Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Welfare and Poverty Impacts of Tariff Reforms in Bangladesh: A General Equilibrium Approach

Our study assesses the impacts of different policy reforms, such as domestic trade liberalisation, implementation of WTO agreements in the textile sector and WTO negotiations on the movement of natural persons, and examines their welfare and poverty implications at the household level in the economy of Bangladesh. We use a comparative static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model based on the 1995-96 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of the Bangladesh economy. This study carries out three simulations. The first simulation entails full liberalisation of tariffs and the resultant reduction in government revenues are mobilised by enhancing the existing production taxes and imposing new taxes on construction sector; in the second simulation, export of ready-made garments (RMG) are reduced by 25 percent; and in the third simulation the remittances are increased by 50 percent. Equivalent variations (EVs) and Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) measures are applied to estimate welfare and poverty changes respectively. The prime observation is that rural poverty, as measured by the head count ratio, is observed to increase under all three simulations. The gap and severity of the rural poor have also worsened in all three simulations indicating worse poverty profiles for the rural poor compared to the base-run scenario. Urban head count poverty has also deteriorated in the first and second simulations, while has improved only in the third simulation. The gap and severity of poverty for the urban population have, however, deteriorated in all three simulations.
Grey water reclamation for urban non-potable reuse - challenges and solutions a review

The study shows the sustainable and effective way of managing growing water and wastewater problem is to reclaim and use greywater from bath/shower, hand basin and washing machine for outdoor and indoor non-potable purposes. A detail wastewater characterisation study by the past researchers indicates that grey water is polluted, but the quality is not similar to the domestic wastewater and therefore the traditional design criteria cannot be used for greywater reclamation. The study by the past researchers show grey water with detergent inhibit grey water reclamation process such as aerobic biological process and the appearance of reclaimed water with cloudiness, colour and excessive bubble formation reduce willingness especially for in-house uses than outdoor uses. Partially or untreated soapy grey water are useful for outdoor use and has useful nutrients, but some study shows excess detergent and other cleaning materials may cause harmful effects to the growth of plants and degrades soil structure. It may cause risk to the environment and human who makes close contact with grey water or inhale the spray. Currently most of the grey water reclamation systems are based on traditional wastewater and/or water treatment design and some have no proper design at all. In addition, due to the public perception (“yuck effect”), it is not acceptable for using reclaimed grey water for direct potable use. Also, globally there are standards for potable water quality and regulated widely, whereas only a few countries have non-potable water quality or grey water reuse standards and regulated properly. Therefore, when designing grey water reclamation, the above challenges needed to be considered. This paper presents review on grey water characteristics, health and environmental risks, public acceptability, regulatory requirement for non-potable use and on current grey water reclamation processes, particularly about the treatment of detergent and other cleaning materials and also identify natural geo or waste material for synthetic detergent removal from grey water.
Predictors of Health Related Quality of Life for Adults Ages 40-64

Background: This study focused on access to care for adults 40 to 64 with the purpose of identifying predictors of health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). The literature had inconsistencies and gaps in experimental methoods in determining HR-QoL predictors. Methods: Using Becker’s HBM as its theoretical framework as well as Quality Metric instrument SF 12 vs 2™ for measuring HR-QoL, this explorative correlational study examined under insurance, continued health coverage, and health behavior in relation to HR-QoL while controlling for personal attributes like age, gender, race/ethnicity, and level of income and education. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted with a sample N = 165. Results: The study focused on three research question with three Null and Alternate hypotheses in search of predictors of HR-QoL. Although no significant relations were observed when linking the three predictors to HR-QoL, significant positive association between health seeking behavior and continuity of health coverage was observed. Conclusion: Continuity of health coverage had a significant relation to health seeking behavior with implications for positive social change. An understanding of factors that contribute to health behavior and engaging patients to seek health services are key factors to improving health status.
On The Behavior of Malaysian Equities: Fractal Analysis Approach

