Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonlinear Income Convergence and Structural Breaks: Further Empirical Evidence

In this paper we reexamined the study done in King and Ramlogan-Dobson (2011) as well as Chong et al. (2008) by investigating the nonlinear convergence among the G16 countries using alternative methodology. We find that the results are sensitive to the method of analysis even after allowing for structural breaks. With semi-parametric model only six (6) cases of convergence were identified and eight (8) cases when we use nonlinear Fourier unit root test. With relative transition model all the sixteen (16) countries exhibit convergence with United States and Norway converging a little above group average.
Streulichtarme holografische Blaze-Gitter für den EUV-Bereich

Die physikalisch-optischen Randbedingungen beim Einsatz von Beugungsgittern im Wellenlangen-Bereich um 13,5nm bedingen einen grosen Einfallswinkel. Die gebeugte Strahlung hinter einem solchen Grazing-Incidence-Gitter wird dabei an einer wesentlich groseren Flache umgelenkt, als dies bei ublichen Anwendungen in einem Wellenlangenbereich der Fall ware, in dem sich Schichtmaterialien mit hohem Reflexionsgrad verwenden liesen. Deshalb wirken sich Abweichungen von der Ebenheit bzw. Sollform des Gittersubstrats wesentlich starker aus. Durch das sehr grose Verhaltnis von Gitterperiode zu Wellenlange ist die Form der Blaze-Facetten der dominierend effizienzbestimmende Faktor. Sehr ungunstig sind in diesem Zusammenhang schlecht definierte Blaze-Facetten sowie auch Oberflachendefekte und Rauigkeit. Wir zeigen, dass die Herstellung dieser anspruchsvollen Gitter basierend auf einem holografischen Mastering in Photoresist in Kombination mit einem RIBE-Transfer-Prozess zu geeigneten Blaze-Strukturen fuhrt. Projekt-Partner: Zeiss: Holografie; IOM: Reaktives Ionenstrahlatzen; PTB: Messungen bei Arbeitswellenlange unter Nutzung von Synchrotron-Strahlung am Speicherring BESSY; TUI: wissenschaftliche Grundlagen zur Holografie
Serogrouping of Campylobacter jejuni Isolated from Chicken Cuts, Tokyo, Japan

Serogrouping of Campylobacter jejuni was conducted using Penner’s method among the retail chicken cut (N = 229) isolates from 13 different outlets of which were small stores and superstores in Tokyo, Metropolis, Japan. Majority of C. jejuni (N = 72) in Japanese retail outlets were categorized into group B (26.39%), D (8.33%), Y (6.94%), C (4.17%), in that order. However, using this method for subspecies identification, 61.11% were typable. “Y” subspecies were the most dominant subspecies for small retail outlets and “D” was in the second ranking. Whereas “B” was the most predominated subspecies of C. jejuni in the superstores and “D” was second in ranking.
Factors Affecting Students’ Decision of Hotel Selection

The goal of this research is to identify the factors affecting students’ hotel choices, to examine the impact of hotel servers when a potential guest selects a hotel, and to determine how hotel servers influence a student’s preference. The target populations for this study were Johnson & Wales University students who had stayed in U.S. hotels. A print-out questionnaire survey was distributed, descriptive statistics, and z-tests were used to address the research hypothesis. The results of the study indicated a significant positive relationship between hotel services and students’ decisions on their hotel selection. Location of the hotel, online information, and “package” components were statistically significant at the . 05 level. Results indicate that a successful hotel should continuously improve its services/products that relate to better performance to meet customers’ special needs and expectations.
Impact of Supplier Management Strategies on the Organizational Performance of ISO 9001 Certified Organizations

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss the impact of Supplier orientation and the resulting Supply Chain Management (SCM) approach, on the organizational performance of ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems certified organizations. Methodology/Approach: Following a literature review, a full structural conceptual model was proposed. An online survey was administered to managers of Portuguese organizations with certified ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems. Descriptive Statistics and Structural Model Equations were used to validate the proposed conceptual model. Findings: There are positive relationships between Organization Strategy and Supplier Orientation, between Supplier Orientation and Stakeholders Satisfaction, and between Stakeholders Satisfaction and Organizational Performance Orientation, supporting ISO 9001:2015. These findings provide insights that supplier orientation, mediated by stakeholder satisfaction, is an essential tool for organizational competitive sustainable advantage. Research Limitation/implication: The analysis was based on managers of ISO 9001 certified organizations perceptions, so additional studies with actual data and longitudinal studies should be useful for further validation. Originality/Value of paper: The importance of the overall organizational ecosystem is highlighted with potential impact on the more than 1 Million ISO 9001 organizations certified worldwide and in their suppliers.
Spatial Distribution and Preservation of Carbon Isotope Biosignatures in Freshwater Microbialite Carbonate

