Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Public sector and efficiency: Are they mutually exclusive? An alternative policy framework to improve the efficiency of public health care system in Tamil Nadu India.

This paper provided an alternative policy framework for Tamil Nadu to improve the performance of its public healthcare system. The entire framework is based on the premise that everything else will fall in place once the resource gap is narrowed down. The whole approach is to enhance productivity without eroding equity. The framework essentially addresses three issues. First it is related to the provision of services at the public healthcare centers. It is suggested that the services to be offered should be well defined taking into account the capability of the center and in tune with local needs; the patient-consumers should be informed accordingly. The next issue is with respect to the roles of the healthcare delivery staff and the community. The suggestion is that the local units need some level of autonomy (and appropriate incentives) to cope with the local settings so as to fulfill the local needs and aspirations besides enhancing the efficiency. The last one is related to the financing mechanism. The framework suggests that to start with financing and the management of recurrent expenditure should be done at the local level through the panchayats. (excerpt)
Computer-Aided Analysis of Flow in Water Pipe Networks after a Seismic Event

This paper proposes a framework for a reliability-based flow analysis for a water pipe network after an earthquake. For the first part of the framework, we propose to use a modeling procedure for multiple leaks and breaks in the water pipe segments of a network that has been damaged by an earthquake. For the second part, we propose an efficient system-level probabilistic flow analysis process that integrates the matrix-based system reliability (MSR) formulation and the branch-and-bound method. This process probabilistically predicts flow quantities by considering system-level damage scenarios consisting of combinations of leaks and breaks in network pipes and significantly reduces the computational cost by sequentially prioritizing the system states according to their likelihoods and by using the branch-and-bound method to select their partial sets. The proposed framework is illustrated and demonstrated by examining two example water pipe networks that have been subjected to a seismic event. These two examples consist of 11 and 20 pipe segments, respectively, and are computationally modeled considering their available topological, material, and mechanical properties. Considering different earthquake scenarios and the resulting multiple leaks and breaks in the water pipe segments, the water flows in the segments are estimated in a computationally efficient manner.
Design and modelling of a novel damage-free steel column base

Column bases are fundamental components of a steel frame. However their design has not yet received appropriate attention. Conventional steel column bases cannot be easily repaired if damaged and exhibit difficult-to-predict and simulate stiffness, strength and hysteretic behaviour. This paper proposes a novel demountable and fully repairable column base for resilient steel buildings. The new column base isolates damage in easy-to-replace structural elements with the goal of minimizing repair time and disruption of the building service in the aftermath of a strong earthquake. Moreover, it can be easily constructed and deconstructed to enable sustainable steel frame designs. It provides significant flexibility in the design, with rotational stiffness and moment resistance that can be independently tuned. It has self-centering capability for reducing residual drifts. The paper presents design rules, an analytical hysteretic model and a 3D finite element model for the new column base.
Fourier-Wigner transforms and Liouville's theorems for the sub-Laplacian on the Heisenberg group

The sub-Laplacian on the Heisenberg group is first decomposed into twisted Laplacians parametrized by Planck’s constant. Using Fourier–Wigner transforms so parametrized, we prove that the twisted Laplacians are globally hypoelliptic in the setting of tempered distributions. This result on global hypoellipticity is then used to obtain Liouville’s theorems for harmonic functions for the sub-Laplacian on the Heisenberg group. 1. The sub-Laplacian on the Heisenberg group. The aim of this paper is to study the growth properties of harmonic functions for the sub-Laplacian L on the Heisenberg group H. The main results are seen in the perspective of Liouville’s theorems for the sub-Laplacian L on the Heisenberg group H. We first decompose the sub-Laplacian L into a family of twisted Laplacians Lτ on C, τ ∈ R \ {0}. Then using τ -Fourier–Wigner transforms of τ -Hermite functions that we define in Section 3, we give formulas for the heat kernel and Green function of the twisted Laplacian Lτ for every τ in R \ {0}. These formulas are analogues of the ones for L1, which can be found in [15]. The Green function of Lτ is then used to prove that Lτ is globally hypoelliptic in the setting of tempered distributions as in [15]. Using the global hypoellipticity of Lτ for every τ in R \ {0}, the main results on the growth properties of harmonic functions for the sub-Laplacian L can be established easily. Basic information on the classical Fourier–Wigner transforms can be found in [12] among others. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 47F05, 47G30; Secondary 35H20.
SEASONAL VARIATIONS OF THE PHYTOPLANKTON IN THE WHITE NILE AT KHARTOUM, SUDAN

