Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Foreign Labours and Total Factor Productivity in Malaysia's Manufacturing

This paper aims to examine the impact of the foreign labour as well as other determinants on the total factor productivity (TFP) among 15 sub- industries in Malaysia's manufacturing sector. The study applied the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to calculate the values of TFP, followed by the Panel ARDL model, or Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation, to capture the long-run and short-run relationship among the variables during the year 1990 until 2008. The results showed that the aggregate number of the foreign and local labours have a positive impact to the growth of TFP in a long-run. Besides that, both skilled and low-skilled foreign labours have showed a significantly positive and negative impact to the growth of TFP in a long run. The study also revealed that the manufacturing sectors in Malaysia are operating below its efficiency level. Thus, the used of human capital especially the skilled local or foreign labours are essential to absorb the invested technology more efficiently. Other determinants such as capital intensity and openness of economy have showed a positive and statistically significant to the growth of TFP in the long-run.
BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES ON THIOACETAMIDE TOXICITY IN MALE ALBINO RATS AND THE ROLE OF TOMATO JUICE AS AN ANTIOXIDANT

Lycopene is a fat-soluble hydrocarbon carotenoid pigment that gives tomatoes their red color with a high capacity for scavenging free radicals. Thioacetamide (TAA) is one of several agents that produce structural and functional changes, not only in liver, but also in other tissues as kidneys, thymus, spleen, intestine and lungs. The present study was carried out on male albino rats to investigate the effects of intraperitoneally (i.p.) injection of thioacetamide, as a single dose of 150 mg/kg b.wt. in adult male albino rats and the possible prophylactic action of tomato juice. Thioacetamide toxicity were evidenced by an increase in thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) which is an indicator for lipid peroxidation concomitant with decline in the iducenes of antioxidant capacity inducing, reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione reductase activity (GSH-Rx) superoxide dismutase (SOD), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) and catalase (CAT) the kidney. Treatment with tomato juice (7.9 ml/kg b.wt.) daily for 2 weeks before TAA injection, significantly reduced kidneys TBARS concentration, at the same time, ameliorated the TAA-induced inhibition of GSH content as well as , GSH-Rx, SOD,G6PD and CAT activities. Thioacetamide caused an inhibition in the Na + /K + adenosine triphosphatase activity of the kidneys , elevation of sodium ions and water content paralleled with a decrease in potassium content. At the same time an increase in serum K and urine Na levels concomitant with a decrease in serum Na and urine K levels were observed. The results revealed an increase in the kidney, serum and urine activities of alkaline phosphatase accompanied with an elevation in urea and creatinine in serum and urine. Administration of tomatojuice before TAA ameliorated most of these parameters. It is concluded that, ingestion of tomatoes, may provide natural protection against nephrotoxicity damage caused by thioacetamide.
Examining the Inter-Relationships Among the Dimensions of Relationship Marketing

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interrelationship among the dimensions of relationship marketing namely, trust, commitment, communication and conflict handling. Little is understood about the inter-relationship among these factors as all prior efforts in the area have focused on their impact on relationship outcomes such as satisfaction, loyalty and word-of-mouth communication. Some 400 bank customers in Malaysia were surveyed, with 220 usable responses on which analysis was based. The research found that there is strong evidence for the interrelatedness of trust, commitment, communication and conflict handling. Important managerial and marketing implications of the findings are discussed.
Estimate of the number of traps visited by small mammals based on a probabilistic model

Na powierzchni leśnej wielkości 3 ha śledzono poruszanie sie gryzoni na podstawie odlowu w zywolowne pulapki. Badaniom podlegaly 3 gatunki: Clethrionomys glareolus (Schreber, 1780), Apodemus agrarius (Pallas, 1771) i A. flavicollis (Melchior, 1934). Metodą badan byl intensywny polow zwierząt zamieszkujących badaną powierzchnie, znakowanie ich, wypuszczanie i poprzez dalsze polowy śledzenie dalszych ich losow.
Influence of Diversity Reward on Employee Commitment in the Banking Sector in Kenya

Despite the decades of equality legislation and declared commitment to equal opportunities in employment and remuneration, commercial banks in Kenya still have great disparities in the way that they reward their diverse workforce. This study purposed to determine the influence of diversity reward on employee commitment in the banking sector in Kenya. Specific objectives included; to determine the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on employee commitment. The study used a descriptive survey with a sample size of 384 respondents drawn from a target population of 36,212 employees comprised of top, supervisory, clerical and secretarial staff. The sample was obtained using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. From each stratum, a proportionate allocation was used to select a representative sample and data collected by questionnaires. The obtained data was analysed using descriptive, correlation and multiple linear regression analyses. Findings of the study indicated that commercial banks in Kenya provide both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to all employees irrespective of their background and that these rewards had a significant influence on employee commitment. Nonetheless, extrinsic rewards were found to have a greater influence on employee commitment than that of intrinsic rewards. However, the study suggested that there is need for more research that would look at the influence of diversity rewards on other HR outcomes such as staff retention or job satisfaction or still on organizational commitment in other sectors in Kenya other than the banking sector.
Resistance and control of cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos as acaricide for control of hard tick Haemaphysalis longicornis ( acari : ixodidae )