Fractal analyzing of continuous processes have recently emerged in literatures in various domains. Existence of long memory in many processes including financial time series have been evidenced via different methodologies in many literatures in past decade, which has inspired many recent literatures on quantifying the fractional Brownian motion (fBm) characteristics of financial time series. This paper questions the accuracy of commonly applied fractal analyzing methods on explaining persistent or antipersistent behavior of time series understudy. Rescaled range (R/S) and power spectrum techniques produce fractal dimensions for daily returns of twelve Malaysian stocks from the most well performed firms in Kuala Lumpur stock exchange. Zipf’s law generates linear and logarithmic power-law distribution plots to evaluate the validity of estimated fractal dimensions on prescribing persistent and antipersistent characteristics with less ambiguity. Findings of this study recommend a more thoughtful approach on classifying persistent and antipersistent behaviors of financial time series by utilizing existing fractal analyzing methods.
Cotton Value Chain Analysis: The Case of Smallholder Farmers Arbaminch Zuria District, Gamo Gofa Zone, Ethiopia

General Objective of study was to evaluate value chain of cotton in the case of Arbaminch Zuria district with specific objectives: to assess performance cotton value chain and identify constraints and opportunities of cotton value chain in the study area. For this study, both primary and secondary data were used. A total of 123 sample households were selected from three kebeles of Arbaminch Zuria district and 26 cotton traders, and one Textile Company were interviewed using semi structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics models specifically value chain analysis was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics results show that the main cotton value chain actors in the study area are input supplier, producers, local collectors, wholesalers, ginners, cottage level weavers, textile factories and retailers. Long existing tradition of cotton farming and governmental and NGO support were cotton production opportunities while, substituting cotton by other crops, lack of access to new and improved cotton varieties and absence of cotton crop failure insurance were cotton production challenges of the study area. Increased market demand, proximity to and existence of textile factories and establishment of new industry parks were cotton marketing opportunities while, production and supplying of cotton with in similar period, bulkiness, and spoilage, were cotton marketing challenges in the study area. Provision of new improved cotton varieties, regulation and implementation of cotton price tariffs, strengthening and provision of sustainable and knowledge based extension service were recommended to improve and strengthening cotton value chain in the study area.
Towards synchronizing relations between artifacts in the Java technological space

The use of models in software engineering processes has grown in the last few years. And as it grows, grows also the relevance of some problems related to the realm. One of them is the model synchronization problem, that basically consists in keeping all the models of a software application consistent between themselves. In other words, the models of a software tend to be changed over its lifetime, and as it happens, these changes have to be properly forwarded to all the models regarding this software. For large software applications it is clearly inviable to perform such synchronization procedure manually, therefore, it is desired the creation of automatic methods able to synchronize the software’s models. We do not explore this problem for any kind of software, instead we limit our domain to the Java technological space, so that the scope of this thesis still remains feasible. This thesis thus proceeds by (1) identifying and formally defining some models of the Java technological space, (2) identifying and formalizing some relations between them, creating a network of metamodels supposed to be kept synchronized, and showing through a representative showcase how these relations work, and finally (3) discussing the synchronization of this network of metamodels. The outcomes include the implementation of these relations plus the report about the experience of developing it in this thesis.
Climate change, growing season water deficit and vegetation activity along the north–south transect of eastern China from 1982 through 2006

Considerable work has been done to examine the relationship between environmental constraints and vegetation activities represented by the remote sensing-based normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). However, the relationships along either environmental or vegetational gradients are rarely examined. The aim of this paper was to identify the vegetation types that are potentially susceptible to climate change through examining their interactions between vegetation activity and evaporative water deficit. We selected 12 major vegetation types along the north–south transect of eastern China (NSTEC), and tested their time trends in climate change, vegetation activity and water deficit during the period 1982–2006. The result showed significant warming trends accompanied by general precipitation decline in the majority of vegetation types. Despite that the whole transect increased atmospheric evaporative demand (ET 0 ) during the study period, the actual evapotranspiration (ET a ) showed divergent trends with ET 0 in most vegetation types. Warming and water deficit exert counteracting controls on vegetation activity. Our study found insignificant greening trends in cold temperate coniferous forest (CTCF), temperate deciduous shrub (TDS), and three temperate herbaceous types including the meadow steppe (TMS), grass steppe (TGS) and grassland (TG), where warming exerted more effect on NDVI than offset by water deficit. The increasing growing season water deficit posed a limitation on the vegetation activity of temperate coniferous forest (TCF), mixed forest (TMF) and deciduous broad-leaved forest (TDBF). Differently, the growing season brownings in subtropical or tropical forests of coniferous (STCF), deciduous broad-leaved (SDBF), evergreen broad-leaved (SEBF) and subtropical grasslands (STG) were likely attributed to evaporative energy limitation. The growing season water deficit index (GWDI) has been formulated to assess ecohydrological equilibrium and thus indicating vegetation susceptibility to water deficit. The increasing GWDI trends in CTCF, TCF, TDS, TG, TGS and TMS indicated their rising susceptibility to future climate change.
Dynamics near the Glass Temperature of Low Molecular Weight Cyclic Polystyrene

