Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of the Melbourne FFQ: a food frequency questionnaire for use in an Australian prospective study involving an ethnically diverse cohort.

Objective. To develop an optically scannable food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), 'The Melbourne FFQ', suitable for classifying Australian-, Greek- and Italian-born individuals into quantiles of intake for a range of foods and nutrients. The FFQ would provide the primary measure of dietary exposure in a prospective cohort study. Design. The FFQ was modelled on that used for the (US) Nurses' Health Study. Food items were chosen on the basis of their relative contribution to the intake of a range of nutrients computed from weighed food records. Setting. Metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, a city of 3 million people, of whom 75.5% were born in Australia, 2.7% were born in Italy and 1.7% were born in Greece. Participants. Weighed Food Survey (1987-1989): A volunteer sample of 810 healthy middle-aged (40-69 years) men and women of whom 35% were born in Greece, 33% were born in Italy, and 32% were born in Australia. Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (1990-1993): A volunteer sample of 17 949 healthy men and women aged between 40 and 69 years of whom 61% were born in Australia, 21% were born in Italy and 17% were born in Greece. Results. A 121 item FFQ was developed, together with a customized nutrient database. The optical scanning format was generally well received with the majority of subjects requiring no assistance. The FFQ appeared to overestimate the consumption of fruit and vegetables. Conclusions. The Melbourne FFQ provides a convenient method of measuring habitual dietary intake in a large population setting. A separate study is required to assess how well the instrument characterizes diet at the level of the individual.
Impacts of Land Disturbance on Aquatic Ecosystem Health: Quantifying the Cascade of Events

ABSTRACT The impacts of land disturbance on streams have been studied extensively, but a quantitative mechanism of stream degradation is still lacking. Small changes in land use result in changes in physical and chemical characteristics in the stream, which significantly alter biotic integrity. The objective of this study was to quantify the mechanisms of aquatic ecosystem degradation in streams impacted by watershed urbanization. By quantifying the development level and the changes in the physical parameters of receiving streams, the effects of land use change can be illustrated in a conceptual model and evaluated using a traditional ecological risk assessment framework. Three 1st-order streams draining catchments undergoing varying stages of land development were examined in the upper Piedmont physiographic province of South Carolina, USA. A disturbance index was developed to quantify the changes in land use on a monthly basis. This normalized disturbance index (NDI) was quantitatively linked to an increase in the percentage of impervious cover, stormwater runoff, storm-event total suspended solid (TSS) concentrations, and the North Carolina biotic index (NCBI). The NDI was inversely related to a decline in habitat, median bed-sediment particle size, and benthic index of biotic integrity (BIBI). Unlike the percentage of impervious cover, the NDI facilitated the development of strategies for multiple scales of regulation. Predictive multivariate regressions were developed for storm-event TSS concentrations, the BIBI, and the NCBI. These regressions can be used to develop improved regulations for the effects of development and can lead to better implementation of best management practices, improved monitoring of land use change, and more sustainable development.
Housing dilemma among young starters in Malaysia

Housing provision has played an important part of the government’s social policy in Malaysia since independence. It is very crucial in order to ensure social economic stability and to promote national development. It also plays major concern for all people around the world as the welfare of a country is reflected and to let the people enjoy a standard of living. It is undeniable that residential and neighbourhood satisfaction is an important indicator of housing quality and condition, which affects individual’s quality of life. Through the Five Year Plan (Malaysia Economic Plan), the government has focused on various housing programmes in both rural and urban areas with the aim of providing affordable housing. The government has also invited the private sector to get involved in providing housing for all income groups, and in doing so has made the private sector a key player in the housing industry. Malaysia just like other developing countries has considered housing sector as a basic need and to be key engine of growth to fuel the nation’s economic prosperity. This is simply because; housing provision is not only to meet the people’s needs but also boost country’s economic growth (The 10th Malaysian Plan).
Marketing's Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework

The authors review and integrate various theoretical perspectives, normative statements, and pieces of empirical evidence about the organizational structures and processes best suited for implementing different types of business strategies. Particular emphasis is given to the relationship of different types of structure, processes, and policies involved in the performance of marketing activities to the overall performance of different business strategies. Several specific research propositions are developed.
Islamic banking: a study of customer satisfaction and preferences in Jordan

The Islamic banking system is gaining momentum. Many international conventional banks have started to open branches which operate in accordance with the Islamic Shariah principles in some Islamic countries. The Islamic banking system is expected to face strong competition not only from the Islamic banks but also from well‐established conventional banks offering Islamic products and services. In this study, an attempt is made to assess the degree of customer awareness and satisfaction towards an Islamic bank in Jordan. A sample 206 respondents took part in this study. The analysis of their responses revealed a certain degree of satisfaction of many of the Islamic banks facilities and products. The respondents expressed their dissatisfaction with some of the Islamic banks services. Although the respondents indicated that they are aware of a number of specific Islamic financial products like Murabaha Musharaka and Mudaraba, they show that they do not deal with them.
Antecedents varıables of intentıon to use servıce innovatıon: an empırıcal study of e-toll card