Chemotherapeutic treatment is still the foundation of tick control programs. This study investigated the acaricidal efficacy of cypermethrin alone and in combination with chlorpyrifos against Haemaphysalis (H.) longicornis. Unfed larval ticks were exposed to 0.1, 1.0, and 10 mg/mL cypermethrin for 60 min, after which the acaricidal efficacy was examined based on tick mortality. All compounds showed similar suppression curves, with the best control being achieved by cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos (1 : 1 ratio) at 10 mg/mL. Effective cypermethrin concentrations for tick control were two to seven times higher than the recommended doses, indicating resistance by H. longicornis.
The Relationship between Iranian EFL Teachers’ Creativity and Time Management Skills

Early research on creativity has illustrated that time is a significant resource education in general and classroom in particular. It is vital for incubation, thus, individuals should be given enough time to do a creative work. The current study sought to uncover the probable relationship between English language teachers’ creativity and time management skills. We hypothesized that teachers’ creativity plays a role in a number of variables such as age, gender, and teaching experience. It was also surmised that teacher creativity correlates time orientation. To measure teacher creativity, Zhou and George (2001) self-rating creativity was employed. In addition, Trueman and Hartley (1996) time management scale comprising five constructs, production of creative ideas, production of useful ideas, daily planning, confidence in long-term planning, and perceived control of time, were utilized to gauge time orientation. To comply with the objective, a total of 202 intermediate students from three English language institutes took part for the purpose of this study. They were requested to fill out the questionnaires. The data were collected over a period of three weeks. The data were analyzed using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient to probe the relationship between the variables. The results suggest that teachers with more time orientation incorporate more teaching activities in their classroom. However, the findings revealed that a number of variables like age, gender and teaching experiences were not significant factors for teachers’ creativity skills. The findings suggest that a teacher should widen his perception of creativity and repertoire of employing activities in order to maximize students' capacity for novelty The may help language teachers and policy makers bring to a focus on the effects of time management skills and teachers’ creativity in the EFL content to achieve a better result in learning process.
The Accountant Satisfaction in Using ERP Systems

Although studies of the benefits of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) have been done before, the analysis of accountant satisfaction models in using ERP systems has not been explored specifically from the perceptions of accounting benefits, operational benefits, individual productivity, and managerial benefits. There has been significant growth in the use of ERP systems in Indonesia. Therefore, this study proposes a model of the accountant satisfaction in using the ERP systems. The population of this study is the accountants working in Jakarta. The data are collected from ERP users in several companies in Jakarta by using a questionnaire with snowball sampling method. As much as 282 respondents return the questionnaire. The analysis of the proposed model is done by Partial Least Square (PLS). The results of the analysis provide support to the proposed model that accounting benefits, operational benefits, individual productivity, and managerial benefits are indicators that measure user satisfaction of ERP systems. The expected theoretical contribution of the results of this study is to provide insight into the system user satisfaction model, apart from the practical contribution for ERP provider companies for paying attention to the factors affecting ERP user satisfaction.
A formative assessment of information communication technology in Lebanese schools

Information Communication Technology (ICT) devices as servers, personal computers (PCs), hubs and other artifacts that make-up these technologies have important role in the educational development in public and private schools. This paper measures the level of ICTs in Lebanese public and private schools for the academic year 2005/2006 and evaluates the effectiveness of ICT on student school performance. The number of PCs, servers, printers, hubs, UPSs, scanners, LCDs, modem/fax, and email access, were measured and ICT indicator values were calculated. No significant differences were found between private and public schools on the aggregate level of ICT or computers per school or per student. The study also evaluated the effectiveness of ICT using the aggregate measure of ICT artifacts and PCs and its effects on student secondary school performance. A two-by-two factorial design using type of school (private/public), level of ICT (high/low) and PCs (high/low) was run on the baccalaureate-passing rate. Mainly, a significant difference between public and private schools was found, but no differences between the two ICT levels (high/low) or PC levels (high/low) per student. ICT levels in private schools did not impact student performance specifically, passing the baccalaureate exams. Although ICT levels were higher in private schools, the differences were not significant at the 0.05 level.
Life history of the sandy beach amphipod Deshayesorchestia deshayesii (Crustacea: Talitridae) from Bizerta beach (North of Tunisia)

