Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Which Italian SMEs fall in love with digitalisation? An exploration into the determinants

Purpose Digitalisation represents an important opportunity for SMEs or, in other words, a fundamental factor to help them implement competitive strategies aimed at innovation, cost reduction and internationalization. This study aims to investigate the determinants of the level of digitalisation of Italian SMEs. Design/methodology/approach This study firstly involves a survey based on short telephone interviews to measure the level of digitalisation of 101 Italian SMEs and, secondly, uses a regression model to identify the drivers of this level of digitalisation. Findings Empirical findings reveal that the Italian SMEs have an average level of digitalisation. Besides, they show that firm size, firm profitability and financial leverage represent drivers that positively influence the digitalisation of the Italian SMEs. Originality/value This study provides an important contribution to the academic literature by providing a first operationalization of the concept of business digitalisation and by broadening the knowledge of the drivers of the level of digitalisation in the SMEs context.
Ordered Mesoporous Zeolite Thin Films with Perpendicular Reticular Nanochannels of Wafer Size Area

Highly ordered mesoporous zeolite thin films (MZTFs) are grown at rigid substrates via molecular interaction from ternary structure-directing agents (SDAs) in a Stober-like condition. The ultrathin films (10–20 nm) were deposited layer-by-layer via self-assembly of β-zeolite seeds and SDAs at 40–50 °C, resulting reticular cellular pores and perpendicular nanochannels with average pore sizes (6.7 ± 1.1 nm). The walls of the nanochannels consist of zeolitic structures in microcrystallines. Compared to cylindrical mesochannels of amorphous silica thin films, the MZTFs with reticular mesochannels demonstrate 5R/6R stretching modes (550–650 cm–1) and significantly enhanced hydrothermal stability. The MZTFs were characterized in top-view and cross-sectional electron microscopies (SEM/HRSEM/HRTEM) as well as X-ray scattering techniques (GIXRD/GISAXS), which confirm a body-centered tetragonal (Im3m) unit cell with unique Moire patterns. Upon calcination, the film thickness is reduced to 10.6 nm with a structure .
Effect of spin contamination error on surface catalytic reaction: NO reduction by core-shell catalysts

ABSTRACT The effects of spin contamination errors on the activation barriers of catalytic NO reduction by TiO2/Ag and ZrO2/Cu core-shell catalyst models were investigated using an approximate spin projection method and an unrestricted density functional theory calculation with the plane-wave basis set. The estimated barrier of the TiO2/Ag system increased (0.03 eV), whereas that of the ZrO2/Cu system decreased (0.04 eV) after the correction of the spin contamination error. This difference in the estimated barriers of the two systems can be attributed to the difference in their surface structures. The error obtained for the TiO2/Ag system was larger than that obtained for the gas phase, i.e. the spin contamination error was induced by the molecule/surface interaction. Moreover, the error correction also changed the rate-determining step of ZrO2/Cu. These results demonstrate the importance of the correction of spin contamination errors for the detailed investigation of catalytic reactions. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Dietary Fiber Reduces the Concentrations of Certain Aldehydes in Serum

Aldehydes have been shown to be potentially carcinogenic, mutagenic, and cardiotoxic to humans. Dietary fiber reduces exposure to certain environmental pollutants and has been widely used to improve various metabolic disorders. However, the effects of dietary fiber on serum concentrations of aldehydes remain unexplored. We collected data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013–2014. Generalized linear regression and restricted cubic spline models were performed to elucidate the association of dietary fiber intake with the serum concentration of aldehydes. After fully adjusting for age, sex, education level, race, smoking status, alcohol use, diabetes, hypertension, body mass index, energy intake, poverty-income ratio and physical activity, dietary fiber intake had a strong negative association with serum levels of isopentanaldehyde and propanaldehyde and a positive association with serum levels of benzaldehyde. The estimated increases in the mean log2-unit (ng/mL) of aldehydes for each fold increase in dietary fiber ranged from − 0.155 (95% confidence intervals [CI]: -0.210 to -0.101) for isopentanaldehyde to -0.053 (95% CI: -0.094 to -0.011) for propanaldehyde and 0.156 (95% CI: 0.091 to 0.222) for benzaldehyde. No significant association was observed between dietary fiber intake and the concentration of any other aldehydes. These results demonstrate that dietary fiber reduces the concentration of certain aldehydes in serum.
Strategic Planning Practices and Performance: The Story So Far in Parliamentary Service Commission in Kenya

