Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The diet of the European badger in a Mediterranean coastal area

Pigozzi G. 1991. The diet of the European badger in a Mediterranean coastal area. Acta theriol. 36: 293 - 306. The food of European badgers Meles meles Linnaeus, 1758 in a dry Mediterranean coastal habitat in central Italy was determined by faecal analysis. Between February 1983 and November 1985 badgers fed primarily on fruits and insects, which made up a combined volume of about 90% of the to'al amount of food eaten each year. Insects and fruits were exploited alternately, the former mainly during winter and spring whereas the latter mainly during summer and autumn. A significant change in this pattern was found in autumn 1985 when the occurrence of insects was higher and that of fruits was lower, respectively, than in the previous years. Other less important food resources included myriapods, molluscs, birds and mammals. Earthworms did not play an important role in the diet in any period of the year. It is suggested that badgers might adjust to their seasonally fluctuating foods by changing their food choice so as to maximize their intake from the available resources.
Raising Children to Work Hard: Altruism, Work Norms and Social Insurance

Children who can count on support from altruistic parents may not try hard to succeed in the labor market. Moreover, parental altruism makes withdrawal of such support non-credible. To promote work effort, parents may want to instill norms which later cause their children to experience guilt or shame associated with failure to support themselves. While social insurance pools risk across families, we show that it also creates a free-rider problem among parents in terms of norm formation. We also examine the formation of norms requiring children to support their parents financially in old age.
Influence of stratosphere‐to‐troposphere exchange on the seasonal cycle of surface ozone at Mount Waliguan in western China

Surface ozone over the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau exhibits a summertime maximum contrasting to a spring peak observed at many remote locations in the Northern Hemisphere. In this study we conducted meteorological simulations for April–August 2003, when intensive measurement of trace gases was carried out at remote Mount Waliguan, to elucidate the influence of atmospheric dynamics on the observed ozone events and seasonal cycle. Examinations of potential vorticity and trace gases suggest that most of the synoptic‐scale ozone enhancements were due to stratospheric intrusions, as opposed to transport of anthropogenic pollutions. Case studies show that the existence of jet stream is the main dynamical cause for these intrusions. Further analysis of upper‐level mean zonal winds suggests that stronger subtropical jet streams lead to more frequent stratospheric intrusions in summer compared to spring, which may have contributed to the higher summertime surface ozone there and possibly also in other regions of Central Asia.
An Overview of Diabetes Mellitus and Work Life

Diabetes mellitus is one of the chronic diseases, diagnosed at younger ages. That period of life generally means active work life. The patients with DM can serve as productive members of the workforce. In some kind of work sectors, employers have to apply precautions specified for diabetic patients at the workplace. Also in Turkey, the results of TURDEP 2 study showed that 45.3% of people diagnosed with DM (3.4 million people) are between 40 and 59 years of age. Herein, effects of work life on diabetes mellitus, effects of diabetes mellitus on work life, precautions for employers, recommendations for workers were mentioned.
Magnon-phonon relaxation in yttrium iron garnet from first principles

We combine the theoretical method of calculating spin wave excitation with the finite-temperature modeling and calculate the magnon-phonon relaxation time in the technologically important material Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) from first principles. The finite lifetime of magnon excitation is found to arise from the fluctuation of the exchange interaction of magnetic atoms in YIG. At room temperature, the magnon spectra have significant broadening that is used to extract the magnon-phonon relaxation time quantitatively. The latter is a phenomenological parameter of great importance in YIG-based spintronics research. We find that the magnon-phonon relaxation time for the optical magnon is a constant while that for the acoustic magnon is proportional to $1/k^2$ in the long-wavelength regime.
Technology Mediated Instruction and its Effect on Cognitive Scaffolding, motivation and Academic Performance in EFL Context

Technology mediated learning brings together the users with shared interests. This method makes learners informally engaged in language learning. This study intended to investigate the effect of technology mediated instruction on cognitive scaffolding, academic performance and motivation. Employing a quasi-experimental research, 80 learners from two intact classes at Islamic Azad University, Osku Branch were selected as the experimental and control groups. Telegram as a tool was used in the experimental group, while the control group received traditional way of instruction. Critical ethnography approach was implemented to consider the amount of cognitive scaffolding. To measure the students’ motivational level in both groups, Course Interest Survey (CIS) was administered at the end of the semester. The total average score for each group was calculated. To compare students’ academic achievement, their average scores in the final academic test were considered. An Independent samples t-test in was used to compare the mean scores. The results indicated that technology mediated learning brought about cognitive scaffolding and the students in the experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of motivation and academic achievement. The results of the study suggest that to bring about academically successful students, practitioners should use technology mediated instruction.
Brain Waves Predict Success of New Fashion Products: A Practical Application for the Footwear Retailing Industry