Population dynamics and reproductive activity of the amphipod Deshayesorchestia deshayesii were studied monthly from June 2007 to December 2008 in Bizerta beach. During this period, 6577 specimens of D. deshayesii were identified; the sex ratio was female biased, with a mean of the monthly sex ratios equal to 0.21 ± 0.12. Due to the absence of embryos or eggs in the female brood pouches and juveniles in the samples, results suggested that the reproductive season extended from April to November, with a sexual resting period during winter from December to March. Brood size varied between 4 and 17 eggs and fecundity appeared to be correlated with female size. Six cohorts were identified on the first sampling date. Additionally, 12 new cohorts were detected during the study period. Life span was estimated at 5–7 months depending on the time of birth. Cohorts that appeared at the beginning of the reproductive period tended to have shorter lives than those born later in the season. These results suggest that D. deshayesii can be considered as a semi-annual species, with iteroparous females.
HOW AGN JETS HEAT THE INTRACLUSTER MEDIUM—INSIGHTS FROM HYDRODYNAMIC SIMULATIONS

Feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is believed to prevent catastrophic cooling in galaxy clusters. However, how the feedback energy is transformed into heat, and how the AGN jets heat the intracluster medium (ICM) isotropically, still remain elusive. In this work, we gain insights into the relative importance of different heating mechanisms using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations including cold gas accretion and momentum-driven jet feedback, which are the most successful models to date in terms of reproducing the properties of cool cores. We find that there is net heating within two “jet cones” (within ∼30° from the axis of jet precession) where the ICM gains entropy by shock heating and mixing with the hot thermal gas within bubbles. Outside the jet cones, the ambient gas is heated by weak shocks, but not enough to overcome radiative cooling, therefore, forming a “reduced” cooling flow. Consequently, the cluster core is in a process of “gentle circulation” over billions of years. Within the jet cones, there is significant adiabatic cooling as the gas is uplifted by buoyantly rising bubbles; outside the cones, energy is supplied by the inflow of already-heated gas from the jet cones as well as adiabatic compression as the gas moves toward the center. In other words, the fluid dynamics self-adjusts such that it compensates and transports the heat provided by the AGN, and hence no fine-tuning of the heating profile of any process is necessary. Throughout the cluster evolution, turbulent energy is only at the percent level compared to gas thermal energy, and thus turbulent heating is not the main source of heating in our simulation.
Re-examining the Wagner's law versus Keynesian hypothesis: evidence from Nigeria

This study investigates the Keynesian and Wagnerian views on public expenditure and economic growth in Nigeria using annual secondary data spanning from 1980 to 2011 obtained from the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletins. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Johansen Cointegration and Granger Causality econometric methodologies were used in this study. The Johansen Cointegration test revealed the presence of a long-run cointegrated relationship between government expenditure (capital expenditure and recurrent expenditure) and economic growth (GDP) in Nigeria. The Granger Causality test found no mutual correlation between government expenditure (capital expenditure and recurrent expenditure) and economic growth (GDP) using the benchmark of 5% level of statistical significance. The findings of this study therefore indicate the non-existence of both Wagner’s Law and Keynesian Hypothesis on public expenditure and economic growth in Nigeria during the period under review.
Hygienic aspects on the reuse of source-separated human urine

Introduction Human excreta contain plant nutrients and have traditionally been used for crop fertilisation in many countries. In Japan the recycling of urine and faeces was introduced in the 12 Century and in China human and animal excreta have been composted for thousands of years. Urine is the fraction that contains the major part of the nutrients in domestic wastewater, approximately 80% of the nitrogen, 55% of the phosphorous and 60% of the potassium (Swedish EPA, 1995). At the same time it constitutes less than 1% of the total wastewater volume. Thus it is possible to collect a relatively concentrated fertiliser by separating urine from the wastewater. Faeces contribute a smaller amount of nutrients and involves greater health risks if reused due to the possible presence of enteric pathogens. Human urine does not generally contain pathogens that can be transmitted through the environment.
Productivity convergence across industries and regions in Norway and Sweden

