Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coagulase gene based molecular detection of Staphylococcus aureus directly from mastitic milk samples of Murrah buffalo.

The study was conducted to detect Staphylococcus aureus directly in mastitic milk of Murrah buffaloes using coagulase gene based specific polymerase chain reaction assay. Out of 628 samples, a total of 140 samples were found positive with four amplified products of size 960 bp, 870 bp, 740 bp and 610 bp in 8.57 percent, 19.28 percent, 29.29 percent and 42.85 percent of the milk samples, respectively. On PCR examination of Staphylococcus aureus found positive by bacteriological examination and biochemical tests, similar amplified products were observed in 9.37 percent, 21.09 percent, 32.03 percent and 37.5 percent of culture isolates (n=128) respectively. Ubiquitous PCR assay with amplified product of size 108 bp was used as an internal control for detection of Staphylococcus aureus. By this assay, nonviable Staphylococcus aureus could also be detected in milk samples of animals treated with antibiotics The study revealed that several coagulase gene types are responsible for genetic heterogeneity among Staphylococcus aureus isolated from mastitis cases in buffaloes and predominance of these amplified products shows significant variation over time paving way for understanding of epidemiology of mastitis in a particular location.
Inconsistent measurement and disclosure of non-contingent financial derivatives under IFRS : a behavioral perspective

The accounting principle of decomposing hybrid financial instruments into their derivative and non-derivative components is widely accepted as it results in a consistent treatment of hybrid instruments and economically equivalent combinations of contracts. On the other hand, non-contingent derivatives and their economic equivalents are not treated consistently under the mixed accounting model underlying IAS 39. This calls for a critical assessment. The conventional criticism regarding such inconsistencies refers to the creation of opportunities for earnings management. The aim of this paper is to add another perspective by including the effects of the related disclosure rules on risk perception by analysts and investors. Thereby, we consider both the presentation on the balance sheet and the additional disclosure in the notes according to IFRS 7. From extant literature, we diligently develop the hypothesis that, due to availability effects, entities using non-contingent derivatives are perceived to be riskier than entities using economic equivalents, although in fact the latter are riskier due to their exposure to additional counterparty risk. This bias in the perception of disclosures might thereby alter an entity’s costs of capital in a way not intended by IAS 39. In particular, we expect individuals to valuate entities using non-contingent derivatives lower than identical entities using economically equivalent contracts instead. We expect this difference in valuation to result from a higher cognitive availability of negative associations with derivatives than with non-derivatives. The underlying assumptions are outlined as they build a framework of hypotheses that could be tested in future research, particularly in experimental survey studies.
Selection criteria in the South African retail banking sector

This study focused on the reasons retail clients select a bank for the first time in five geographical locations in central South Africa. The most important bank selection criteria were found to relate to the perceived image, reputation, and service quality of the bank. In particular, service quality was found to be important for all the market segments identified. Relatively speaking, pricing factors were deemed unimportant for the respondents, which are explained by the majority of respondents being elderly. The study is unique in that it is the first of its kind conducted in South Africa and paves the way for further studies focusing on why South African clients choose a bank, particularly from a demographic point of view. Key words: Bank selection criteria, South Africa, retail banking, reputation.
An ensemble related to discrete orthogonal polynomials and its application to tilings of a half-hexagon

We discuss asymptotic properties of a family of discrete probability measures which may be used to model particle configurations with a wall on a set of discrete nodes. The correlations are shown to be determinantal and are expressed in terms of discrete orthogonal polynomials. As an application we study random tilings of the half-hexagon or, equivalently, configurations of non-intersecting lattice paths above a wall, so called water melons.
Home Literacy Activities in the Preschool Classroom: Increasing Participation among Male Students

Through the lens of sociocultural theory, this action research paper looks into the home literacy activities of a group of six three-year old males and explores how the students ’ home literacy activities can be integrated into the preschool classroom to increase their participation. Because students bring a wealth of literacy knowledge and experience to school with them, having already mastered their primary discourse, it is imperative that this knowledge is used in the classroom to engage students in learning. interviewing By collecting home literacy diaries, and observing and six male participants, this study supports the idea that students’ home experiences and activities can be integrated into the classroom and curriculum to increase their participation. Document Type Thesis Degree Name MS in Literacy Education Department Education First Supervisor Joellen Maples Subject Categories Education This thesis is available at Fisher Digital Publications: http://fisherpub.sjfc. edu/education_ETD_masters/37 Home Literacy Activities in the Preschool Classroom: Increasing Participation among Male Students
Effect of Training on Market Women's Level of Awareness and Their Disposition towards Solid Waste Management in Lagos Metropolis.