Understanding formation mechanisms of modern microbialites enables interpretation of biosignatures associated with fossilized stromatolites. Photosynthetic influences on carbonate precipitation are one proposed mechanism. Photosynthetic isotope biosignatures (13C) associated with freshwater microbialites in Pavilion Lake, British Columbia were widespread through the lake but less prevalent with increasing depth. Importantly, they were variably detectable on the exterior surface of individual microbialites. At depths ≤18 m, microbialite surface carbonates, associated with either nodular microbial communities or surface biofilms, had δ13Ccarb values up to +3.7‰ that were 13C-enriched above the predicted range of δ13Ccarb values for equilibrium precipitation from bulk ambient lake water dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) (predicted mean δ13Ccarb = −0.2 ± 1.3‰). Vertical profiles of exterior, non-nodular biofilm present on microbialites collected from depths of 21 m and below showed instances of 13C-enrichment .
MICROPROPAGATION OF KALANCHOE TUBIFLORA (HARVEY) HAMET

Summary. Kalanchoe tubiflora (Harvey) Hamet is a succulent plant native to Madagascar. Due to its unique morphology, it is a popular ornamental species. However, owing to some valuable metabolites it can also be used in tumor suppression. The present work describes a simple propagation method of K. tubiflora. The stem fragments of K. tubiflora were disinfected with the following sodium hypochlorite concentrations: 0.2% (for 10 or 20 min), 0.4% (10 or 20 min) and 0.6% (10 or 20 min). Next the single-node explants were inoculated on a hormone-free MS medium. The produced plants were transferred to soil and grown in a greenhouse. The applied disinfection procedures were successful. The regeneration of propagules was observed. The average number of new microshoots produced from one explant varied from about 20 to even 52. All microshoots regenerated adventitious roots without transferring them to a rooting medium. The plantlets were successfully acclimatized and continued their growth in the greenhouse.
The Prerequisites for Financial Repression and Financial Liberalization Policy

This paper examines theoretically the effect of financial policies on economic growth for four selected developing countries. At the end of 1970s and in the beginning of 1980s these countries embarked on financial reform for a stability and growth purpose.This theoretical study suggests that both financial repression and financial liberalization policies provide the expected growth but it is subject to certain requirements. As a prerequisite, financial liberalization needs macroeconomic stability, institutions, political stability and, better supervision and regulation of the sector. And then after exercising liberalization increases efficiency of the sector. While financial repression needs benevolent dictator government, which is free from corruption and bribery and ultimately servant of the population. The lower real interest rate environment because of financial repression is the big opportunity to increase investment and economic growth. Otherwise, adopting both policies without fulfilling requirements provides instability and lower growth. Keywords : financial repression, financial liberalization, economic growth
The Emotional States of the Consumer in Stores: The PA (Pleasure-Arousal) Adapted to the Algerian Context

The purpose of this paper is the proposal of a scale for measuring emotional states experienced within a point of sale, for non-English speaking consumers. Since the validity of the measuring instruments may affect the relevance and quality of managerial decisions, the development of a sufficiently reliable measurement that take into account the specificity of a country becomes necessary. Following a literature review that allowed us to highlight existing measuring instruments of emotional states and their disadvantages, we have developed a measurement scale based on two emotional dimensions: pleasure and arousal (stimulation). Following the Churchill Paradigm, the results of our analysis show that the reliability and construct validity of our scale were improved.
Crowdsourcing – what it is, works and why it involves so many people?

Crowdsourcing is a recent concept, very popular in companies’ practice and literature. In literature there are many definitions of this concept, but some of them are inconsistent and incomplete. In this paper, existing definitions of crowdsourcing are analyzed to extract common elements and to establish the basic characteristics of any crowdsourcing initiative. Based on these existing definitions, an exhaustive and consistent definition for crowdsourcing is presented and contrasted in thirty two cases.
The Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle of Value Addition