Several authors have asked why the differences in output per worker between countries are so large and hypothesized that differences in social infrastructure provide an answer. However, differences in output per worker also vary considerably when comparing spatial units at lower levels of resolution, without substantial variation in the social infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to discuss possible reasons for regional differences based on data for the Scandinavian Peninsula at a spatial resolution almost equivalent to the European NUTS3. Since Norway and Sweden are considered to be particularly egalitarian and homogeneous societies, differences in broad measures of social infrastructure can hardly be invoked as substantially important determinants of productive performance. Instead, we investigate the role played by industrial structure. We find strong productivity convergence between Norwegian regions and weak divergence between Swedish ones. For Norway, there is convergence in primary production, manufacturing and services. For Sweden, there is divergence, except in the primary sector. The effect of the industry structure on the spatial distribution of productivity appears to be small in magnitude, but is qualitatively important at least for one time period. The data cover 5-year intervals from 1980 to 2000 for Norway and from 1985 to 2000 for Sweden.
An Extended Star Formation History in an Ultra Compact Dwarf

There has been significant controversy over the mechanisms responsible for forming compact stellar systems like ultra compact dwarfs (UCDs), with suggestions that UCDs are simply the high mass extension of the globular cluster (GC) population, or alternatively, the liberated nuclei of galaxies tidally stripped by larger companions. Definitive examples of UCDs formed by either route have been difficult to find, with only a handful of persuasive examples of stripped-nucleus type UCDs being known. In this paper we present very deep Gemini/GMOS spectroscopic observations of the suspected stripped nucleus UCD NGC 4546-UCD1 taken in good seeing conditions (< 0.7"). With these data we examine the spatially resolved kinematics and star formation history of this unusual object. We find no evidence of a rise in the central velocity dispersion of the UCD, suggesting that this UCD lacks a massive central black hole like those found in some other compact stellar systems, a conclusion confirmed by detailed dynamical modelling. Finally we are able to use our extremely high signal to noise spectrum to detect a temporally extended star formation history for this UCD. We find that the UCD was forming stars since the earliest epochs until at least 1-2 Gyr ago. Taken together these observations confirm that NGC 4546-UCD1 is the remnant nucleus of a nucleated dwarf galaxy that was tidally destroyed by NGC 4546 within the last 1-2 Gyr.
An Empirical Investigation of International Accounting Harmony - Evidence from Egypt, Jordan and GCC Countries

This paper examines the extent of accounting practices harmony with particular focus on measurement practices of listed companies in eight Arab developing countries namely Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries. The paper extends the previous literature in this field and provides evidence on the International Accounting Harmony (IAH) between these eight countries. The empirical study is based on a sample of 250 non-financial companies for the financial year 2010. I index was used to measure the degree of accounting harmony between countries, while the Chi-square test was employed to test the equality of the proportions of accounting measurement methods choices across the eight countries. A full harmony was found in three areas namely short-term investment valuation, investment in associates, and foreign currency translate of monetary assets and liabilities. Further a high degree of harmony was found in some areas, while a lower level of harmony was found in others. The scope of this study is limited to a sample of 250 companies from the eight countries investigated and they may not represent all of the possible listed companies in these countries. Thus, it might be better to look at companies from a wider range in a future study. This study makes a considerable contribution to our understanding of corporate accounting practices in these countries of emerging stock markets.
Assessing the effects of early silvicultural management on long-term site productivity of fast-growing eucalypt plantations: the Brazilian experience

Eucalyptus is the dominant and most productive planted forest in Brazil, covering around 3.4 million ha for the production of charcoal, pulp, sawtimber, timber plates, wood foils, plywood and for building purposes. At the early establishment of the forest plantations, during the second half of the 1960s, the eucalypt yield was 10 m3 ha−1 y−1. Now, as a result of investments in research and technology, the average productivity is 38 m3 ha−1 y−1. The productivity restrictions are related to the following environmental factors, in order of importance: water deficits > nutrient deficiency > soil depth and strength. The clonal forests have been fundamental in sites with larger water and nutrient restrictions, where they out-perform those established from traditional seed-based planting stock. When the environmental limitations are small the productivities of plantations based on clones or seeds appear to be similar. In the long term there are risks to sustainability, because of the low fertility and low reserves of primary minerals in the soils, which are, commonly, loamy and clayey oxisols and ultisols. Usually, a decline of soil quality is caused by management that does not conserve soil and site resources, damages soil physical and chemical characteristics, and insufficient or unbalanced fertiliser management. The problem is more serious when fast-growing genotypes are planted, which have a high nutrient demand and uptake capacity, and therefore high nutrient output through harvesting. The need to mobilise less soil by providing more cover and protection, reduce the nutrient and organic matter losses, preserve crucial physical properties as permeability (root growth, infiltration and aeration), improve weed control and reduce costs has led to a progressive increase in the use of minimum cultivation practices during the last 20 years, which has been accepted as a good alternative to keep or increase site quality in the long term. In this paper we provide a synthesis and critical appraisal of the research results and practical implications of early silvicultural management on long-term site productivity of fast-growing eucalypt plantations arising from the Brazilian context.