The economic and political change in today’s organizations is the norm and the social and technological change is highly accelerating posing extremely complex task and uncertainty to those responsible for strategic planning. Therefore, in executing various decisions there is need for managers to achieve a total understanding of strategic planning prior to effectively implementing it. This study investigated the influence of strategic planning practices on the performance of Parliamentary Service Commission in Kenya. The study specifically examined influence of environmental scanning, objective setting, stakeholder involvement and communication on performance of Kenyan Parliamentary Service Commission. The study was anchored on resource-based view; dynamic capability; balance score card and institutional theories. Descriptive survey research design was used. The target population comprised of eight hundred and five respondents who are the permanent staff of the Parliamentary Service Commission. However, a sample size of eighty-one respondents was selected using simple random sampling. Data was obtained using questionnaires and analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics specifically multiple regressions and correlation. The study established that environmental scanning, objective setting, stakeholder involvement and communication had a positive and significant effect on the performance of Parliamentary Service Commission in Kenya. The study recommends that the Commission should identify the persons to be involved in the environmental scanning, create a competent team of employees and assign them relevant responsibilities. The Commission needs to set objectives that can be defined in a quantifiable and measurable terms within its strategic plan beside establishing responsibility for ensuring the task is undertaken and for writing it up for the report on stakeholder engagement. The Commission should link communication to the strategic plan, including the organization’s mission, vision and values, its strategic goals and objectives.
Counting efficiency evaluation of optical particle counters in micrometer range by using an inkjet aerosol generator

Abstract This study introduces the method to evaluate the counting efficiencies of optical particle counters (OPCs), , at particle diameter greater than 1 μm by using an inkjet aerosol generator (IAG). This study demonstrates the evaluations at 5 and 10 μm in volume equivalent diameter. The chemical composition of the particles is either sodium chloride or lactose monohydrate. The aerosol flowrate of the IAG is set at 0.3 L/min, and the aerosol is delivered to an OPC with sampling flowrate 6 L/min (Omron, ZN-PD50S). The mismatch of the flowrates is compensated for by adding particle-free air in a laminar flow chamber. In order to simulate the sampling of uniformly mixed aerosol from a real environment, the particles are delivered to different points over the inlet plane of the isokinetic probe attached to the OPC. Particle flux into the isokinetic probe is proportional to the gas-velocity into the probe; however, the true velocity distribution is usually unknown. It is assumed that the true velocity distribution is bounded by two flow models: the plug and parabolic flows. A set of delivery points are prepared to simulate the particle flux under each flow model. Experimental results show that the choice of flow model influences the value of at 10 μm indicating is potentially different from the true value since the true value can be evaluated only if the true velocity distribution is known. The potential bias in is considered as a source of systematic error in our uncertainty analysis. © 2018 American Association for Aerosol Research
Public-private partnerships to solve the skills gap?