The variation in numbers of the major planktonic algae in the surface water of the White Nile at Khartoum has been studied over a period of one year (May 2000-May 2001). In terms of biomass, the phytoplankton was dominated during the cold and warm months by diatoms and blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) and to lesser extent green algae. In terms of number of species chlorophycean algae outnumbered all other groups. Euglenophyceae and Dinophyceae were meagerly represented in the open water. No member of the Xantophyceae or Chrysophyceae was encountered in the plankton of the White Nile. Aulacoseira granulata and its variety angustissima and Anabaena flos-aquae f. spiroides were the most important taxa. Planktolyngbya (formerly Lyngbya) limnetica, Anabaenopsis cunningtonii and A. tanganyikae, which constituted important components of the phytoplankton in the early 1950s, either disappeared or maintained themselves in reduced numbers during the present
Towards An Evolutionary Psychological Categorization of Individual Differences

Sexual selection is essential for natural selection. Sexual selection implies the option to choose between different individuals. Recognizing that females invest more in their offspring than males, the quintessential question in sexual selection is: how can women be sure they choose the right male that will provide quality genes and resources for her and for her offspring? When Darwin published his book The descent of man and selection in relation to sex [1], in dealing with the problem of sexual selection he was somewhat baffled by the female preference for some males above others. Although he clearly understood that females have preferences for certain males, he never satisfactorily explained why such preferences evolve [2]. Much to his chagrin, Darwin was unable to solve the puzzle of the ostentatious tail of the peacock, the brilliant colors and song display of some birds and the aesthetic attraction of females for these phenomenal ornamentations in particular.
Old Age Care: The Swedish Way

Old age care will become an increasing task in all societies as population aging gives an increasing number of elderly that will need help with daily activities. In this article different means – and their costs – of old age care are discussed. There are three ways of organizing old age care, the family, the market and the state, each one with its pros and cons. Irrespective of form, old age care is expensive and due to aging costs will increase. Thus it is important to find forms that have both high quality and use resources efficiently. Population aging as well as migration, changing family patterns and changing economic structures pose challenges to old age care and will most probably induce changes in old types of care. There might be lessons to draw from other countries. The main focus of this article is on the Swedish way, with some minor references to German and Japanese ways. It is shown how the Swedish system has evolved from being mostly a responsibility of the family to today’s responsibility of the local public sector. It is tax financed and need of care is judged by local authority. Recently, privatization of providing old age care has obtained a footing, not financing though. Dissatisfaction with the care provided has lately increased the care given by family members
Neighbour‐stranger song discrimination in territorial ortolan bunting Emberiza hortulana males

Neighbour-stranger discrimination has been demonstrated in many species, but the mechanisms employed in discrimination vary. We tested whether an oscine bird with small repertoire size, the ortolan bunting Emberiza hortulana , discriminated between songs of neighbours and strangers. We performed playback experiments to measure response of males to a repeated single example of a single song type derived from a repertoire of a neighbour or stranger. Thirteen males were tested twice each, and in both cases songs were broadcast from the territory boundary shared by the subject male and the neighbour. Subjects responded more aggressively to songs of strangers than neighbours, i.e. they approached the loudspeaker faster and came closer and did more flights during the playback of stranger song. We found no significant differences in vocal response between treatments. We conclude that ortolan bunting can discriminate between songs of neighbours and strangers. This study provides experimental evidence for ortolan buntings in neighbour-stranger discrimination. It also demonstrates that a single example of song is enough to discriminate between neighbours and strangers. We discuss which song characteristics are the possible acoustic basis for discrimination in the studied species.
Influence of environmental temperature and humidity on the acute ventilatory response to exercise in asthmatic adolescents

Objective: This study aimed to analyse the influence of moderate changes in air temperature and humidity on the acute ventilatory response to exercise in asthmatic children. Design: 7 asthmatics over 15 years old (Experimental Group, EG), and 7 healthy subjects with the same characteristics (Control Group, CG) performed an exercise protocol in 2 different environments, interspaced by 48 hours: hot+humid environment (HH, temperature: 32.6±0.4oC, relative humidity: 42.4±1.6%) and an environment with less humidity+lower temperature (LHLT, temperature: 24.0±0.9oC, relative humidity: 36.3±1.3%). Steady state values of cardio-respiratory parameters were monitored during exercise, being the forced expiratory volume in 1 st second (FEV 1 ) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) obtained immediately before exercise and after 5 minutes of recovery. Results: The EG experienced a post-exercise decrease of FEV1 in LHLT (90.6±9.6%, p<0.05) and HH (95.2±5.8%, p<0.05) while CG did not show post-exercise changes in both environments (103.7±11.2% vs. 101.2±4.9%, respectively). The EG showed a post-exercise PEF decrease in the LTLH (94.6±8.8%, p<0.05) and no changes in the HH environment (99.7±4.2%), while CG did not show significant changes in both environments (102.9±12.7% vs. 107.0±9.8%). Conclusion: Results allow concluding that ventilatory response to exercise is influenced by air temperature and humidity, with a HH environment being more favourable for asthmatics.
Combating Youth Unemployment : The latest European fad ?