The most important and recent subject that affects and worries mankind is the issue of waste and its management. Waste can be described in a relative or subjective term; relative because it is viewed in different ways by different persons or group of people and subjective because what is waste to some may not necessarily be to others. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of training on market women’s level of awareness and their disposition towards solid waste management in Lagos State, Nigeria. A 2×2 schematic type of quasi-experimental design was used for this study. The population for this work consists of all market women selling raw farm produce in Lagos State. A sample of forty women was selected from two markets using a simple random sampling technique. A questionnaire on “effect of training on market women’s awareness level on solid waste management” was used, having a reliability co-efficient (r) of 0.84 was established. Analysis of Co-Variance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the data while post-hoc analysis was further used to identify which of the variables allowed for the significant effect in the study. The three formulated hypotheses were rejected showing that there is a significant effect among training on level of awareness, change in behaviour and rate of patronage of waste infrastructures in the respective markets sampled. It was concluded that more efforts from private bodies, government and even market officials should be saddled with the responsibility of sensitizing these market women in other states so that waste management can be a thing to be practiced in our respective houses.
Validation of a Questionnaire that Surveys Confidence in Sports among Korean Competitive Athletes

Background and Objective This study aimed to verify the validity of a questionnaire that surveys confidence in sports among athletes in combat sports. The questionnaire addresses the concepts of persistence, calmness, hesitation, and physical prime. Material and Methods Purposeful sampling using non-probability sampling was conducted in 367 players participating in university- and business-level athletics in the Republic of Korea. The data were analyzed using a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, and a second confirmatory factor analysis with linear structural relations (LISREL) version 8.5. Concept reliability and average variance extracted (AVE) values were calculated using Excel 2010 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, USA). Two-way (2×2) randomized group (RG) analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted using the SPSS 18.0 program (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Results We proved that the sub-factors measured by the survey questions were relatively exact regarding self-confidence in combat-sport athletes. The questions relating to self-confidence in sports could be applied to both male and female athletes alike. The scores of the male athletes were higher than female athletes in factors such as fighting spirit, calmness, and performing under pressure. The scores of the national athletes were higher than those of the non-national athletes with respect to the body preparation factor. Conclusion These results suggest that the competitive sports questionnaire developed in a previous study could be utilized without difficulty in a confidence-related study of competitive sports athletes. The questionnaire is particularly effective in evaluating the confidence level of athletes.
Working Paper 30: Impact of Forest Restoration Treatments on Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Tree Resistance to Bark Beetles

Insects can have a wide-range of both positive and negative effects on forest ecosystems. Positive impacts include serving as pollinators, creating snags for cavity nesting birds and bats, helping to increase forest heterogeneity, and aiding in decomposition and nutrient cycling. Negative impacts can range from relatively minor impacts at the individual tree level, such as reductions in growth or form defects, to landscape-level tree mortality (Coulson and Witter 1984, Raffa et al. 2008). In the ponderosa pine forests of the southwestern United States, the bark beetle has been the insect most often associated with widespread tree mortality. Restoration efforts in ponderosa pine ecosystems have the overarching goal of making these forests more healthy and resilient by reducing fuel loads and restoring ecosystem functions. Stand restoration in these ecosystems usually involves varying intensities of thinning or prescribed burning treatments or, more often, some combination of both. These same treatments may also alter tree susceptibility to disturbance events, such as insect attacks and wildfire. This working paper will highlight current research about the effects of restoration treatments on ponderosa pine tree resistance/susceptibility to bark beetles.
Assessing the quantity and quality of runoff from an urban roof catchment