This article focuses on the issue of the ‘skills gap’ and the possibility for governments to stimulate collaborative partnerships between educational institutions and businesses (‘public-private partnerships’) to reduce this gap. The Dutch government initialized several such initiatives to realize regional public-private partnerships in vocational and higher education (Ministry of Education, 2017; Ministry of Economic Affairs, 2018), but also within the private sector alone, to stimulate cooperation to bridge the skills gap. The government implemented an incentive to build partnerships with much freedom to set goals and activities and to focus on experimentation and learning, with the requirement of co-funding and shared goals among partners. Partnerships might be able to achieve results that colleges or companies could never hope to attain alone (‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’). Based on an analysis of 48 partnerships up until 2017, this appears to be true: partnerships can engage in a large variety of activities that each partner alone would not have accomplished; and can reflect and adapt based on their progress. However, the power relationship within the partnerships appears to have a strong tendency to lean towards the education institution, leading to goal displacement regarding their primary goal and the termination of activities that are perceived as difficult by the education institution, in the Netherlands most notably lifelong learning. This causes concern about the likelihood of involvement of (smaller) companies in the long term. The position of the less powerful partners (often small-and medium sized companies) needs to be strengthened for them to continue to participate, focusing on activities that benefit these partners, such as lifelong learning.
Monte Carlo Simulations of Ultrasound Scattering and Absorption in Finite-Size Heterogeneous Materials

Determination of ultrasound scattering and intrinsic attenuations in heterogeneous media is of importance from material characterization to geophysical applications. Here, we present an efficient inverse method within a finite-size scattering medium, where boundary reflection plays a crucial role. To fit the energy profile of scattered coda waves, we solve the acoustic radiative-transfer equation by Monte Carlo simulations for cylinder and slab geometries, under the isotropic scattering approximation. We show that the fit with the simplistic radiative-transfer solution in an infinite medium may result in underestimated values of the scattering mean free path, ${l}_{s}$, and absorption, ${Q}_{i}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, by up to 40%. Our main finding is anomalous transport behavior in thin slab samples, where the ballistic peak and the diffusionlike one are merged into one single peak. This anomalous behavior, related to a wave-focusing effect in the forward direction, can mislead the inverse process and lead to an overestimation of ${l}_{s}$ by more than 200%. We compare simulated energy profiles with ultrasound envelopes obtained in a polycrystal-like granite slab from the ballistic to the diffusive regime. The ${l}_{s}$ deduced from off-axis detections agrees with that estimated from the correlation length of the shear-wave velocity by structural imaging analysis.
Change Characteristics and Multilevel Influencing Factors of Real Estate Inventory—Case Studies from 35 Key Cities in China

High inventory is a common issue in urban real estate markets in many countries, posing a threat to the sustainable development of macroeconomics and society. This study built an analytical framework for the evolution of real estate inventory and its driving mechanisms and conducted an empirical study on 35 key cities in China. The findings show that, first, China has a huge real estate inventory with significant spatial heterogeneity. Second, the real estate inventory in China first rises and then falls, presenting an inverted U-shaped change trend; however, the spatial heterogeneity first falls and then rises, characterized by a U-shaped evolutionary change. Third, the present characteristics and evolutionary paths vary among different types of real estate inventory, mainly showing growth, stability, and inverted U-shaped changes. Fourth, the influencing factors of real estate inventory are increasingly diversified, and different factor pairs show bifactor-enhanced and nonlinearly-enhanced interaction effects, with a more intricate and complex driving mechanism. Fifth, four types of policy areas were divided according to the Boston Consulting Group Matrix, and it is recommended that the design of de-stocking policies should be dominated by “key factors” for cities in the stars and cows policy areas, while “important factors” and “auxiliary factors” should be equally emphasized for cities in the question policy area; the cities in the dogs policy area should keep the status quo as much as possible with avoidance of undesirable or excessive interventions.
Acidification and Deoxygenation of the Northwestern Japan/East Sea

