, be able to restore the original cover content. Therefore, for reversible watermarking, capacity and imperceptibility are two important properties.However, if one increases the other decreases and vice versa. Hence, one needs to make an optimum choice between these two properties for reversible watermarking. The research in this work is two-fold. Firstly, we develop intelligent systems for making optimum robustness versus imperceptibility tradeoffs. The performance of the existing watermarking approaches is not up to the task when we consider watermark structuring in view of a sequence of attacks, which is much desirous in real world applications. In order to resist a series of attacks, we employ intelligent selection of both the frequency band as well as strength of alteration for watermark embedding using Genetic Programming. To further enhance the robustness of the watermarking system,Support Vector Machines and Artificial Neural Networks are applied to adaptively modify the decoding strategy in view of the anticipated sequence of attacks at the watermark extraction phase. Secondly, we devise an intelligent system capable of making optimum/ near optimum tradeoff between watermark payload and imperceptibility. In the context of reversible watermarking, we propose an intelligent scheme which selects suitable coefficients in different wavelet sub-bands and yields superior capacity versus imperceptibility tradeoff. Experimental results show that machine learning approaches are very promising in state of the art watermarking applications.