A literature review highlighted a deficiency of information pertinent to the Australian context in regards to rainwater quality and runoff from roof surfaces. In this study, a novel approach has been developed to determine the runoff volumes and pollutant loads from a roof catchment for different storm events. Rainwater samples were also taken. Details of the field monitoring station installed as part of this project and some preliminary results are included herein. The runoff collection system was designed not only to obtain hydrologic data such as rainfall depths and runoff volumes but also to collect runoff samples concurrently, with the data being transmitted in real-time via General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to an Internet server for storage. Trace metals, being one of the major pollutants in the urban environment are the main focus of the pollutant loads. It was found that the rainwater samples were acidic, with a pH range from 3.77 to 5.63. Rainwater also contributed to the dissolved metals found in roof runoff. High copper concentrations were recorded, suggesting roofing materials as sources of roof runoff contamination. Only particulate Cu experienced first flush in one event. Future work will include obtaining samples from more storm events and identifying the relationships between water quality paramaters.
Antibacterial ethylene propylene rubber impregnated with silver nanopowder: AgNP@EPR

Following our interest in reaching for a molded rubber article with possible detergent contact applications, durable silver nanopowder (AgNP) is synthesized by arc discharge, then mixed with varying ratios of ethylene propylene rubber (EPR), affording novel AgNP@EPR nanocomposites. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of AgNP as well as AgNP@EPR show no trace of impurity, while scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicates an average diameter of 50 nm for the former. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images while confirm the SEM results, show quite a few 5 nm AgNP particles lying beside some micro crumbs. Our DC arc discharge technique involves explosion of movable silver anode and static cathode by a current pulse between 5 to 10 A cm-2. A solution blending method is employed for preparation of AgNP@EPR nanocomposites. The AgNP is first dispersed in toluene using an ultrasonic homogenizer, and then thoroughly mixed with EPR in the same solvent whose removal gives nanocomposites of 2, 4, 6 and 8 vol% AgNP in EPR, showing strong antibacterial activity against both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.
Patterns of financial behaviors: implications for community educators and policymakers

Using data from the Surveys of Consumers, we explore patterns of financial behaviors (cash flow management, saving, and investing) and the characteristics and learning preferences of households exhibiting these patterns. We find a wide range in diversity of financial behaviors among U.S. households. The only variables that consistently influenced having high scores for cash flow, saving, and investing behaviors were financial knowledge and financial learning experiences — those who knew more and those who learned from family, friends, and personal experiences had higher scores. The implication is that increases in knowledge and experience can lead to improvements in financial behaviors. We argue that one way to increase knowledge is to gain additional education, although we acknowledge that education is only one mechanism for influencing behavior. We conclude that a one-size-fits-all or a onedelivery-technique-fits-all approach to financial education will be less effective than more targeted, tailored approaches.
A large population of ultra-compact dwarf galaxies in the Hydra I cluster ?

Aims. We performed a large spectroscopic survey of compact, unresolved objects in the core of the Hydra I galaxy cluster (Abell 1060), with the aim of identifying ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) and investigating the properties of the globular cluster (GC) system around the central cD galaxy NGC 3311. Methods. We obtained VIMOS medium-resolution spectra of about 1200 candidate objects with apparent magnitudes 18.5 < V < 24.0 mag, covering both the bright end of the GC luminosity function and the luminosity range of all known UCDs. Results. By means of spectroscopic redshift measurements, we identified 118 cluster members, from which 52 are brighter than MV = −11.0 mag, and can therefore be termed UCDs. The brightest UCD in our sample has an absolute magnitude of MV = −13. 4m ag (corresponding to a mass of 5 × 10 7 M� ) and a half-light radius of 25 pc. This places it among the brightest and most massive UCDs ever discovered. Most of the GCs/UCDs are both spatially and dynamically associated to the central cD galaxy. The overall velocity dispersion of the GCs/UCDs is comparable to what is found for the cluster galaxies. However, when splitting the sample into a bright and a faint part, we observe a lower velocity dispersion for the bright UCDs/GCs than for the fainter objects. At a dividing magnitude of MV = −10.75 mag, the dispersions differ by more than 200 km s −1 and up to 300 km s −1 for objects within 5 � around NGC 3311. Conclusions. We interpret these results in the context of different UCD formation channels, and conclude that interaction-driven formation seems to play an important role in the centre of Hydra I.
DIFFERENCES IN TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY ACROSS FIRM SIZE. A DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSIS.