Every year, retailers launch a myriad of new products. The success rate of such new products directly influences a retailer's success in terms of gross profit, customer loyalty and brand image. In the past decades, many self-report and focus group based methods were implemented to gain insights in future market performance of new products. However, social psychology and market research studies have established that self-reports are unreliable to accurately predict customer preference. In this article, we propose a novel approach based on brain data to forecast product performance and discuss the importance of pre-market forecasting in the footwear retailing industry. We implemented and validated the tool in collaboration with a European shoe store chain. This case study showed that self-report based methods cannot accurately foretell success, while using brain data the prediction accuracy reached 80 per cent. We also compared how these two different methods might influence company gross profit. Simulations based on sales data showed that self-report based prediction would lead to a 12.1 per cent profit growth, while brain scan based prediction would increase profit by 36.4 per cent. Thus, this innovative neuroscientific approach greatly improves brand image and brings considerable value for organizations, shareholders as well as consumers.
Effect of Corporate Entrepreneurship on Firm Performance in Iranian ASMEs: The Mediation Role of Knowledge Creation and Learning Orientation

The Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) of firms and enterprises is the subject of current research in the fields of management and business. However, analyses on this subject in agricultural firms are lacking. The purpose of this research was to study the relationships between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance in Agricultural Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ASMEs) in Iran. Specifically, the authors aimed to analyze how knowledge creation and learning orientation as a mediator influence the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance. A conceptual model was designed and hypotheses were constructed. The samples in this study were owners and/or top managers of ASMEs. Data for the study were collected using a questionnaire survey administrated during 2015. In order to test the hypotheses, data were collected from ASME and analyzed using the structural equation model by AMOS20 graphic software. The results reveal that corporate entrepreneurship significantly influences learning orientation, knowledge creation and firm performance in ASMEs. The most notable outcome of these findings is that knowledge creation and learning orientation performs a mediating role in the relationships between corporate entrepreneurship and performance
Coming full circle:Differential empowerment in the EU accession process

The EU accession process brings a profound transformation not only to candidate countries’ institutions and policies, but also to the political opportunity structure in place, creating new possibilities for previously marginalised actors. Studying the differential empowerment of NGOs throughout the Croatian accession process, this paper makes two related claims: first, differential empowerment depends crucially on domestic actors’ awareness for and ability to use new opportunities to their advantage. Second, an overreliance on EU leverage poses important temporal and substantive limits on NGO empowerment and leads to a rapid decline of their relevance in the post-accession phase. I argue that a more sustainable shift in the domestic power balance would require both the EU and domestic civil society actors to place more emphasis on fostering improved practices of civil society inclusion in domestic policymaking settings throughout the accession process.
Fish habitat modeling: from conceptual framework to functional tools

Natural and anthropogenic perturbations do not always equally affect all parts of an ecosystem, and all parts of an ecosystem do not equally contribute to maintain fish communities. The increasing pressure to use natural resources and to modify habitats led to the development of approaches to identify areas of key importance for fish communities. Following these approaches, aquatic systems could be perceived as puzzles, composed of a multitude of pieces with temporally flexible physical attributes and biological roles. Such a spatially explicit framework requires models that may allow one to predict fish distribution patterns and fish net energy gain once they have adopted a specific distribution pattern. Despite the conceptual appeal of spatially explicit approaches, functional tools may be obtained only after their assumptions have been tested and their models have been validated. Efforts must be deployed to identify temporal and spatial scales at which fish distribution and abundance should be estimate.
Growth effects of education with the extreme bounds analysis: some evidence from Asia

This paper uses the Extreme Bounds Analysis (EBA) to find robust and permanent growth effects of education by using enrolment ratios and its components in a panel of Asian countries. It is found that male and female primary and secondary enrolment ratios have robust but small permanent growth effects. However, the growth effects of male and female tertiary enrolment ratios are fragile and insignificant. In contrast to the existing estimates in the literature, which do not distinguish between the transitory and permanent growth effects, our estimated permanent growth effects are small but significant.
Application of Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) in the Analysis of Essential Elements in Six Endemic Ethiopian Medicinal Plants