Seasonal hypoxia in the bottom waters of the Peter the Great Bay (PGB) of the Japan/East Sea (JES) occurs in summer. Using the empirical relationship between dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH obtained for hypoxic conditions and available historical DO data, acidification rates were estimated. Carefully sampled time-series observations from the northwestern part of the JES, carried out from 1999 to 2014 along the 132°20′ E and 134°00′ E longitudes, were chosen to determine the interannual variability of the sea’s hydrochemical parameters (DO, pH, and TA—the total alkalinity phosphates, nitrate, and silicates). To limit the effects of seasonal and spatial variability, only data obtained in the warm period were used. Additionally, all data from depths shallower than 500 m were discarded because they are affected by high natural variability, mostly due to strong mesoscale dynamic structures. Our results demonstrated that the pH and DO concentrations measured in the Upper Japan Sea Proper Water (750 m), Lower Japan Sea Proper Water (1250, 1750, 2250 m), and Bottom Water (3000 m) have been decreasing in recent years. On the other hand, calculated normalized dissolved inorganic carbon (NDIC), CO2 partial pressure (pCO2), and measured nutrient concentrations have been increasing. Maximum rates of acidification and deoxygenation are occurring at around 750 m. The annual rate of increase of pCO2 in the water exceeds the atmospheric rate more than 2-fold at a depth of 750 m. The observed variability of the hydrochemical properties can be explained by the combination of the slowdown ventilation of the vertical water column and eutrophication. However, the results obtained here are valid for the subpolar region of the JES, not for the whole sea. The synchronization of the deoxygenation of the open part of the JES and PGB has been found.
EL MACROGÉNERO ESCENARIOS: UNA EXPERIENCA DE ENZEÑANZA A LO LARGO DEL CURRICULUM DESDE LA LINGÜÍSTICA SISTÉMICO-FUNCIONAL

This paper approaches educational linguistics, focusing the explicit teaching of reading and writing across the curriculum, following a genre-based theory based on systemic functional linguistics. It reports the experience with students of two courses at the degree of Administration, at Universitiy of Flores in Argentina. To do this, the macrogenre “Scenario” is described, paying attention to its schematic structure and the most significant discoursesemantic resources. Then, the foundations of the pedagogic proposal implemented are presented as well as the analysis tools applied to the texts produced by the students in order to present the quantitative results obtained. Finally, we argue that this explicit genre-based
Efeito da desordem catiônica nas propriedades magnéticas da ferrita de zinco

Neste trabalho nos investigamos as propriedades estruturais e magneticas de amostras de ZnFe2O4 preparadas pelo metodo de reacao do estado solido e co-precipitacao obtidas usando diferentes temperaturas de sintese. Medidas de difracao de raios X (DRX) foram realizadas com o objetivo de verificar se a fase unica foi obtida, assim como para determinar a pureza da amostra com relacao a quantidade de fases espurias existentes. A caracterizacao magnetica foi feita atraves de medidas de magnetizacao em funcao do campo magnetico aplicado (65 < H < 65 kOe) e em funcao da temperatura (2 < T < 400 K) usando um magentometro SQUID da Quantum Design MPMS SQUID-EverCool. Alem disso, nos analisamos a dependencia do campo coercivo com a temperatura das nanoparticulas de ZnFe2O4. Um modelo teorico que considera a distribuicao de tamanhos de particulas foi utilizado para fazer o ajuste aos nossos dados experimentais de coercividade em funcao da temperatura
Feedback Control Over Noisy Channels: Characterization of a General Equilibrium

In this article, we study an energy-regulation tradeoff that delineates the fundamental performance bound of a feedback control system over a noisy channel in an unreliable communication regime. The channel and the process are modeled by an additive white Gaussian noise channel with fading and a partially observable Gauss–Markov process, respectively. Moreover, the feedback control loop is constructed by designing an encoder with a scheduler and a decoder with a controller. The scheduler and the controller are the decision makers deciding about the transmit power and the control input at each time, respectively. Associated with the energy-regulation tradeoff, we characterize an equilibrium at which neither the scheduler nor the controller has a unilateral incentive to deviate from its policy. We argue that this equilibrium is a general one as it attains global optimality without any restrictions on the information structure or the policy structure, despite the presence of signaling and dual effects.
Breaking Brands: New Boundaries in Rural Destinations

