Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examination of wellness policy formation and process in U.S. school districts

The purpose of this study was to examine the process of wellness policy development in public school districts across the nation. The study examined the environments in school districts that support or hinder district-wide policy development. Phase 1 studied each state’s school nutrition legislation, regulations, and training to determine the environment for wellness policy development. Phase 2 consisted of 21 structured telephone interviews with school district foodservice directors in six USDA regions to explore the process of wellness policy development in their school districts and identify supporting factors and barriers encountered. Phase 3 was a national survey to examine wellness policy development. In Phase 1, three states in June 2004 met criteria for a strong legislative and regulatory environment for development of school district wellness policies. When states were evaluated in June 2006, 30 states met criteria for a strong legislative environment. In Phase 2, supporting factors identified by directors for wellness policy development included federal mandate, concern about student health, and the addition of state laws and regulations supporting wellness policies. Major barriers included competition for teaching time, priorities with No Child Left Behind, and funding for activities and physical education. Enforcement of the developed policy by school administration and money to support the program were the most frequently mentioned needs to make the wellness policy successful. Foodservice directors believed major change in nutrition policies will come in food choices in vending machines and a la carte foods. Directors believed the establishment of one federal nutrition policy is essential. Foodservice directors, in Phase 2, indicated wellness policies addressed overarching goals for nutrition education and minutes per day for physical education. Other
Welfare Effect of Monetary Financing

This study ascertained the direction and asymmetric pass-through of central bank’s monetary financing to welfare in Nigeria using annual time series data covering the period 1970 to 2018. The study depended on both the Monetarist and Keynesian theoretical postulations to provide insights on the policy significance of monetary financing. To undertake the empirical analysis, the study applied both the linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and non-linear ARDL (NARDL) technique. Unlike the ARDL equation, the estimated NARDL equation established that welfare losses respond negatively to both positive and negative changes in monetary financing; but the impact of negative monetary financing shock (7.11) is greater than the positive shock (2.87). In addition, the study found that it takes about 9 to 11 quarters for the changes in positive and negative monetary financing to fully release its effects on welfare loss. Besides, the results revealed that welfare loss is also driven by oil price, which is suggestive from oil price pass-through to domestic prices (exchange rate and consumer prices). The study, therefore, supports monetary financing in proper amounts and conditions to boost aggregate nominal demand but not to spur a fully-fledged monetary policy capture in the process.
Anomaly Detection and Exploratory Causal Analysis for SAP HANA

Nowadays, the good functioning of the equipment, networks and systems will be the key for the business of a company to continue operating because it is never avoidable for the companies to use information technology to support their business in the era of big data. However, the technology is never infallible, faults that give rise to sometimes critical situations may appear at any time. To detect and prevent failures, it is very essential to have a good monitoring system which is responsible for controlling the technology used by a company (hardware, networks and communications, operating systems or applications, among others) in order to analyze their operation and performance, and to detect and alert about possible errors. The aim of this thesis is thus to further advance the field of anomaly detection and exploratory causal inference which are two major research areas in a monitoring system, to provide efficient algorithms with regards to the usability, maintainability and scalability. The analyzed results can be viewed as a starting point for the root cause analysis of the system performance issues and to avoid falls in the system or minimize the time of resolution of the issues in the future. The algorithms were performed on the historical data of SAP HANA database at last and the results gained in this thesis indicate that the tools have succeeded in providing some useful information for diagnosing the performance issues of the system.
Regional material flow accounts for China: Examining China's natural resource use at the provincial and national level

Over the last three decades, China has experienced the most dynamic economic development lifting living standards and resulting in fast‐growing use of natural resources. In the past, the focus has been on national MFA accounts which do not do justice to the second largest economy, home to 19% of the world population and having 30% of global material use. In this research, we calculate material extraction for China at the regional level during 1995–2015 using the most recent available statistical data and applying the most up‐to‐date international calculation methods. In particular, we combine a bottom‐up and top‐down approach for constructing the dataset of China's economically used Domestic Extraction (DEU) in an integrated way. This approach also improves the Chinese national material flow accounts and allows us to present a reliable database of DE of materials for China to date. Our new dataset provides the basis for calculating material footprints and environmental impacts of China's regions. The dataset enables us to evaluate regional resource efficiency trends in China. We find that during the past two decades, China's material use has grown strongly from 11.7 billion tonnes in 1995 to 35.4 billion tonnes in 2015. Material use has accelerated between 2000 and 2010 but slowed down between 2010 and 2015 reflecting the economic contraction caused by the Global Financial Crisis which reduced the global demand for China's manufacturing and a reorientation of China's economic policy settings toward quality of growth. Unsurprisingly, different regions play different roles in the supply chain of materials, achieving different economic performances resulting in very diverse material efficiency outcomes. This information is important to allow for a targeted policy approach to increase resource efficiency, reduce environmental impacts of resource use, and grow wellbeing in China with large positive implications for global sustainability. This study provides the basis for the development of relevant resource management policies for different regions in the future.
Care Homes for Older People: Volume 1. Facilities, Residents and Costs