The main objective of this study was to examine the elemental compositions of six medicinal plants known as Artemisia abyssinica, Lippia Adolensis, Celematics Longicanda, Echinops Kebericho, Thymus schimperi and Millettia ferruginea which are commonly used in Ethiopia as traditional system of medicine for curing various ailments using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA). After the samples were collected, dried, gridded, and homogenized they were irradiated using the Nigerian Research Reactor-1 (NIRR-1). The induced activities of the samples were counted by a gamma -ray spectrometer equipped with HPGe detector, multichannel analyzer and gamma acquisition software packages Winspan 2004. -----------------------------------------------------------------------* Corresponding author. E-mail address: birhanufre@yahoo.com.
Influence of Transaction Costs and Governance in the Marketing of Organic Pineapples from Uganda

The organic pineapple sub-sector in Uganda has existed for slightly over 10 years. Whereas the sub-sector targets the organic market, slightly more than half of the organic pineapples produced by farmers are sold in this market and the rest is sold to the conventional market. This study aimed at determining the transaction costs that limit the amount of organic pineapples sold by farmers to the organic market. The study also aimed at establishing the relationship between the transaction costs and governance of the transactions between farmers and exporters. Data were collected from 140 organic pineapple farmers and seven organic pineapple export companies. Qualitative methods and econometric methods were used in data analysis. Findings show that there were high asset specificity and uncertainty in organic transactions, which resulted into farmers selling only a proportion of their produce to exporters. Involving farmer in contract formulation, trust, distance to collection centers and high asset specificity increased the proportion of pineapple sold by the farmers while farmers’ experience reduced the proportion sold. There were three forms of governances between farmers and organic exporters; the captive, modular and relational governance. The relational governance had the highest transaction costs, and less proportion of organic pineapples were sold in this governance. The study recommends transaction cost reduction strategies such as organizing farmers in cooperatives, trust building and engaging farmers in contract formulation.
Bender : Deforming 3 D Shapes by Bending and Twisting a Virtual Ribbon with both Hands

Bender is an interactive tool for bending and warping triangulated surfaces. The designer uses a virtual ribbon to grab a portion of the shape and to deform it through direct manipulation. The ribbon is defined by its centerline—a wire made of two smoothly joined circular arcs—and by its twist—the continuous field of normal directions along the wire. The wire and the twist are controlled by a Polhemus tracker in each hand. The deformation model is based on a new formulation of a 3D space warp that uses screw-motions to map coordinate systems aligned with the initial ribbon to corresponding coordinate systems aligned with the final ribbon. Circular biarcs are easy to control and permit the correct handling of situations where a vertex is influenced by different sections of the wire. Screw-motions define smoother and more intuitive warps than other formulations. The combination significantly extends the editing capabilities of previously proposed shape deformation tools and produces smooth and predictable results for configurations where the radius of the tubular region of influence around the ribbon does not exceed the radii of the arcs.
A new look at successful aging : exploring a mid- range nursing theory among older adults in a low- income retirement community.

The current view of successful aging excludes elders with disease or disability, limits the potential for success among disadvantaged populations, and fails to consider older adults’ own criteria for success, especially in the existential or spiritual domain. This cross-sectional study was a preliminary investigation of a mid-range nursing theory (Flood, 2005) of successful aging. A random, stratified sample (N= 112) was used. Questionnaires were administered to small groups of non-demented older adults. Relationships among study variables were examined using hierarchical multiple regression. Adaptation and transcendence explained 45.4% of the variance in successful aging, independent of age, income, function, and health. Transcendence accounted for 2.5 times the effect of adaptation.
Using Data in Decision‐Making: Analysis from the Music Industry

Internet use provides an increasing amount of data that has potential value for managers and policy makers. However, without a precise understanding of the meaning of data, erroneous conclusions may be drawn which could adversely affect future decisions made by managers. The aim of this paper is to reveal to stakeholders the weaknesses and biases of reports which use analysis from large data sets and to highlight key areas and questions they may ask. This paper examines empirical research in the music industry and critiques a report using ‘clickstream data’, a data source that collects information on the navigation patterns of Internet users through the ‘clicks’ they make on website. The paper focuses critique on a report published by the European Commission which provides analytically weak and potentially industry damaging conclusions about the relationship between file sharing activity and purchasing behaviour.
Teachers’ Conceptions of Teaching Physical Science in the Medium of English: A Case Study