The segmental relaxation properties of a low molecular weight (4.6 kg/mol), cyclic polystyrene (PS) were characterized. The sample was obtained by fractionation using HPLC at the chromatographic critical condition, which yields a ring uncontaminated by its linear precursor. Both the glass temperature and the temperature dependence of the segmental relaxation times for the ring PS were equivalent to the high molecular weight limiting values for the linear polymer. These results are interpreted by considering the configurational mobility of a polymer lacking chain ends.
Contribution of Visitors to the Indoor PM in the National Library in Prague, Czech Republic

ABSTRACTTemporal and spatial variation of size resolved particulate matter (PM) was measured in the Baroque Library Hall of the National Library in Prague during four intensive campaigns by an Aerodynamic Particle Sizer and three DustTrak instruments. The analysis showed, the indoor air can be considered as well mixed and therefore the simple mass balance model was used to estimate basic parameters (ventilation rate, deposition rates and penetration factors). The results revealed that the movement of visitors during visiting hours is the main source of indoor coarse PM. Mass emission rates, estimated from the comparison of measured and modelled data indicates the visitors should contribute about 50 g of coarse particles yearly, which is about 35% of the total load of indoor PM.
Estimation of Scintillation Indices: A Novel Approach Based on Local Kernel Regression Methods

We present a comparative study of computational methods for estimation of ionospheric scintillation indices. First, we review the conventional approaches based on Fourier transformation and low-pass/high-pass frequency filtration. Next, we introduce a novel method based on nonparametric local regression with bias Corrected Akaike Information Criteria (AICC). All methods are then applied to data from the Norwegian Regional Ionospheric Scintillation Network (NRISN), which is shown to be dominated by phase scintillation and not amplitude scintillation. We find that all methods provide highly correlated results, demonstrating the validity of the new approach to this problem. All methods are shown to be very sensitive to filter characteristics and the averaging interval. Finally, we find that the new method is more robust to discontinuous phase observations than conventional methods.
A systematic assessment of the empirical support for transaction cost economics

Transaction cost economics (TCE) is one of the leading perspectives in management and organizational studies, yet debate continues regarding its empirical support. In this paper, we take stock of the large body of extant research and provide a systematic assessment of empirical evidence. In all, 308 statistical tests from 63 articles, selected according to a set of clear criteria, were examined across various dimensions. We assess not only the level of empirical support for the theory, but also the degree of paradigm consensus present in the empirical literature. Our analysis shows that results are mixed: while we found support in some areas (e.g., with regard to asset specificity), we also found considerable disagreement on how to operationalize some of TCE's central constructs and propositions, and relatively low levels of empirical support in other core areas (e.g., surrounding uncertainty and performance). We conclude that a more thorough empirical grounding of the theory's foundation is crucial to its future development, and offer several strategies for doing this. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Spatial variation in maximum dive depth in gray seals in relation to foraging

Habitat preference maps are a way of representing animals’ space use in two dimensions. For marine animals, the third dimension is an important aspect of spatial ecology. We used dive data from seven gray seals Halichoerus grypus (a primarily benthic forager) collected with GPS phone tags (Sea Mammal Research Unit) to investigate the distribution of the maximum depth visited in each dive. We modeled maximum dive depth as a function of spatiotemporal covariates using a generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) with individual as a random effect. Bathymetry, horizontal displacement, latitude and longitude, Julian day, sediment type, and light conditions accounted for 37% of the variability in the data. Persistent patterns of autocorrelation in the raw data suggest that individual intrinsic rhythm might be an important factor, not captured by external covariates. The strength of using this statistical method to generate spatial predictions of the distribution of maximum dive depth is its applicability to other plunge and pursuit divers. Despite being predictions of a point estimate, these maps provide some insight into the third dimension of habitat use in marine animals. The capacity to predict this aspect of vertical habitat use may help avoid conflict between animal habitat and coastal or offshore developments.
The Complexity of the Assessment of Creative Climate and Group Creativity