This is the first of two reports of a two-part study. This volume reports on the cross-sectional survey which was carried out in autumn 1996, some time after implementation of the reforms introduced in 1993 by the NHS and Community Care Act 1990, which had extended local authorities' responsibilities for assessing and funding residents. This part of the study focused on the characteristics of the homes and their residents and on the relationship between costs and dependency. The survey covered 673 homes and 21 local authorities. Information was collected at two levels: In the homes, data were collected about occupancy, turnover, care policies, and costs. Information on personal characteristics, fees, source of admission and source of funding were collected at individual level from a sample of 11,900 residents, out of a total population in the homes at the time of 20,200. The companion report, Care Homes for Older People: Volume 2 Admissions, Needs and Outcomes (Bebbington et al., 2001) describes the longitudinal survey of publicy-funded individuals admitted to long-term care.
Broadcasting to the masses or building communities: Polish political parties’ online performance during 2011 elections in international perspective

This paper analyses within the context of election contests the extent to which parties use the range of Web 2.0 tools, in particular social networking sites, weblogs and microblogs, in order to build communities online; we contrast this with the more traditional political use of the online environment for broadcasting. Using the 2011 Polish general election as a case study, we analyse the use of the online environment by all political parties, categorising features as offering a range of functions to serve visitors, from informing to allowing interaction. We also assess how different groups of visitors are targeted through different features or platforms. The data from the content analysis thus provides a rich picture of the online strategy of each party and the extent to which the Internet was used in the campaign. These data are supplemented by web cartography analysis which identifies the interlinkages between the websites of political parties, official information sources and the media. The cartography allows us to analyse the direction of traffic flow within the electoral websphere, the extent to which parties create open platforms with high levels of linkage to one another or if they maintain enclosed communities linking only to supportive sites. Overall our paper will provide an understanding of party election strategies during elections allowing discussion regarding the impact this might have on parties, media actors and voters. In particular we demonstrate how parties can use the range of web features to build communities of specific groups of visitors, in particular those with issue specific interests, those leaning towards supporting a party, and existing partisan campaigners. The use of these tools, we argue, can increase loyalty and lead to the conversion of supporters to activists. The paper leads into a discussion of how social networking tools have the potential to enhance the link between parties, members and supporters but that this depends on how the party utilises the online environment. Finally we aim to fit the Polish case study within a larger picture of political parties’ online performance during elections. Here we will compare our data on Poland with similar data which analysed the performance of parties in German 2009 general elections, parliamentary elections in Great Britain 2010 and French parliamentary election in 2012.
Remaining active in the labour market: Trends and characteristics of the over 50s

Abstract Drawing on the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS), this paper examines changes in the proportion of people aged over 50, active in the Irish labour market from 1998 to 2014. Results indicate that an increasing number of workers over 50 remain active, due mainly to the dramatic increase in the proportion of older females remaining in the labour force. By 2014 the 50 to 64 age group accounted for a quarter of all economically active people in the labour market between 15 and 64. Older workers are more likely to be employees and less likely to be employers or self-employed in 2014 compared to 1998. Older workers in lower-level occupations, particularly over the age of 60, are more likely to remain economically active. Level of education is strongly associated with the likelihood of older workers remaining economically active, particularly for the 50-59 age group and for females.
Associative and quasitrivial operations on finite sets: characterizations and enumeration

We investigate the class of binary associative and quasitrivial operations on a given finite set. Here the quasitriviality property (also known as conservativeness) means that the operation always outputs one of its input values. We also examine the special situations where the operations are commutative and nondecreasing, in which cases the operations reduce to discrete uninorms (which are discrete fuzzy connectives playing an important role in fuzzy logic). Interestingly, associative and quasitrivial operations that are nondecreasing are characterized in terms of total and weak orderings through the so-called single-peakedness property introduced in social choice theory by Duncan Black. We also address and solve a number of enumeration issues: we count the number of binary associative and quasitrivial operations on a given finite set as well as the number of those operations that are commutative and/or nondecreasing.
The Increase in Multigenerational Households in the UK: The Motivations for and Experiences of Multigenerational Living