Lack of consumer willingness to adopt electronic toll card in Jakarta triger the congestion at the toll gates. This congestion has been one of the critical factors that needs to be more focused by PT Jasa Marga as highway toll service company. The fact shows that only 5.88% of all the total transactions in the toll gates applied E-toll card facility. These facts provide evidence about the lack of consumer willingness to adopt E-Toll card. Therefore, the understanding of consumer behavior to adopt sevice innovation is necessary to solve these lack of consumer unwillingness. This study was developed by replicated the research of Lee (2012) that reveal the antecedents factors that affect the consumer intention to adopt service innovation. Respondents of this research were 217 students from a private university in Tangerang. Respondent were collected by using judgemental sampling based on their experience in using E-toll card. The survey instrument employed demographic background, consumer attitude, perceived ease of use, perceived price fairness, satisfaction with existing service, fashion consciousness, risk averseness and consumer intention to adopt service innovation. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to analyze the data. Result indicated that consumer attitude, perceived ease of use, satisfaction with existing service, risk averseness, and fashion consciousness are the predictors of consumer intention to adopt service innovation. This research also provides the theoretical implication, managerial implication, and suggestion for future research.
Resilience following Child Maltreatment: A Review of Protective Factors

Objective: Child maltreatment is linked with numerous adverse outcomes that can continue throughout the lifespan. However, variability of impairment has been noted following child maltreatment, making it seem that some people are more resilient. Our review includes a brief discussion of how resilience is measured in child maltreatment research; a summary of the evidence for protective factors associated with resilience based on those studies of highest quality; a discussion of how knowledge of protective factors can be applied to promote resilience among people exposed to child maltreatment; and finally, directions for future research. Method: The databases MEDLINE and PsycINFO were searched for relevant citations up to July 2010 to identify key studies and evidence syntheses. Results: Although comparability across studies is limited, family-level factors of stable family environment and supportive relationships appear to be consistently linked with resilience across studies. There was also evidence for some individual-level factors, such as personality traits, although proxies of intellect were not as strongly related to resilience following child maltreatment. Conclusions: Findings from resilience research needs to be applied to determine effective strategies and specific interventions to promote resilience and foster well-being among maltreated children.
A grounded study of ERP adoption and vendor selection in Thailand

This paper contributes to the literature of the adoption of ERP systems and other existing and new IT-based innovation in developing countries. There is an imperative for a framework to explain the decision-making processes in ERP system adoption and vendor selection in general but particularly in developing Asian countries where knowledge on ERP systems is limited. The authors conducted interviews with IT managers and end-users to identify factors affecting ERP system adoption and ERP system vendor selection by Thaiowned and multinational companies (MNCs) in Thailand. The findings from the study have led to the development of a research model of ERP system adoption. The paper presents a description and discussion of the model and identifies areas for its implementation and future research.
Prevalence, incidence and mortality associated with tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients initiating antiretroviral therapy in rural Uganda

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death among people with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Expanding access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) may reduce the burden of TB, but to what extent is unknown. Methods: In a study of 1044 adults who initiated home-based ART in Tororo, Uganda between 1 May 2003 and 30 June 2005, participants were screened for active TB at baseline and then monitored at weekly home visits. Participants with TB at baseline or follow-up were compared with those without TB to determine factors associated with mortality in those with TB. Results: At baseline, 75 (7.2%) subjects had TB and a total of 53 (5.5%) were diagnosed with TB over a median of 1.4 years of follow-up (3.90 cases/100 person years). Cumulative mortality was 17.9/100 person-years for those with TB and 3.8/100 person-years for those without TB (P < 0.001). Mortality was associated with low baseline CD4 cell counts [relative hazard (RH), 0.99 per 1 cell/μl increase; P = 0.03] and marginally associated with a body mass index ≤ 18 (RH, 2.04; P = 0.10) and increasing age (RH, 1.04 per year; P = 0.11). TB incidence and TB-associated mortality were highest within the first 6 months of ART and declined to 52% and 61% of expected values, respectively, from months 7 to 18 after ART initiation. Conclusion: TB remains an important cause of illness and death in patients receiving ART in Uganda. However, both appear to decline markedly, after 6 months of ART.
Induction of Laccase Activity in Rhizoctonia solani by Antagonistic Pseudomonas fluorescens Strains and a Range of Chemical Treatments