Productivity has been considered a key element for firms and economies to be more competitive. Several studies on productivity at a microeconomic level have found notable heterogeneity between firms. More concretely, differences in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) between large and small firms have been observed. Those differences might be caused by differences in the distribution of the factors determining the level of TFP across firmsÂ’ size, and by differences in the return to such factors. To assess to what extent the observed differences in TFP between large and small Spanish manufacturing firms are caused by the above-mentioned reasons we propose a methodology that, built on the traditional Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, focuses the attention on the entire distribution of productivity. The TFP index used in our paper guarantees comparison of the level of productivity across firms in a given year and over time, and has been computed using the information in the Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales (ESEE), a comprehensive survey of manufacturing firms in Spain from 1990 to 1999. Results confirm that the distribution of TFP in the large firms dominates that for the small firms, and how besides differences in the distribution of, for example, human capital and R&D expenditures across firmsÂ’ size, heterogeneity in returns between large and small firms play a major role in explaining differences in the distribution of TFP. Important policy issue are derived in connection with the possibility of increasing the aggregate productivity of the Spanish economy considering that the average firm size in Spain is smaller than in other European countries.
Similarities and differences between statistical surveillance and certain decision rules in finance

Timely decisions about when to trade assets are important in financial management. In this paper we consider prospective decision rules that aim at extracting early signals about what decision to make, e.g. sell an asset. The decision rules are based on prospective monitoring of a statistic in order to detect a regime shift, e.g. a turn in the trend of asset prices. In the finance literature there are several suggested prospective decision rules that aim at detecting a turn in the price, for example the Filter rule and the rules that use moving averages. Another approach that has been proposed is the hidden Markov model (HMM) approach, where the price level is assumed to change between an upward and a downward trend according to a Markov chain. An approach not often used in a financial setting is statistical surveillance, which deals with the theory and methodology of online detection of an important change in the underlying process of a time series as soon as possible after it has occurred. In this paper inferential differences and similarities between statistical surveillance, two variants of the Filter rule, a rule based on moving averages and an HMM approach are investigated. A new non-parametric and robust approach never used in financial settings is proposed. Further, the purpose is to enhance the use of proper evaluation, where the timeliness of the alarm is considered. Evaluation measures and optimality criteria commonly used in statistical surveillance are reviewed and compared with those generally used in a financial setting. The methods are evaluated on Hang Seng Index.
The role of nursing in shared decision-making: a relational approach to implantable cardioverter-defibrillator battery replacement

Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantation rates are rapidly increasing as advances in heart failure and arrhythmia management progress. The number of patients who will eventually require an ICD battery replacement will thus rise in consequence. It has been suggested that ICD battery replacement is an opportune time for shared decision-making (SDM) regarding continued ICD therapy to carefully review patients' health status, their lived experience with the ICD, and health care goals. My purpose in this project is to critically explore how a relational ethics lens can inform nurses to assist patients in a SDM process at ICD battery replacement. A comprehensive review and critical analysis of 17 articles was conducted to determine the role of nurses in SDM. My analysis revealed four themes: knowledge as a basis for SDM, sharing power in relationships, utilization of decisional support strategies, and communication. I then considered this evidence in the context of relational ethics. Nurses are indeed well positioned and able to participate in decision-making processes but should adopt certain roles and responsibilities in order to ensure their success. Implications for nursing practice, education, and research are offered. NURSING AND SHARED DECISION-MAKING 5
The Forward-Looking Disclosures of Corporate Managers: Theory and Evidence

We consider an infinitely repeated game in which a privately informed, long-lived manager raises funds from short-lived investors in order to finance a project. The manager can signal project quality to investors by making a (possibly costly) forward-looking disclosure about her project's potential for success. We find that if the manager's disclosures are costly, she will never release forward-looking statements that do not convey information to external investors. Furthermore, managers of firms that are transparent and face significant disclosure-related costs will refrain from forward-looking disclosures. In contrast, managers of opaque and profitable firms will follow a policy of accurate disclosures. To test our findings empirically, we devise an index that captures the quantity of forward-looking disclosures in public firms' 10-K reports, and relate it to multiple firm characteristics. For opaque firms, our index is positively correlated with a firm's profitability and financing needs. For transparent firms, there is only a weak relation between our index and firm fundamentals. Furthermore, the overall level of forward-looking disclosures declined significantly between 2001 and 2009, possibly as a result of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act.