ABSTRACT Many worldwide live in households with multiple generations of related adults. This paper shows that the number of UK multigenerational households has been increasing but UK multigenerational households have been little studied. The research found that the motivations for multigenerational living are diverse and reflect multiple intersecting structural pressures, including an ageing population, worsening housing affordability and later household formation amongst young people. These intersect with individual circumstances, such as divorce or illness, to make multigenerational living the most practical option for some families. However, forming a multigenerational household is also often an individual and family choice, based on the expectation of mutual benefits brought about by multigenerational living. The research suggests that the extent to which living in a multigenerational household is a positive experience is determined by an individual’s degree of agency and choice in the arrangement, rather than an ability to cope with wider structural pressures.
Virus: The Co-discoverer of HIV Tracks Its Rampage and Charts the Future

In the early 1980s the body of evidence for a virus of epidemic proportions was becoming irrefutable. The hunt for its cause was on and brought with it a race against time to identify the virus. In this autobiographical tale of that search, Luc Montagnier, relates the Institut Pasteur's role in investigating the AIDS virus and his group's success in identifying it before the National Health team. Filled with insights into controversies that arose over the questions of who discovered what, and when - a subject that generated almost as much new coverage as the disease itself - the book also conveys the scientific aspects of the disease and its devastating course throughout the world. Dr Montagnier's provides a commentary on critical subjects such as the possibilities for a vaccine, the current therapies available to AIDS patients and prospects for winning the battle against this virus.
Intraday Anomalies in the Relationship betweenU.S. Futures and European Stock Indexes

The authors present an empirical investigation of the intraday minute by minute relationship between the U.S. S&P 500 Index Futures and the three major European stock indexes (CAC 40,DAX-100, and FTSE 100). Data analysis shows that the well-established positive correlation between futures and stock indexes extends to this specific cross-country case. The correlation is particularly strong in the opening and closing of the European markets but decreases quickly and remarkably between 13:00 and 13:30 CET. This fall is interpreted as derived from the expected release of press communication from U.S. companies. Whereas in the U.S., futures traded volumes decrease until the announcements are made, in Europe the expectation of new information coming from the U.S. affects index price sensitivity, providing arbitrage opportunities due to the imperfect international integration of financial markets.
Usability of a Home-Based Monitoring System for Community-Dwelling Elderly People during a Pilot Study

The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the usability of a monitoring system that can monitor indicators of physical functioning (weight, balance, grip strength, and physical activity) in community-dwelling elderly people. Monitoring such indicators can identify elderly people who could benefit from (preventive) interventions. The system can also provide feedback to support elderly people in their self- management. A geriatrician invited patients aged 70 years or older to participate in the pilot study. Participants rated the usability of the monitoring system after using the system at home for three weeks. Usability was measured on a 7-point scale using an adapted version of the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire and by logging errors that occurred in a diary. Six participants between 79 and 83 years old were included and four of them completed the pilot study. The mean usability score was 5.2 (SD .90) and scores ranged from 3.8 to 6.2. The participants were mostly positive about the usability of the monitoring system but some improvements have to be made before the system can be implemented and evaluated on a larger scale.
A C-159T polymorphism of CD14 receptor and polymorphism of TLR4 gene in patients with alcoholic fatty liver and alcoholic cirrhosis

Obok czynników środowiskowych, diety, trybu życia, itp. prawdopodobny wpływ na rozwój alkoholowego stłuszczenia (AC) i alkoholowej marskości wątroby (AC) mają czynniki genetyczne. Badania kliniczne dowodzą, iż toksyny bakterii Gram-ujemnych u osób przewlekle nadużywających alkoholu w większym stopniu przedostają się do krwi ze światła jelita. Przez interakcję z receptorami błony komórkowej CD14 i TLR4 powodują one aktywację komórek Kupffera w wątrobie i produkcję cytokin prozapalnych, które uszkadzają hepatocyty. Polimorfizm C-159T receptora CD14 w rejonie promotorowym genu powoduje zwiększenie ekspresji tego receptora na powierzchni komórek Kupffera oraz nasilenie reakcji immunologicznej. Również polimorfizm C-1196T jego ko-receptora TLR4 może powodować zmiany w kaskadzie sygnalizacyjnej. W badaniu oznaczono warianty polimorficzne genu CD14 i TLR4 w grupie chorych z alkoholowym stłuszczeniem (AFL) i alkoholową marskością wątroby (AC) oraz w grupie kontrolnej, wykorzystując technikę RT-PCR. W przypadku polimorfizmu C-159T receptora CD14 stwierdzono istotne statystycznie różnice w częstości występowania genotypu TT w grupie osób z AC i kontrolnej (p = 0,008), co sugeruje ochronną rolę allelu C. Natomiast w przypadku polimorfizmu C-1196T receptora TLR4 stwierdzono znaczne różnice w częstości występowania genotypu CC między grupą chorych z AFL i kontrolną (p = 0,009*10-9). Rozkład genotypów C-1196T TLR4 u chorych z AC i w kontroli był niemal identyczny. Uzyskane w tej grupie wyniki nie pozwalają na jednoznaczną interpretację, co sugeruje konieczność kontynuacji badań na większej populacji.
Public service innovation: a typology