Tourism destinations are generally delimited and branded based on administrative boundaries, which act as artificial barriers that may reduce the competitiveness of the tourism sector. Increasingly, literature is taking a demand perspective (i.e., tourist spatial behaviour) when identifying and promoting destinations. This perspective can help to promote destinations more efficiently, particularly in rural areas, where most tourism flows depend on private vehicle and which do not take into account administrative boundaries. These flows are therefore highly conditioned by the geography of the area, hosting capacity and the cumulative effect of attractions. This research centres on brand creation from a tourist perspective, particularly how tourists consume a destination. Els Ports (Spain), a rural mountain area divided into multiple administrative divisions, each marketing its own brand, is taken as a case study. Recently, destination managers have seen the opportunity for regional cooperation and taken steps to cross traditional boundaries to market the area better. This study uses GIS techniques to compare tourist travel patterns with brand boundaries and new cooperative initiatives. The findings provide material for discussion on the branding strategy of Els Ports and the need to rebrand rural tourism destinations into functional tourism areas.
Biocompatibility of SLS-Formed Calcium Phosphate Implants

A method for fabricating artificial calcium phosphate bone implants by the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) process has been developed that can fabricate complex and delicate calcium phosphate bone facsimiles from a variety of data inputs including Computed Tomography(CT) files (1). This paper discusses two in vivo biocompatibility studies of SLS-formed calcium phosphate implants in both rabbits and dogs. Histologic analysis shows a high degree of biocompatibility and bone ingrowth in both studies.
Wave-Forced Dynamics at Microtidal River Mouths

Microtidal river mouths are dynamic environments that evolve as a consequence of many forcing actions. Under the hydrodynamic viewpoint, river currents, sea waves and tides strongly interact, and their interplay determines specific sediment transport and morphological patterns. Beyond literature evidence, information comes from field observations made at the Misa River study site, a microtidal river along the Adriatic Sea (Italy), object of a long-going monitoring. The river runs for 48 km in a watershed of 383 km2, providing a discharge of about 400 m3/s for return periods of 100 years. The overall hydrodynamics, sediment transport and morphological evolution at the estuary are analyzed with particular attention to specific issues like: the generation of vortical flows at the river mouth, the influence of various wave modes (infragravity to tidal) propagating upriver, the role of sediment flocculation, the generation and evolution of bed features (river-mouth bars and longitudinal nearshore bars). Numerical simulations are also used to clarify specific mechanisms of interest.
Metallic-Phase MoS2 Nanopetals with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity for Hydrogen Evolution

MoS2 shows a great promise as a low-cost and highly active alternative to platinum-based catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen production from water. The activity of MoS2 is believed from the edge, defect sites, and the basal plane of metallic phase (M-MoS2). Here we report on a facile hydrothermal method for the preparation of MoS2 nanopetals that are in metallic phase and have abundant edges. The amount of sulfur precursors are found to play a critical role on the formation of MoS2 nanopetals. The MoS2 nanopetals exhibit remarkable electrocatalytic activities for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), with a low overpotential of 210 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm–2 and a Tafel slope of 44 mV per decade. The MoS2 nanopetals also display very good durability, with a very small negative shift of 11 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm–2, and negligible shift at the current density of 50 mA cm–2 after 2000 cycles. Our facile preparation method and high electrocatalytic activity of MoS2 nanopetals f.
Down with the #Dogefather: Evidence of a Cryptocurrency Responding in Real Time to a Crypto-Tastemaker

Recent research in cryptocurrencies has considered the effects of the behavior of individuals on the price of cryptocurrencies through actions such as social media usage. However, some celebrities have gone as far as affixing their celebrity to a specific cryptocurrency, becoming a crypto-tastemaker. One such example occurred in April 2021 when Elon Musk claimed via Twitter that “SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon”. He later called himself the “Dogefather” as he announced that he would be hosting Saturday Night Live (SNL) on 8 May 2021. By performing sentiment analysis on relevant tweets during the time he was hosting SNL, evidence is found that negative perceptions of Musk’s performance led to a decline in the price of Dogecoin, which dropped 23.4% during the time Musk was on air. This shows that cryptocurrencies are affected in real time by the behaviors of crypto-tastemakers.