Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contracts as a Tool for Improving Efficiency in the

The principal objective of this work was to develop market competence and more efficient trade mechanisms in the Norwegian roundwood markets. The standard delivery contract covers about 90% of the traded roundwood volume in Norway. Information about the functioning of this contract was gathered by interviewing market agents, studying their homepages and arranging a workshop. This information was then used to contrast the standard delivery contract with a set of rules designed for best practice contracting, while at the same time taking into account that most of the roundwood sales are organised by cooperatives. Improvements of the contract are suggested.
Use of radiation from PC screen for non-destructive controlling the internal strains in transparent parts

It is known that the most widely used method to control internal strains is the optical polarization method. However, the sources of polarized radiation are the most problem issue of this method. There are some difficulties in using this method when testing large-scale optical parts, diameters of which exceed 500 mm. To choose an optical source suitable for solving these tasks, we have analyzed the design of liquidcrystal screens and ascertained the possibility to use their polarized radiation in tests of internal strains in optical parts of large dimensions. Adduced below are the results of investigations of internal strains in parts of sapphire and organic glass.
SIZE EFFECT AND STOCK BEHAVIOR DURING THE EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION PHASESOF ECONOMIC CYCLE An Empirical Evidence from Indonesian Stock Market

Banz (1981) and Reiganum (1981) claim that, in terms of return creation, small firms tend to perform better than large firms. They implicitly claim that the phenomena (which is known as size effect) is stable and exists over the period of examination. This study intends to investigate the existence of size effect in Indonesian market and more specifically, to test whether stages of economic cycle (expansion and contraction stages) determine the existence of the effect. The results of the study show that size effect does exist in the market for the whole period of observation (1991-2001). However, when the period is divided into two parts according to the stage of economic cycle, the statistical analysis results are not supportive to the conclusion about the size effect. Marwan Asri Sw.
CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL FATIGUE IN WOMEN ATHLETES

The purpose of this study was to compare the EMG activity in central and peripheral fatigue protocols with the knee’s dynamic stabilizers. Twelve women in the central fatigue group completed a soccer game simulation protocol, while 13 women completed a maximal weight lifting protocol. EMG of the rectus and bicep femoris were taken in a rested and fatigued state. A repeated measures 2x2 ANOVA (α = 0.05) were used for comparison of average rectified values (ARV) and frequency data. The rectus femoris saw decreases in ARV and increases in frequency with fatigue with both central and peripheral fatigue. The bicep femoris had decreases in ARV and frequency with fatigue in central fatigue, while with peripheral fatigue both ARV and frequency increased.
Nanoparticulate Transscleral Ocular Drug Delivery

Ocular drug delivery is one of the most challenging areas of drug delivery due to the unique mostly avascular nature of the major eye structures and presence of two blood barriers. Effectiveness of a more conventional systemic delivery falls short due to low drug levels in the eye tissue. Periocular approaches require penetration of fibrous sclera and present their own limitations. Utilization of nanotechnology presents new avenue of drug system development with potential to penetrate protective barriers and sustain ample tissue saturation. More specifically, transscleral delivery permits a range of applications in targeted delivery, gene, stem cell, protein and peptides, oligonucleotide, and ribozyme therapies. The exciting range of current applications is expounded in this review.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A TYPOLOGY OF OECD COUNTRIES

Journal menu CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A TYPOLOGY OF OECD COUNTRIES Download This Article Patricia Crifo, Antoine Reberioux DOI:10.22495/jgr_v5_i2_p2 Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. This article investigates the relationships between corporate governance and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The underlying intuition is that governance factors are major determinants of CSR policies and extra-financial performance. More precisely, we identify three main factors that determine the strength of CSR engagement at the firm level: the structure of equity ownership (identity of shareholders), the composition and structure of board of directors, and the regulatory framework on corporate governance and CSR. We show how evolutions regarding corporate governance over the three previous decades have paved the way and shaped the rise of CSR. In addition, we elaborate a typology of CSR and governance structures that characterize OECD countries depending on whether the CSR reporting regime is stringent versus non-stringent, and on whether the corporate governance model is based on the shareholder, stakeholder or hybrid regime.
Equilibrium Exchange Rates and Misalignments: The Case of Homogenous Emerging Countries

We compute the exchange rate misalignment for a set of emerging economies between 1980 and 2013 using the behavioural equilibrium exchange rate definition. The real equilibrium exchange rate is constructed using a parsimonious model and estimators that are robust to cross-sectional independence and small sample size bias. We find that these countries tend to intervene to avoid real appreciation of their currencies following a rise in relative productivity, casting doubt on the Balassa-Samuelson effect. East-Asian countries have maintained their currencies at an artificially low level in order to remain competitive and boost economic growth these past years.
Comparison of operational satellite SO 2 products with ground-based observations in northern Finland during the Icelandic Holuhraun fissure eruption