Value addition has only been measured as the difference between output and input prices and the critical roles of all functions in the process of value addition were not clearly known. Moreover, some core functions that inherently exist in the process of value addition were ignored until recently. The process of value addition and enhancement is continuous in its approach. Despite the fact that the value addition process is a continuous process, only its absolute measures were used for evaluating the intensity of value addition. Usually, value addition to a product was considered to happen only in the shop floor. In reality however, value addition is not only the responsibility of manufacturing function; rather, other functions before and after manufacturing also add significant tangible or intangible value to a product. The continuous characteristics of the value addition process can be visualized and evaluated in terms of the PDCA continuous process cycle so that value addition can be enhanced in a continuous basis. The PDCA cycle is a renowned continuous quality improvement approach and has been widely used by many successful companies as a strategic weapon for enhancing organizational performance. Hence, this paper roots its core idea towards the conceptual design of continuous value addition process using the PDCA cycle. The study also intends to identify the potential functions that were ignored and their respective roles. Thus, six core functions in the value addition process are identified and categorized into the four distinct phases of the PDCA cycle. The findings of this paper will, at large, help academicians and practitioners care for the respective roles of functions in the process of value addition and easily know how these functions interact in a continuous basis.
Preventing Occupational Hearing Loss — Time for a Paradigm Shift - William J. Murphy

“. at Venice, these workers are all congregated in one quarter and are engaged all day in hammering copper to make it ductile so that with it they may manufacture vessels of various kinds. From this quarter there rises such a terrible din that only these workers have shops and homes there; all others flee from that highly disagreeable locality. One may observe these men as they sit on the ground, usually on small mats, bent double while all day long they beat the newly mined copper, first with wooden then with iron hammers till it is as ductile as required. To begin with, the ears are injured by that perpetual din, and in fact the whole head, inevitably, so that workers of this class become hard of hearing and, if they grow old at this work, completely deaf. For that incessant noise beating on the eardrum makes it lose its natural tonus; the air within the ear reverberates against its sides, and this weakens and impairs all the apparatus of hearing. In fact the same thing happens to them as to those who dwell near the Nile in Egypt, for they are all deaf from the excessive uproar of the falling water. ”
Flexible piezocapacitive sensors based on wrinkled microstructures: toward low-cost fabrication of pressure sensors over large areas

Flexible pressure sensors are a key component of electronic skin (e-skin) for use in future applications ranging from human healthcare monitoring to robotic skins and environmental risk detection. Here, we demonstrated the development of a highly sensitive, simple, and low-cost capacitive pressure sensor, which acted as a flexible capacitive dielectric, based on a microstructured elastomeric template that could be fabricated over a large area. To achieve this goal, the dielectric template was prepared simply by stretching and releasing a flexible Ecoflex film to produce wrinkled surface microstructures with a feature size on the order of tens of micrometers. The effects of the wrinkled surface microstructure on the sensing performance were systematically investigated by comparing the nonwrinkled film, one-side wrinkled film, and double-side wrinkled film. The response and release times of the double-side wrinkled pressure sensor were improved by 42% and 25% in comparison with the values obtained from the unwrinkled case, respectively. These results showed that the introduction of wrinkled surface microstructures to the elastomeric template efficiently enhanced the pressure sensor performance. We also demonstrated that our sensor could be used to detect a variety of changes in the surroundings, such as variations in the angle of a stimulus, object loading/unloading, or an exhaled breath.
Evaluation of doses in the Wernicke and Broca's areas using two different technique in patients with right frontal glioblastoma multiforme

Glioblastomamultiforme (GBM) is the most common primary brain tumor in adults and accounts for approximately 60‐70% of all gliomas (1‐2). In a multicenter study by Eser et al., the estimated age speci ic and age adjusted incidence rates for all cancers in Turkey were 230.8 per 100000 among males and 144.7 per 100000 among females. The estimated frequen‐ cy of the central nervous system tumors was 2.6% (2.3% for men and 3.2% for women) of all tumors (3). Malignant glial tumor is a dif icult‐to‐ treat disease, which is usually disabling and fatal (4, 5). The treatment options are with some risk, H. Acar1, G. Yavas1*, C. Yavas2
Study on Mean Platelet Volume And Platelet Count In Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

Background : Most Diabetes Mellitus related deaths are due to increased risk of micro- and macrovascular complications of the disease. Larger platelets with higher mean platelet volume increase the propensity to thrombosis. Therefore, increased MPV is emerging as a risk factor for vascular complications. Methods : This prospective study was conducted on 100 subjects with type II DM and 50 non-diabetic controls over a period of 3 months. To determine mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet count (PC) in diabetics (type2) and non-diabetics and to determine correlation of MPV and platelet count with fasting blood sugar. Results : Significant increase in value of MPV was seen in diabetics. Conclusion : MPV being a simple, economical test, can serve as an effective tool in monitoring the patients for thrombogenicity especially in patients with altered blood glucose metabolism. DOI: 10.21276/APALM.1381
Analysis and Prospect of Targeted Therapy for Head and Neck Tumors