This paper provides a literature review that firstly demonstrates a growing interest in studies on creative climate and group creativity that is followed by a discus- sion on the important methodological significances of assessment of climate and the complexity of assessing group creativity. From the discussion, we suggest that the na- ture of the diversity of members of a group should be part of an assessment index. This contributes to future instrument development in assessment of group creativity.
Is trochanteric fixation nail a better implant in the management of intertrochanteric fracture in elderly compared to dynamic hip screw

Background: Intertrochanteric fractures are the most common fractures in elderly and have devastating sequence if not managed properly. The ultimate goal in the management of Intertrochanteric fracture is early mobilization of patients to prevent morbidity and mortality. Early mobilization primarily depends on the implant used & stability of the surgical construct. The purpose of this study is to compare the functional and radiological outcome of intertrochanteric fractures in elderly & osteoporotic patients managed with Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS) & Trochanteric Fixation Nail (TFN). Materials and Methods: The present study was carried out at Rajah Muthiah Medical College & Hospital from June 2016 to May 2017. 20 patients of age more than 60 years with intertrochanteric factures of femur were treated with Trochanteric Fixation nail (10 cases) and Dynamic Hip Screw (10 cases). Discussion: Individual cases were followed up for at least 24 weeks to one year and during each & every follow up visit clinical, radiological, functional outcomes were documented, analyzed, evaluated and compared. In our study of 10 patients, we had 8 patients (40%) with stable type of fracture pattern and 12 patients (60%) cases were of unstable fracture pattern. 5 patients underwent DHS and 3 patients underwent TFN in the stable category of 8.Whereas 5 patients underwent DHS and 7 patients underwent TFN in unstable Intertrochanteric fracture group of 12 patients. Results: The Average time taken for union was about 16 weeks (Range: 12 to 20 weeks) and full weight bearing correlated well with the time of fracture union. Conclusion: We conclude that the fracture pattern& experience of the surgeon are the primary determinants of implants choice & primary fixation of intertrochanteric fractures aid early rehabilitation and return back to activities of daily living.
Evaluation of aerosol mapping methods using AVIRIS imagery

Natural and anthropogenic aerosols affect solar electromagnetic radiation on its propagation through the Earth’s atmosphere. Their influence is twofold, directly by reflecting, scattering or absorbing processes and indirectly serving as cloud condensation nuclei (King et al, 1999). These processes influence the radiation budgets significantly from local to global scales thereby forming a major uncertainty in climate models.
A new Holstein haplotype affecting calf survival.

In recent years, the availability of phenotypic records and genomic data for cattle and the application of genomic tools revealed haplotypes affecting fertility and prenatal death. This study reports the identification of a new haplotype associated with calf survival in the Holstein population. Several calves from specific mating initially showed unspecific symptoms like chronic diarrhea and insufficient development. Affected animals died within the first months of life despite of symptomatic treatment. A genome-wide case-control-study based on 54K SNP Chip genotypes determined a causal region at BTA 11. Subsequent homozygosity mapping identified a haplotype affecting calf mortality in the homozygous state. Blood chemical analysis of affected calves revealed pronounced hypocholesterolemia indicating a disorder of the fat metabolism. Heterozygous animals without clinical manifestations show decreased levels of blood cholesterol suggesting a codominant inheritance for this genetic defect. Pedigree analyses revealed a prominent Canadian Holstein bull; MAUGHLIN STORM, as a carrier for this disorder. The widespread use of this bull and of its sons in the breeding program lead to a strong increase of the haplotype frequency in the German Holstein population within the last years. The occurrence of an identical healthy haplotype and the presence of several gaps within the bovine genome complicate the identification of a concordant variant.