Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of chitosan concentration on the protein release behaviour of electrospun poly(-caprolactone)/chitosan nanofibers

Poly(e-caprolactone)/chitosan (PCL/chitosan) blend nanofibers with different ratios of chitosan were electrospun from a formic acid/acetic acid (FA/AA) solvent system. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used as a model protein to incorporate biochemical cues into the nanofibrous scaffolds. The morphological characteristics of PCL/chitosan and PCL/chitosan/BSA Nanofibers were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to detect the presence of polymeric ingredients and BSA in the Nanofibers. The effects of the polymer blend ratio and BSA concentration on the morphological characteristics and consequently on the BSA release pattern were evaluated. The average fiber diameter and pore size were greater in Nanofibers containing BSA. The chitosan ratio played a significant role in the BSA release profile from the PCL/chitosan/BSA blend. Nanofibrous scaffolds with higher chitosan ratios exhibited less intense bursts in the BSA release profile.
Break Date Estimation for Models with Deterministic Structural Change

In this article, we consider estimating the timing of a break in level and/or trend when the order of integration and autocorrelation properties of the data are unknown. For stationary innovations, break point estimation is commonly performed by minimizing the sum of squared residuals across all candidate break points, using a regression of the levels of the series on the assumed deterministic components. For unit root processes, the obvious modification is to use a first differenced version of the regression, while a further alternative in a stationary autoregressive setting is to consider a GLS-type quasi-differenced regression. Given uncertainty over which of these approaches to adopt in practice, we develop a hybrid break fraction estimator that selects from the levels-based estimator, the first-difference-based estimator, and a range of quasi-difference-based estimators, according to which achieves the global minimum sum of squared residuals. We establish the asymptotic properties of the estimators considered, and compare their performance in practically relevant sample sizes using simulation. We find that the new hybrid estimator has desirable asymptotic properties and performs very well in finite samples, providing a reliable approach to break date estimation without requiring decisions to be made regarding the autocorrelation properties of the data.
A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODEL OF PERCEIVED RISK IN SPECTATOR SPORT

Risk perception influences consumer decision-making, and despite research on what motivates people to attend sport events, little research exists on barriers (e.g. constraints) to attendance. The purpose of this research was to identify items measuring perceived risk associated with attending collegiate football games. Perceived risk items were identified and subjected to an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). College students (N = 711) from two universities in the southeastern US participated in the study. Results of the EFA yielded a five-factor, 28-item model. The model was submitted to a CFA, and a five-factor, 21-item model emerged. Results indicated that while Performance Risk and Time Risk were the highest among the various dimensions, consumers perceived little risk with attendance at a collegiate football game. Overall, the findings support the multi-dimensional nature of perceived risk and highlight its importance as a potential constraint for sport spectators.
Introducing the “Calories Per Gram” Label to Promote Healthy Food Choices

We test a halo explanation of the paradoxical rise in obesity and in the consumption of objectively healthier foods. In two field studies and two laboratory experiments, we find that calorie estimations are primed by the vice or virtue positioning of fast-food restaurant brands and menus (e.g., Subway vs. McDonald’s). Such health halos lead people to indulge in higher-calorie side orders and desserts when the main sandwich has a healthy prime than with an unhealthy one. As a result, “healthy” fast-food meals can contain more calories, but be perceived as containing fewer, than unhealthy meals. Fortunately, a consider-the-opposite estimation strategy eliminates the effects of health claims on portion size estimations and on subsequent consumption decisions.
EFFECTS OF MIDSOLE THICKNESS ON SINGLE LEG DROP LANDING GROUND REACTION FORCE AND DYNAMIC STABILITY

Dynamic instability and high loading rates are associated with athletic injuries. Research is conflicting regarding the effect of midsole cushioning on ground reaction force variables. This study aimed to investigate the effect of athletic footwear midsole thickness on vertical force and dynamic stability in single leg 0.25 m drop landings. Eleven male field sports players performed 5 dominant and 5 non-dominant leg drop landings onto a force plate. The landings were performed barefoot and wearing four shoes of differing midsole thicknesses. Significantly larger vertical forces and rates of loading were found in the barefoot and minimal conditions, compared to the thickest midsole. The only significant differences in stability measures were larger AP CoP amplitude in barefoot and minimal to oversized midsoles (non-dominant leg only). These findings suggests wearers should be aware of potential increased injury risk in minimalist shoes and consider thicker midsoles if, following a period of adjustment, technique changes cannot be achieved to dissipate these forces.
Relative habitat- and browse-use of native desert mule deer and exotic oryx in the greater San Andres Mountains, New Mexico