Abstract. This paper shows the results of the comparison of satellite SO2 observations from OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) and OMPS (Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite) with ground-based measurements during the Icelandic Holuhraun fissure eruption in September 2014. The volcanic plume reached Finland on several days during the month of September. The SO2 total columns from the Brewer direct sun (DS) measurements in Sodankyla (67.42° N, 26.59° E), northern Finland, are compared to the satellite data. The operational satellite SO2 products are evaluated for high latitude conditions (e.g. large solar zenith angle, SZA). The results show that the best agreement can be found for lowest SZAs, close-to-nadir satellite pixels, cloud fraction below 0.3 and small distance between the station and the centre of the pixel. Under good retrieval conditions, the difference between satellite data and Brewer measurements remains mostly below the uncertainty on the satellite SO2 retrievals (up to about 2 DU at high latitudes). The satellite products assuming a priori profile with SO2 predominantly in the planetary boundary layer give total column values with the best agreement with the ground-based data. The analysis of the SO2 surface concentrations at four air quality stations in northern Finland shows that the volcanic plume coming from Iceland was located very close to the surface. This is connected to the fact that this was a fissure eruption and most of the SO2 was emitted into the troposphere. This is an exceptional case because the SO2 volcanic emissions directly affect the air quality levels at surface in an otherwise pristine environment like northern Finland. The time evolution of the SO2 concentrations peaks during the same days when large SO2 total column values are measured by the Brewer in Sodankyla and enhanced SO2 signal is visible over northern Finland from the satellite maps. Thus, the satellite retrievals were able to detect the spatiotemporal evolution of the volcanic plume as compared to the surface observations. Furthermore, direct-broadcast SO2 satellite data (from both OMI and OMPS instruments) are compared for the first time against ground-based observations.
Antagonistic effect of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from various ecological niches on Vibrio species pathogenic to crustaceans

Prabhakaran Priyaja, Puthumana Jayesh, Neil Scolastin Correya, Balachandran Sreelakshmi, Naduthalmuriparambil S Sudheer, Rosamma Philip, Isaac Sarogeni Bright Singh* National Centre for Aquatic Animal Health, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Lakeside Campus, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi, 682 016, Kerala, India Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Lakeside Campus, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi, 682 016, Kerala, India Journal of Coastal Life Medicine 2014; 2(1): 76-84
LIFE OF YOUNG RUSSIA: VALUE ORIENTATIONS AND LIFE PATHS

The article analyzes the dynamics of the value orientations of students concerning the basic values – personal security, perceptions of identity, preferences concerning the social and economic structure of Russia, family values and health. The analysis showed that today’s youth is characterized by an orientation toward the immediate social environment: the family as a source of material prosperity and friends as active agents of the formation and implementation of one’s own value preferences. According to the results of sociological research, the article presents a social portrait of a modern student. Students are distinguished by individualism, orientation to the pragmatic ideal of a self-sufficient, successful person, who can independently achieve material prosperity and social status.
Enhanced Coloration Efficiency of Electrochromic Thin Film Based on TiO2 and Chitosan

Self-assembled multilayer films containing TiO2 and chitosan (CS) were prepared using layer-by-layer method (LbL). The composite film fabricated on quartz and fluorine-doped tin oxide substrates was investigated using UV-vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and in situ chronoamperometric (CA) electrochemical measurements. The results of the UVvis spectra confirm the uniformity of each deposition cycles. The electrochemical behavior of TiO2 has the typical property of a surface-confined electrochemical process. The composite film displays high electrochromic performance, with the coloration efficiency 33.3 cm/C of and optical contrast of 17.1% at 800 nm. Furthermore, the film achieved a fast switching speed of 6.0 s and 0.5 s for coloration and bleaching, respectively. The composite material undergoes transitions from colorless to dark blue when the potential is switched from +2 V to -2 V. The electrochromic performance of the LbL film containing TiO2 and CS indicates that this material is highly beneficial in view of an application in electrochromic devices. KeywordsElectrochromic; TiO2; Chitoasn;Layer-bylayer; coloration efficiency
Testing gravity with CAMB and CosmoMC

We introduce a patch to the commonly used public codes CAMB and CosmoMC that allows the user to implement a general modification of the equations describing the growth of cosmological perturbations, while preserving the covariant conservation of the energy-momentum. This patch replaces the previously publicly released code MGCAMB, while also extending it in several ways. The new version removes the limitation of late-time-only modifications to the perturbed Einstein equations, and includes several parametrizations introduced in the literature. To demonstrate the use of the patch, we obtain joint constraints on the neutrino mass and parameters of a scalar-tensor gravity model from CMB, SNe and ISW data as measured from the correlation of CMB with large scale structure.
Comparative Analysis of Different Software Quality Models