Head and neck tumors account for 30% of malignant tumors in the body, which is a key topic in the world. The comparative data of radiotherapy, surgical therapy or chemotherapy for the treatment of these diseases are given. The treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor, cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor and insulin-like growth factor receptor inhibitor were analyzed. It is pointed out that molecular targeted therapy is a targeted blocker to interfere with the signal transduction pathway, which is regulated by the specific molecule and is closely related to the occurrence of tumor, so as to inhibit tumor growth and metastasis.
Desktop Relational Search or One Way AI could save us from our Files

SOM “Classic” SOM Flexible design – Doesn’t require changing the algorithm to sort different data types The SOM is crafted and optimized for the target data type as needed Can sort multiple types of data together as long as a method is defined to make them mutually comparable Maps are created with a specific purpose in mind, there are few (if any) “in general” type solutions. Uses feature vectors to store comparable data. Weights are relative, on no particular scale. Does not have a defined method, sparse word histogram arrays are often used for text. Must be made to correspond to a 0-1 weight value VI. The User Perspective Making search relational is not enough, the user needs an intuitive way to interact with their files. I have thought hard about what types of applications this metadata-driven system might allow us to take advantage that we cannot today. One example may be a system to tag images. As the user adds tags to an image they influence the way search works with those files. This adds an extra dimension to the idea of search – essentially giving the user control over their search results. It is conceivable that in time this could be expanded with functionality to tag a group of related images together, or to propagate changes to “like” images. This flexibility will be appreciated by the user later when they search for their files. This allows a user to impact search before they do it, but all that we have done here is so that the user can relationally search for their files, and an interface is needed for that. In the SOM Explorer interface (Fig. 2) there is no need for an “advanced search” interface – the user can simply type in what they are looking for and hit search. Since the SOM has already been created and has converged the search results are returned instantly. The nodes in the center of the image are very closely related to the search string, and the top ranked feature in that node is displayed. As you look further out in the image the items are less related. This is simply a view of the underlying neural network which the SOM algorithm has already ordered in this way for us. Desktop Relational Search 39 Fig. 2: SOM Explorer Fig. 3: Image Tagger
A Simulation Based Analysis of the Value of Information in the Hrebiniak Joyce Typology of Adaptation Relative to Porterâ€™s Generic Strategies

This study presents information that suggests that Hrebiniak and Joyceâ€™s Typology of Adaptation contains an information value bias. The quadrants of their typology, as they relate to Porterâ€™s generic strategy types, are shown to produce different locally maximized returns on investment. This result, supported by the analysis of data obtained from a simulation that was developed from a popular business game, lends itself to the argument that there is an optimal amount of funding that specific generic strategy types should be willing to commit to Information Systems technology. From a practical standpoint, the implied bias in information value may demonstrate that organizations may experience a diminishing rate of return on Information Systems investments. Further, it lays the groundwork for future research into implications that discontinuous economic conditions may introduce into the typology relative to the implicit information bias.
FILAMENTARY ACCRETION FLOWS IN THE EMBEDDED SERPENS SOUTH PROTOCLUSTER

One puzzle in understanding how stars form in clusters is the source of mass—is all of the mass in place before the first stars are born, or is there an extended period when the cluster accretes material which can continuously fuel the star formation process? We use a multi-line spectral survey of the southern filament associated with the Serpens South embedded cluster-forming region in order to determine if mass is accreting from the filament onto the cluster, and whether the accretion rate is significant. Our analysis suggests that material is flowing along the filament's long axis at a rate of ∼30 M☉ Myr−1 (inferred from the N2H+ velocity gradient along the filament), and radially contracting onto the filament at ∼130 M☉ Myr−1 (inferred from HNC self-absorption). These accretion rates are sufficient to supply mass to the central cluster at a similar rate to the current star formation rate in the cluster. Filamentary accretion flows may therefore be very important in the ongoing evolution of this cluster.
Reducing anxiety, geriatric depression and worry in a sample of older adults through a mindfulness training program

This study aimed to analyze the effects of a mindfulness training program on anxiety, worry, and geriatric depression in a sample of older adults. A randomized controlled trial with pretest-posttest measurements was used on an experimental group (n = 42) and a control group (waiting list; n = 45). Participants in the experimental group completed the Short Cognitive Examination, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Analyses showed significantly stronger reductions in geriatric depression, anxiety and worry in the experimental group than in the control group, confirming the effectiveness of mindfulness techniques in reducing these conditions and, especially, for the trait-worry variable, followed by important changes in anxiety, depression and meta-worry. This is one of the few studies examining the effects of mindfulness training in the elderly. Results are especially noteworthy because traits are quite resistant to change. Implications for future research and intervention are underlined. © 2017 by Sociedad Chilena de Psicologia Clinica.