Introduced oryx (Oryx gazella gazella) have expanded into the San Andres Mountains of south-central New Mexico, but little is known of concurrent habitat used by oryx and desert mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus crooki); the latter in New Mexico is a species of special concern that has declined signifi cantly since the introduction of oryx. We used fecal-pellet and browse surveys in combination with presence modeling to identify differences in relative use of habitat types, distribution, and browsing of highly palatable, highly preferred (hereafter, key) plant species during 2004 to 2006 to assess the potential for direct competition in use of resources in the San Andres Mountains. Numbers of pellet groups per transect (hereafter referred to as relative use) of oryx was greatest in sandsage (Artemisia fi lifolia) shrublands and alkali sacaton (Sporobolus airoides) grasslands, whereas mule deer-use was greatest in oak- (Quercus spp.) mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus) shrublands, and pinyon- (Pinus edulis) juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodlands. Use of key mule deer browse species was low (<4.0% of current annual growth browsed) in all habitat types. Relative use of oryx accounted for 42% of the variation in browse percentages in pinyon-juniper woodlands and 58% of the variation in mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) shrublands, whereas mule deer-use accounted for 79% of the variation in oak-mountain mahogany shrublands and 27% in pinyon-juniper woodlands. Presence models similarly indicated that deer distribution was most positively associated with oak-mountain mahogany shrublands and pinyon-juniper woodlands, while oryx distribution was most positively associated with alkali sacaton grasslands, mixed lowland scrub, and sandsage shrublands. Presence models also indicated that areas closer to roads were positively associated with presence of mule deer and oryx, as were southern aspects for oryx and higher elevations for mule deer. Relationships with roads were likely driven by other attributes (e.g., water sources, arroyos, and canyons) associated with these areas in the San Andres Mountains. Current management strategies aimed at limiting oryx numbers in woodland and shrubland habitat types located in mountainous areas of the San Andres Mountains that show highest use by mule deer should continue to aide in recovery of mule deer populations.
Quantitative Morphological Classification of Planetary Craterforms Using Multivariate Methods of Outline-Based Shape Analysis

Quantitative Morphological Classification of Planetary Craterforms Using Multivariate Methods of Outline-Based Shape Analysis Thomas Joseph Slezak Department of Geological Sciences, BYU Master of Science Craters formed by impact and volcanic processes are among the most fundamental planetary landforms. This study examines the morphology of diverse craterforms on Io, the Moon, Mars, and Earth using quantitative, outline-based shape analysis and multivariate statistical methods to evaluate the differences between different types of. Ultimately, this should help establish relationships between the form and origin of craterforms. Developed in the field of geometric morphometrics by paleontological and biological sciences communities, these methods were used for the analysis of the shapes of crater outlines. The shapes of terrestrial ash-flow calderas, terrestrial basaltic shield calderas, martian calderas, Ionian paterae, and lunar impact craters were quantified and compared. Specifically, we used circularity, ellipticity, elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA), Zahn and Roskies (Z-R) shape function, and diameter. Quantitative shape descriptors obtained from EFA yield coefficients from decomposition of the Fourier series that separates the vertical and horizontal components among the outline points for each shape. The shape descriptors extracted from Z-R analysis represent the angular deviation of the shapes from a circle. These quantities were subjected to multivariate statistical analysis including principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis, to examine maximum differences between each a priori established group. Univariate analyses of morphological quantities including diameter, circularity, and ellipticity, as well as multivariate analyses of elliptic Fourier coefficients and Z-R shape function angular quantities show that ash-flow calderas and paterae on Io, as well as basaltic shield calderas and martian calderas, are most similar in shape. Other classes of craters are also shown to be statistically distinct from one another. Multivariate statistical models provide successful classification of different types of craters. Three classification models were built with overall successful classification rates ranging from 90% to 75%, each conveying different shape information. The EFA model including coefficients from the 2nd to 10th harmonic was the most successful supervised model with the highest overall classification rate and most successful predictive group membership assignments for the population of examined craterforms. Multivariate statistical methods and classification models can be effective tools for analyzing landforms on planetary surfaces and geologic morphology. With larger data sets used to enhance supervision of the model, more successful classification by the supervised model could likely reveal clues to the formation and variables involved in the genesis of landforms.
INFINITE CASCADES OF BRAIDS AND SMOOTH DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS

LET us consider the linking between orbits in a compact invariant set of a nonsingular vector field on some region in Euclidean 3-space. Let us assume in the first instance we can place a solid torus so that the invariant set is inside the torus and the flow lines are transversal to 2-disks of the solid torus (see Fig. 1). Before describing our result, we make certain remarks that are not difficult to verify. The first point is purely topological. (i) Two (long) finite pieces of orbits have an approximate linking number if they start and stop nearby to one another. This number is the algebraic number of times one point winds around the other when the pair of orbits is viewed after projection as a moving pair of points in one transversal 2-disk. The ambiguity in this number is one turn for all such pair of orbits, once the projection is chosen. The second and third points are from elementary calculus. (ii) If the flow is continuously differentiable, there is an analogous winding number for each single piece of orbit. It is defined by counting how many times a tangent vector in the disk direction turns around the orbit. Two different tangent vectors will turn the same number of turns up to an error of half a turn, because of linearity (antipodal vectors turn the same number of turns). The following coherence between the topological linking of point (i) and the injinitesimal seIflinking of point (ii) is a consequence of continuous differentiability: (iii) For each finite time T, there is an E = E(T) > 0 so that if three orbits of length Tare within E for 0 I t I T, then the topological linking between two of them differs from the infinitesimal self linking of the third orbit by at most a turn and a half.
Fuchsian Subgroups of Bianchi Groups

A maximal non-elementary Fuchsian subgroup of a Bianchi group PSL(2, Od) has an invariant circle or straight line under its linear fractional action on the complex plane, to which is associated a positive integer D, the discriminant, which, in turn, is an invariant of the wide commensurability class of the Fuchsian subgroup. In this paper, for all Bianchi groups, we classify the conjugacy classes of these maximal Fuchsian subgroups by determining the number with given discriminant.
Potential impacts of climate and environmental change on the stored water of Lake Victoria Basin and economic implications

The changing climatic patterns and increasing human population within the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB), together with overexploitation of water for economic activities call for assessment of water management for the entire basin. This study focused on the analysis of a combination of available in situ climate data, Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observations, and high resolution Regional Climate simulations during recent decade(s) to assess the water storage changes within LVB that may be linked to recent climatic variability/changes and anomalies. We employed trend analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and temporal/spatial correlations to explore the associations and covariability among LVB stored water, rainfall variability, and large‐scale forcings associated with El‐Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). Potential economic impacts of human and climate‐induced changes in LVB stored water are also explored. Overall, observed in situ rainfall from lake‐shore stations showed a modest increasing trend during the recent decades. The dominant patterns of rainfall data from the TRMM satellite estimates suggest that the spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation have not changed much during the period of 1998–2012 over the basin consistent with in situ observations. However, GRACE‐derived water storage changes over LVB indicate an average decline of 38.2 mm/yr for 2003–2006, likely due to the extension of the Owen Fall/Nalubale dam, and an increase of 4.5 mm/yr over 2007–2013, likely due to two massive rainfalls in 2006–2007 and 2010–2011. The temporal correlations between rainfall and ENSO/IOD indices during the study period, based on TRMM and model simulations, suggest significant influence of large‐scale forcing on LVB rainfall, and thus stored water. The contributions of ENSO and IOD on the amplitude of TRMM‐rainfall and GRACE‐derived water storage changes, for the period of 2003–2013, are estimated to be ∼2.5 cm and ∼1.5 cm, respectively.
Convective self‐aggregation, cold pools, and domain size

Convective self‐aggregation refers to a phenomenon in cloud‐resolving simulations wherein the atmosphere spontaneously develops a circulation with a convecting moist patch and a nonconvecting dry patch. All previous studies have found a sharp transition to aggregated convection when the domain size exceeds a critical threshold, typically in the range of 200–300 km. Here, we show that cold pools are responsible for this sharp transition. When cold pools are inhibited, self‐aggregation occurs at all domain sizes. In this case, the aggregation strength decreases smoothly as the domain size L is decreased below about 200–300 km. A streamfunction analysis reveals two distinct sources for the air subsiding into the dry‐patch boundary layer: a moist, shallow circulation and a dry, deep circulation. The deep circulation scales with L, whereas the shallow circulation does not. At small L, the shallow circulation dominates, thereby weakening the aggregation.
Self-employment: Who are Australia's entrepreneurs?