Software Quality is increasingly important in today's marketplace. An organization’s focus on the strategic importance of software quality depends on whether they are producers or users of software. Software users see software as a tool to be used to support them in the way they do business in their specific sector. Quality is a composition of many characteristics. Because of that, quality is usually captured in a model that depicts the characteristics and their relationships. The models are useful; they show what people think is important when speaking about quality. Different organizations use different quality models based upon the requirements. Different concepts of software quality characteristics are reviewed and discussed in this paper. Also comparative analysis of various software quality models used by various organisations is being discussed in this paper.
Population ageing, household portfolios and financial asset returns: A survey of the literature

Population ageing is a recognised phenomenon affecting many countries in the world including most EU ones, Japan and US. The financial implications of this phenomenon can be manifold and some recent literature has focused in particular on the possible consequences of ageing on household portfolios and on main financial asset returns ones. Overall, the extant literature on household portfolios reports a significant effect of age on asset allocation, thereby providing evidence in favour of the standard life-cycle hypothesis. On the other hand, empirical results on the link between demographics and financial asset prices/returns are less uniform. The aim of this paper is to systematize the extant literature on these issues and to provide an overview of the main results reported so far, trying to evaluate whether the different conclusions reached depend on the approach taken in the empirical exercises rather than on the actual differences, in terms of demographic dynamics, public pension systems and financial markets, of the realities considered.
Institutional Investments and Their Influence on Stock Returns – An Empirical Study

Mutual dependency of market variables is crucial for development of any economy. It is equally important to study the stock market for what parameter influences over the others and for what length of time, thus giving direction to investors. Further, Sensex being an important barometer of India’s economic measurement, it would be interesting to know the revelation of its stability while institutional investors influence it in multiple ways over considerable longer period of economy. This study investigates the influence of FII and MF on Sensex over 11 year period between 2004-2015. The objectives were to find out the dependency among the three to conclude about which out theses influences market the most. On applying Unit–root test, Correlation and VAR, the study revealed that there was a regime change for BSE-Sensex returns due to the global recession. The noticeable fact is that change in regime affected the purchase of Mutual Fund which led to increasing in FII investment. The variation in the investment patterns by institutions brought in heavy market movement. Indian stock market during the selected period was driven by a greater amount of Foreign Investors compared to the domestic investors, the Mutual Fund taken up for this study.
Monitoring burrowing petrel populations: A sampling scheme for the management of an island keystone species

Burrow-nesting petrels (order Procellariiformes) are keystone species in island ecosystems, where they modify habitat through guano deposition and burrow digging. Burrowing petrels are among the most threatened groups of birds, yet robust long-term monitoring data remain scarce because of the financial and logistical constraints of working on offshore breeding islands, the variety of surveying strategies used, and the birds' below-ground breeding behavior. We examined the sampling requirements of monitoring programs to detect changes in the number of breeding pairs of gray-faced petrels (Pterodroma gouldi), a common species in northern New Zealand. We first examined the relationship between burrow entrance density and breeding pair density using 4 years of data from 3 large colonies. We then conducted a simulation-based power analysis to assess the ability of different burrow-occupancy sampling regimes to detect changes in breeding bird abundance. Power to detect change was influenced by population growth rates, initial bird density, inter-annual variation in abundance, plot size, number of plots, intervals between surveys, time of year surveys are undertaken, and duration of the monitoring program. Our analyses suggest that, under the most suboptimal monitoring conditions, at least 45 randomly assigned 5-m-radius plots surveyed annually during the incubation period for ≥20 years will be required to detect a 1% annual change in breeding bird abundance. Because power will vary depending on project specifications, local conditions, and potential change, we created an online application with over 50,000 combinations of starting parameters (https://landcare.shinyapps.io/petrels). This allows managers to determine the power of different combinations of survey intensities while maintaining consistency and maximizing efficiency. © 2015 The Wildlife Society.
Host-plant specialisation and habitat restriction in an endangered insect, Lycaena dispar batavus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) II. Larval survival on alternative host plants in the field

The Large Copper butterfly, Lycaena dispar batavus, is extinct in Britain and rapidly declining in Europe, due predomi- nantly to loss of its wetland habitats. Northern populations have more specialised foodplant and habitat requirements than their more southerly counterparts and rely solely on Rumex hydrolapathum, the Great Water Dock, as their hostplants. Southern colonies use a greater range of Rumex. Previous work has shown that specialisation is not due to foodplant chemistry and in this paper we investi- gate the ability of different Rumex species to support the larval stages of L. d. batavus in a natural environment. Comparisons were also made between a captive colony at Woodwalton Fen, Cambridgeshire, UK and native larvae at De Weerribben, Netherlands. Field experiments using a captive colony revealed that other Rumex hosts can successfully support larvae throughout each of their larval stages in wet grassland and fenland habitats with no significant differences in survival rates compared with their natural host- plant R. hydrolapathum. An overwintering experiment using a native wild population of both butterfly and Rumex species in De Weerribben found 25% of larvae survived on the natural hostplant R. hydrolapathum and no survivors on alternative Rumex hosts. It is suggested that R. crispus and R. obtusifolius growing in their natural habitat may harbour significant competitors to L. d. batavus leading to its specialisation on R. hydrolapathum in fenland habitats.
Effect of variable oceanic productivity on the survival of an upper trophic predator, the Hawaiian monk seal Monachus schauinslandi