First, the data refer to those from 15 to 24 years old. But this age group consists of two sub-groups with very different characteristics. The “teenagers” (15-19 years old) should mostly still be in school; if not, they are likely to be very low skilled – and thus to have difficulty finding a full-time job even in good times. Fortunately, this group is rather small (and has been declining in size over time).
11 Exposing to EMF

1.1 Electromagnetic Field Radiation In the recent years, by developing the usage of new popular Electronic-Communication gadgets and home appliances like Mobile Phones and Microwave Ovens which are mostly sources of Electromagnetic Wave Radiation, a severe public concern regarding the sideeffects “whether positive or negative” on human health and environment has been arisen. It means that there are new challenging issues rather than old one “the exposing to low radiofrequency emissions” which have been studied for past decades. Indeed, for more than 100 years, human has exposed to the Radio-waves radiation from Radio & TV broadcasting transmitters besides the Radar and point to point V/UHF/microwave links. However due to the low power density of those high frequency emissions which were far enough, the only low frequency was considered as main and important subject of EMF to human. To set the limitations on all types of EMF Radiations the “International Non-Ionizing Radiation Committee” INIRC, in cooperation with “World Health Organization” WHO, had started their activities for 4 decades. Their first report to “United Nations Environment Program” UNEP has been approved in 1977. Later in 1992, to professionally study and investigate the detriments of Non-Ionized radiation and its effects on environment, INIRC changed to “International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection” ICNIRP. In spite of world activities that have been done so far, it can be easily understood that all kinds of EMF radiations, which we regularly use in industry and/ or in our personal life has become a vital part that we cannot ignore. Therefore, sometimes we expect and also suffer from and its side effects. [1] In the following sections, the different types of EMF and their characteristics besides of definitions, would be introduced and investigated separately. There are different fields that we use nowadays, i.e.; Electrostatic Field, Magnetic Field and Radio-waves which are our part of interest. It would be showed that the effect of near-field radiation is quite different comparing to RF effect of far-field as we used to know. It means that the closer to the source of radiation there are the new side-effects that we are exposed to. That is important to know that, distinguishing between near and far-field regions for all sources due to their frequency, dimensions and structure are not clarified well and consequently, EMF measuring techniques should be chosen carefully. The engineering techniques for measuring the intensity of radiation is named EMF Dosimetry which would be discussed in the next section and some
Place branding: a challenging process for Bucharest the capital city of Romania.

Marketing places though a relatively new activity has grown in importance as countries, regions and individual destinations such as cities compete with one another to attract investment and visitors. Almost every other region or important city will have at least one basic strategy to market itself for one or the other reason: investors or visitors. The dimension of marketing grows complex when a capital city needs being promoted. Recently for Romania, marketing its capital city using its identity and personality is a matter of crucial importance when considering competition. The identity of the capital city of an European country member could prove itself a challenging process given the fact that there are several common grounds, including uniformity, the group member would gave. As a result, individual, independent marketing becomes a necessity in order to differentiate and make the capital city visible and recognisable. Competition is the other aspect requiring clear, visible identity. In order to compete effectively, it is essential to identify the critical success factors and ensure these are incorporated into one’s strategic planning. Even from a tourist point of view place and destination marketing indicate that image and identity play an important role in differentiating between similar alternatives. This paper is focusing on action undertaken so far by Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, to market itself and to build a brand. It is also presenting experts opinion and comments on results, assessing the place branding process, discussing its stages and situation as they are at present.
The Cradle of Humanity: A Psychological and Phenomenological Perspective

We present an account of the evolutionary development of the experiences of empathy that marked the beginning of morality and art. We argue that aesthetic and moral capacities provided an important foundation for later epistemic developments. The distinction between phenomenal consciousness and attention is discussed, and a role for phenomenology in cognitive archeology is justified-critical sources of evidence used in our analysis are based on the archeological record. We claim that what made our species unique was a form of meditative and empathic thinking that made large-scale human cooperation possible through pre-linguistic, empathic communication. A critical aspect of this proposal is that the transformation that led to the dawn of our species was not initially driven by semantic or epistemic factors, although clearly, these factors increased the gap between us and other species dramatically later on. Our proposal suggests that recent philosophy of mind and psychology might have "epistemicized" phenomenal consciousness too much by construing it in terms of semantic content rather than by describing it in terms of empathic and meditative thinking. Instead of the prevailing approach, we favor the type of subjectivity that is fundamentally "other-involving" as essential, because on our account, a necessary condition for subjectivity is the empathic understanding of other individuals' psychology, not through inference or judgment, but through immediate conscious engagement. Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:. 0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Cambria",serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
Learning From History to Survive in the Future: Management Evolution on Trafalgar Station, North-East Queensland.