Recent years have seen a dramatic growth in the incidence of self-employment, particularly amongst owner managers of incorporated enterprises. Excepting the numerous studies of self-employed migrants, little is known about the general characteristics of the broader community of self-employed persons and, in particular, the extent and determinants of entrepreneurship. Using ABS data from the 1998 Forms of Employment Survey this paper provides some insight into the nature, characteristics and determinants of self-employment in Australia. Amongst other things the results in the paper provide some evidence to support the theory that Professionals, Associate Professionals and migrants from non-English speaking background countries are entrepreneurial and not simply seeking self-employment as a refuge from unemployment.
Corporate Finance Practice in Kuwait: A Survey to Confront Theory with Practice

This study reports the results of a survey among 80 CFOs in Kuwaiti listed firms on current corporate finance practices namely, capital budgeting, costs of capital, capital structure, and dividend policy. This paper analyses specifically the survey responses according to the firm’s attributes and CFO’s characteristics such as firm size, sector, equity, CFO’s education, ownership, tenure, age, and target debt ratio. The results of this survey-based analysis indicate that there is some evidence of the application of basic corporate finance tools that are inline with what is taught in classrooms. For example, we find that a surprising number of firms are widely using IRR now as a capital budgeting techniques for decisions making today despite its limitation. The CAPM is also in use now to estimate the cost of equity capital whereas WACC remains the most popular used method due the simplicity of the tax system in Kuwait. We find some support for the “Bird-In-Hand” dividend theory. We also find that firms do not have any particular source of capital structure choices when it comes to how best finance their projects as is the case in the US market. This finding reveals that finance theory is not yet fully implemented. The results also indicate that corporate finance practices vary depending on firm and management characteristics.
Introduction of a Framework for Customer Orientation Using Ambulant E-Banking Services Marketing (Case Study: Mellat Bank in Isfahan)

E-banking (electronic banking) is the modified business banking toward E-business (electronic business) banking that actually uses the electronic communication channels such as internet, phones, cell phones and the like. By using this method, the demands of customers such as time independent and high flexible actions are satisfied. In this process, marketing is so important because guiding customers of bank for using these platforms leads to decrease in costs and increase in profit of the organization. Due to the importance of E-banking, the current study tries to introduce a framework for customer orientation using marketing of ambulant E- banking services. This study uses a descriptive-survey method on a population of all customers of Mellat bank in Isfahan in 2013, using random sampling method. The sample size was 430 participants with 408 acquired questionnaires. A questionnaire with 40 questions was used as the measuring tool made by authors with validity and reliability factors about 0.73 and 0.85 respectively. Data analysis was done using single variable T-test, Kalmogorov- Smiranov test, and multivariate analysis of variance. The key E-marketing components (customer relationship management, supply chain management, information systems integration and information clarification) were considered as the dependent variables. Then, their effect on customer orientation was analyzed as our independent variable. Analysis was done by SPSS software. The results showed that computed averages on developing the questionnaire components are much greater than the assumed values. According to the results, the effect of mentioned components on customer orientation was approved.
When Jack Gets out of the Box: The Problems of Regulating a Global Industry

This ar ticle considers the challenge of regulation across national borders using the example of the shipping industry. It examines the success of different global regulator y strategies in the sector, specifically the implementation of smar t regulation and enforced self-regulation. In doing so it draws upon empirical research into the enforcement of labour standards via por t-State control in India, Russia and the UK, and the regulation of training in Singapore, Philippines and the UK. It concludes that effective global regulation faces considerable challenges. Within the relatively conducive environment of shipping it finds that smar t regulation has been vitiated by perceived inconsistency in inspection practice and that enforced self-regulation has been rendered less effective by cross-national differences in resourcing and regulator y commitment, compounded by the difficulties of paper-based validation. It argues that, in relation to issues of effective global governance, the shipping industr y may stand as a critical case.
Official Crime Statistics versus Fear of Crime of the Citizens in a Hungarian Small Town

A wide range of GIS/map based crime statistics are available on line all over the world. However, the public opinion of these statistics is that they do not show the real extent of crime (NYIRI 2005). This study attempts to test the reliability of crime statistics by mapping residents’ fear of crime. The result supports the idea that public perception of crime may be different from official data. Therefore it may be useful and necessary to test the citizens’ opinion as an essential requirement in planning, policy and law enforcement strategies to increase their effectiveness.
First records of the quagga mussel, Dreissena rostriformis bugensis (Andrusov, 1897), in the Meuse River within France

After its first observation in the Hollandsch Diep in 2006, the quagga mussel expanded in an upstream direction within the rivers, Rhine and Meuse. The species was found throughout the Dutch and Belgian sections of the Meuse River between 2008 and 2011, but was never reported from the Meuse in France, i.e., upstream of the Belgian border. Herein, this document reports the finding of the quagga mussel at two locations in the French section of this river. The lengths of the quagga mussels collected in this study – including the initial discovery of a 23.0 mm long individual in October 2011 – suggest that their original introduction into the Meuse River within France occurred in 2009 or earlier.