ABSTRACT Existing classifications of public service innovation are largely derived from a private sector perspective and an internal orientation, overlooking their public value and collaborative nature. In this article, we present a typology for defining and classifying innovation in public service organizations that comprises two dimensions: ‘innovation focus’ (three public value creation processes of strategy, capacity and operations), and ‘innovation locus’ (internal and external). Together, these result in six types of innovation: mission, policy, management, partner, service, and citizen. A preliminary assessment is presented. The implications of the typology for understanding public service innovation are discussed.
Emotion Recognition using Spatiotemporal Features from Facial Expression Landmarks

Emotion expression is a type of nonverbal communication (i.e. wordless cues) between people, where affect plays the role of interpersonal communication with information conveyed by facial and/or body expressions. Much can be understood about how people are feeling through their expressions, which are crucial for everyday communication and interaction. This paper presents a study on spatiotemporal feature extraction based on tracked facial landmarks. The features are tested with multiple classification methods to verify whether they are discriminative enough for an automatic emotion recognition system. The Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF) [1] were used to determine features representing the human facial expressions of angry, disgusted, happy, sad, afraid, surprised and neutral. The resulting set of features were tested using K-fold cross-validation. Experimental results show that facial expressions can be recognised correctly with an accuracy of up to 87% when using the newly-developed features and a multiclass Support Vector Machine classifier.
Terrorism and Newspapers: Representation of ISIL and PKK Terror Attacks in Turkish Newspapers

This study deals with news coverage of some of the recent terrorist attacks in Turkey. It uses a data compiled for a project on impacts of journalism on countering violent extremism in Turkey (henceforth the CVE Project). The data is analysed using an eclectic version of critical discourse analysis. The analysis stats with an explanation of the data and the context of the terrorist attacks in question. Then the argumentation strategies used by newspapers are examined through pragma-dialectical argumentation approach developed by van Eemeren and Grootendorst. Metaphors are also analysed through the lenses of conceptual metaphor thesis proposed by George Lakoff. The findings show that arguments against terrorist attacks taking place in Turkey are highly marked by Turkey’s experience with the PKK terror and political stances. Metaphors used in news articles also reveal ideological and political treatment of the issue at stake. All in all, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between media and terrorism.
DETERMINANTS OF SMOKING AND DESIRE TO QUIT IN ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN

We studied the prevalence and determinants of smoking and desire to stop smoking in a cross-sectional study among 1174 randomly selected adults aged 45+ years in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Associations between smoking and its correlates were studied by multivariable Poisson regression. Prevalence ratios (PR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Among current smokers we also studied factors associated with their desire to quit. Altogether, 40.7 % of men were current smokers and 63.1 % of them desired to stop smoking. The corresponding numbers for women were 10.0 % and 72.1 %. Male gender (PR = 4.14; 95 % CI: 3.18-5.40), Russian ethnicity (PR = 1.56; 95 % CI: 1.23-1.97), secondary or less education (PR = 1.37; 95 % CI: 1.09-1.73) and having satisfactory or worse psychological family climate (PR = 1.84; 95 % CI: 1.26-2.67) were positively associated with smoking. Men who reported poor (PR = 1.24; 95 % CI: 1.11-1.38) or satisfactory (PR = 1.17; 95 % CI: 1.08-1.27) health, had very good psychological family climate (PR = 1.20; 95 % CI: 1.03-1.41), and smoked 10-19 cigarettes a day (PR = 1.29; 95 % CI: 1.17-1.41) were more likely to report a desire to quit smoking. Number of daily smoked cigarettes, self-rated health, and psychological family climate were associated with the desire to quit.