Managing rangeland enterprises requires balancing socio-economic goals within a production environment characterised by ecological complexity and large climatic variability. Trafalgar Station in north-east Queensland, has been trying to maintain this balance over a period of 80 years and three generations of the one family. This paper explores how management on Trafalgar Station has gone through four evolutionary phases and examines the advantages and disadvantages of each of these stages of development. The first 50 years of management was a technologically constrained era of low stock numbers and poor productivity but there were few resource management problems. Next followed a 20 year period of production maximisation which was made possible by improved cattle genetics and nutritional technologies. With drought feeding occurring more frequently and loss of perennial grasses and soil becoming more evident, there came the realisation that this high stocking strategy was unsustainable. The management of Trafalgar then embarked on a new philosophy based on conservative stocking (similar to historical levels) and increased emphasis on herd, pasture and financial management. This new management philosophy required a transitional phase where stock numbers. and income, were very low to allow pasture condition to improve. Current herd management focuses on maintaining quality rather than quantity, strategic use of supplements for production, and developing a diverse range of markets for sale cattle. Conservative stock numbers have increased opportunities in pasture management with 15 to 20% of the property now annually rested from grazing. Fire has been reintroduced to restrict "thickening" of native woody plants and to control exotic woody weeds. Together with long-term financial planning, these improvements in management are reducing economic risk. The perceived benefits of the current management philosophy are supported by simulation modelling studies of pasture and animal production and analyses of property economics.
Vitamin A in prevention and treatment of cancer

Dietary components not only act as chemo preventive agents but also risk factors in the onset of cancer, which stimulating nutritional bal-ance in cancer or non-cancer populations. The supplementation of antioxidant compounds, such as vitamin A (Vit A) and few of its deriva-tives has been reported to alleviate the oxidative stress in cancer patients. This review focuses on sketching a current scenario on the Vit A role in cancer prevention and therapy. Therefore, we searched for published article on PubMed and Science Direct between 2014 and 2015. The search yielded 75 articles related to Vit A-mediated anti-oxidative or pro-oxidative effects in cancer patients. A low dose-mediated anti-cancer effect was observed with Vit A in some cancers. The clinical studies showed discrepancies between the low and high doses of Vit A in cancer. In conclusion, precautions are needed in taking Vit A and its derivatives, especially in cancer.
Molecular Portrait of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: An Integrative Analysis of Gene Expression and Genomic Copy Number Profiling

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) incidence accounts for about 3 to 10 cases per 100,000 individuals with a predilection for adult males over 60 year old (1.6:1 male/female ratio) (Chow, 2010; Nese, 2009). In Europe, about 60,000 individuals are affected by RCC every year, with a mortality rate of about 18,000 subjects and an incidence rate for all stages steadily rising over the last three decades. Although inherited forms occur in a number of familial cancer syndromes, as the well-known von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome, RCC is commonly sporadic (Cohen & McGovern, 2005; Kaelin, 2007) and, as recently highlighted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), influenced by the interplay between exposure to environmental risk factors and genetic susceptibility of exposed individuals (Chow et al., 2010). Being poorly symptomatic in early phases, many cases become clinically detectable only when already advanced and, as such, therapy-resistant (Motzer, 2011). Based on histology, RCC can be classified into several subtypes, i.e., clear cell (80% of cases), papillary (10%), chromophobe (5%) and oncocytoma (5%), each one characterized by specific histopathological features, malignant potential and clinical outcome (Cohen & McGovern, 2005). Patient stratification is normally achieved using prognostic algorithms and nomograms based on multiple clinico-pathological factors such as TNM stage, Fuhrman nuclear grade, tumor size, performance status, necrosis and other hematological indices (Flanigan et al., 2011), although the most efficient predictors of survival and recurrence are based on nuclear grade alone (Nese et al., 2009). As recently reviewed by Brannon et al. (Brannon & Rathmell, 2010), a finer RCC subtype classification could be obtained exploiting the vast amount of