Abstract There are still many teachers who are daunted by mandates of language policy in South Africa. In historically Black schools some continue using the medium of indigenous languages although the official language of teaching is English. English still dominates the society despite the proclamation that there are 11 official languages. This article draws from a qualitative study conducted in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal where four Physical Science (Black African) teachers were participants. These participants were observed and interviewed as the researchers investigated their conceptions of teaching Physical Science in the medium of English language. The results show that Black African teachers do not always use English in the facilitation of learning in classrooms. They sometimes code switch or at times use the indigenous languages to ensure that learning does take place. Furthermore, frequently, overwhelmed by the thought of examinations and understanding, teachers might use the pupils’ first language instead of English to enhance meaning and understanding.
Assessing the Relationship Between Organisational Commitment and Knowledge Sharing Behavior

Knowledge sharing is one important activity in knowledge management. It enables knowledge to be created, as well as acquired and used by others. However, there are reasons to believe that employees are reluctant to share knowledge with their colleagues. Thus, in order to ensure the success of knowledge management effort, knowledge sharing among employees must be encouraged. Though studies had shown that there are many factors that might affect knowledge sharing behaviour, this paper aims at exploring the relationship between organizational commitment and knowledge sharing behaviour. Regression analysis on data gathered from a sample of 114 R&D employees’ indicated that affective commitment and normative commitment were significant predictors of tacit knowledge sharing. Additionally, explicit knowledge sharing was significantly and positively predicted by affective commitment. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are highlighted.
Factors affecting germination of horseweed (Conyza canadensis)

Abstract The influence of environmental factors on germination and emergence of horseweed was examined in growth chamber experiments. Germination was highest (61%) under 24/20 C day/night temperature under light. Horseweed seed germination was observed under both light (13 h photoperiod) and complete darkness (24 h), but germination under continuous darkness was only 0 to 15% compared with 0 to 61% under light. All other experiments were conducted under 24/20 C and 13-h light conditions. Germination was 19 to 36% over a pH range from 4 to 10, with a trend toward higher germination under neutral-to-alkaline conditions. Horseweed germination was > 20% at < 40 mM NaCl concentration and lowest (4%) at 160 mM NaCl. These data suggest that even at high soil salinity conditions, horseweed can germinate. Germination of horseweed decreased from 25% to 2% as osmotic potential increased from 0 (distilled water) to −0.8 MPa, indicating that germination can still occur under moderate water stress conditions. Horseweed seedling emergence was at its maximum on the soil surface, and no seedlings emerged from seeds placed at a depth of 0.5 cm or higher. Nomenclature: Horseweed, Conyza canadensis (L.) Cronq. ERICA.
Corporate governance perception index, performance and value of the firm in Indonesia

This study aims to analyse the relationship between corporate governance perception index (CGPI), value and firm performance in Indonesia, based on agency and signalling theory. Analysed data are secondary data obtained by purposive sampling method. Multiple regression analysis instruments are used to test the hypothesis that there is any relationship between CGPI on one hand and firm value and performance on the other. CGPI data used in this study is the result of Indonesian Institute for Corporate Governance rating in 2007-2011. Accounting data used is the firm's value and performances (ROE and ROA). The result of this study shows that CGPI, industry type and firm's age affect ROE. CGPI affects ROE negatively while industry type and firm's age affect ROE positively. Unfortunately, CGPI, industry type and firm age do not affect ROA, and the result of Tobin's Q regression analysis shows that both CGPI variable and control variable do not statistically affect firm value.
The simultaneous effect of electromagnetic and ultrasound treatments on Escherichia coli count in red grape juice

Introduction: The thermal pasteurization is a common method for maintaining fruit juice and increasing shelf life, but the thermal processing changes the flavor and color of the products. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a new method of combining heat and ultrasound on the number of the Escherichia coli present in grape juice.Methods: In this study, the effects of the microwave power, temperature, ultrasound power and ultrasonic exposure time were evaluated on E. coli count of red grape juice. In order to determine the microbial inactivation by microwave and ultrasound, E. coli at a concentration of 6×106 per mL was inoculated to red grape juice.Results: The effects of microwave power, grape juice temperature, ultrasound power and ultrasonic exposure time on the reduction of E. coli were significant (P < 0.05). The model showed that in reducing E. coli the importance of the final temperature of the juice was higher than the microwave power. In addition, the ultrasonic power was more effective in E. coli reduction as compared to the microwave power.Conclusion: Both sample temperature and ultrasonic duration were important independent variables and effective factors on E. coli reduction.