The Hawaiian monk seal population is declining, and low juvenile survival due to prey limitation is believed to be a primary cause. The Transition Zone Chlorophyll Front (TZCF) is a largescale oceanographic feature separating the vertically stratified, low surface chlorophyll subtropical waters and the vertically mixed, cool, high chlorophyll Transition Zone waters. The TZCF annually migrates over 1000 km in latitude, and its southern extent in winter varies. We hypothesize that when the front migrates southward, it brings colder, more productive waters into monk seal foraging habitat, thereby enhancing the prey base and consequently survival. We expect this effect will be strongest at seal populations situated farthest north and nearest the TZCF. To test this hypothesis, we explored relationships of the survival of more than 3000 monk seals during 1984–2004 to the southernmost latitude of the 18°C isotherm (a proxy for the TZCF). We found a statistically significant nonlinear relationship between the winter position of the TZCF and survival of monk seals through 4 yr of age at the most northerly atolls. When the front remained farther north, survival was poorer. The relationship was strongest following a 1 or 2 yr lag, perhaps indicating the time required for enhanced productivity to influence the food web and improve the seals’ prey base. No such relationship was found at subpopulations located farther south or among adult animals at any site. Variation in ocean productivity may mediate prey availability in monk seal foraging habitat and consequently influence juvenile survival in the northern portion of their range.
Reference Values of Serum Biochemical Parameters in Adult Male and Female Iranian Chukar Partridge (Alectoris Chukar)

Blood samples were randomly collected from 88 female and 143 male sixteen-week-old healthy Iranian chukar partridges (Alectoris chukar), and serum biochemical parameters were measured. Inorganic phosphorous, creatinine and total bilirubin showed significant differences between male and female birds. No significant sex-based differences were observed for other values.
Asymmetry of knowledge spillovers between MNCs and host country firms

We use patent citation data to examine knowledge flows between foreign multinational companies (MNCs) and host country organisations in 30 countries. We find not just significant knowledge inflows from foreign MNCs to host country organisations, but also significant outflows back from the host country to foreign MNCs. In fact, in technologically advanced countries, knowledge outflows to foreign MNCs greatly outweigh knowledge inflows. Even in technologically less advanced countries, knowledge outflows are only slightly weaker than inflows. Additional analysis shows that the exact pattern varies across sectors within a country, depending on the country's expertise in individual sectors. Finally, knowledge inflows and outflows appear to track personnel flows between foreign MNCs and host country organisations.
High-Risk HPV DNA in Cervical Samples from HIV-1-Infected African

25 The careHPV and HC2 assays were compared for high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) DNA 26 detection in cervical samples from 149 HIV-1-infected African women. HR-HPV DNA 27 detection rate was 37.6% and 34.9% by careHPV and HC2, respectively. Agreement 28 between the two tests was 94.6% (95% CI, 89.7%-97.7%) with a Kappa value of 0.88, 29 (95% CI, 0.81-0.96) indicating an excellent agreement. CareHPV may be considered as 30 suitable as HC2 for cervical cancer screening among HIV-infected African women. 31 32 33 Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women worldwide, with more than 34 500,000 annual cases, and the fourth most common cause of cancer death in women, with 35 about 275,000 annual deaths. However, more than 85% of cases and deaths occur in 36 developing countries, cervical cancer being the commonest cancer and the leading cause of 37 cancer death in African women (Globocan 2008, http://globocan.iarc.fr). The high mortality 38 rate observed in Africa is mainly due to the absence of cervical cancer screening, resulting in 39 diagnosis of advanced and often untreatable disease (1). 40 Virtually, all cases of cervical cancer result from persistent infection with carcinogenic 41 genotypes of human papillomavirus (HPV) (2). It is now well established that detection of 42 these high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) genotypes in cervical samples allows to identify women at 43 risk of precancerous or cancerous cervical lesions, and HR-HPV DNA testing has been 44 proposed as a primary screening test for cervical cancer prevention (3, 4). 45 Incidence of HR-HPV infection and of high-grade cervical lesions is significantly increased in 46 women infected with HIV-1 (5-7). Therefore, a screening strategy based on HR-HPV testing 47 in African women infected with HIV-1 may play an important role in cervical cancer 48 prevention. 49