ABSTRACT Fungi often produce the phenoloxidase enzyme laccase during interactions with other organisms, an observation relevant to the development of biocontrols. By incorporating the laccase substrate 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) into agar, we analyzed laccase induction in the plant-pathogenic fungusRhizoctonia solani when paired against isolates of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens. Substantial induction ofR. solani laccase was seen only in pairings with strains ofP. fluorescens known to produce antifungal metabolites. To study laccase induction further, a range of chemical treatments was applied to R. solani liquid cultures.p-Anisidine, copper(II), manganese(II), calcium ionophoreA23187 , lithium chloride, calcium chloride, cyclic AMP (cAMP), caffeine, amphotericin B, paraquat, ethanol, and isopropanol were all found to induce laccase; however, the P. fluorescensmetabolite viscosinamide did not do so at the concentrations tested. The stress caused by these treatments was assessed by measuring changes in lipid peroxidation levels and dry weight. The results indicated that the laccase induction seen in pairing plate experiments was most likely due to calcium or heat shock signaling in response to the effects of bacterial metabolites, but that heavy metal and cAMP-driven laccase induction was involved in sclerotization.
Asymptotic Behavior of Imaginary Zeros of Linear Systems with Commensurate Delays

This paper addresses the problem of asymptotic stability of linear time-delay systems with commensurate delays. We study the asymptotic behavior of the critical characteristic zeros of such systems on the imaginary axis. This behavior determines whether the imaginary zeros cross from one half plane into another, and hence plays a critical role in determining the stability of a time-delay system. We consider time-delay systems given in both state-space form and as a quasipolynomial. Our results reveal that in the former case the zero asymptotic behavior can be characterized by solving a simple eigenvalue problem, and in the latter case, by computing the derivatives of the quasipolynomial. To perform such an analysis, we make use of an operator perturbation approach
The Implications of Trust in the Sharing Economy - An Empirical Analysis of Uber

Modern technologies, including mobile applications and Internet-based platforms, continuously foster the rise of the sharing economy. In this paper, we focus on Uber, a ridesharing platform that is one of the fastest growing startups worldwide. We take the perspective of a potential customer and investigate the implications of trust. In particular, we modify a research model by Gefen (2000) and investigate the influence of trust on the customers’ intentions: ‘Inquire about drivers’ and ‘Request a ride’. In this regard, we differentiate between ‘Trust in Uber’ and ‘Trust in drivers’, while incorporating the two antecedents: ‘Disposition to trust’ and ‘Familiarity with Uber’. The study employs survey data (n = 221) and structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). Our results provide empirical evidence that ‘Trust in Uber’ influences the customers’ intentions, whereas the influence of ‘Trust in drivers’ is insignificant.
Bayesian Cognitive Modeling: A Practical Course

Part I. Getting Started: 1. The basics of Bayesian analysis 2. Getting started with WinBUGS Part II. Parameter Estimation: 3. Inferences with binomials 4. Inferences with Gaussians 5. Some examples of data analysis 6. Latent mixture models Part III. Model Selection: 7. Bayesian model comparison 8. Comparing Gaussian means 9. Comparing binomial rates Part IV. Case Studies: 10. Memory retention 11. Signal detection theory 12. Psychophysical functions 13. Extrasensory perception 14. Multinomial processing trees 15. The SIMPLE model of memory 16. The BART model of risk taking 17. The GCM model of categorization 18. Heuristic decision-making 19. Number concept development.
Amiodarone for the Maintenance of Sinus Rhythm in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Objective: To discuss the role of amiodarone for the maintenance of normal sinus rhythm in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and review the clinical trial data evaluating the efficacy and safety of amiodarone in patients with AF. Data Sources: A MEDLINE search was used to identify pertinent literature. Additional references were identified from the articles obtained in the search. Key search terms were atrial fibrillation, amiodarone, and sinus rhythm. Study Selection: All studies available at the time the article was prepared evaluating the efficacy and safety of amiodarone in AF were included. In addition, review articles discussing the role of amiodarone in AF were selected. Data Extraction: NO large, prospective, randomized trials have been performed. Data from 8 nonrandomized and 2 randomized trials are reported. Information derived from review articles is discussed. Data Synthesis: In patients with AF, maintenance of normal sinus rhythm is desirable to eliminate symptoms, improve functional capacity, and reduce the risk of thromboembolic complications. Class IA agents traditionally have been used; however, concerns about long-term effects on mortality have focused attention on other agents such as amiodarone. A number of nonrandomized, uncontrolled trials have found amiodarone to be effective for maintaining normal sinus rhythm in patients with AF that is refractory to conventional agents. Two randomized, nonblind trials have found amiodarone's efficacy to be equal to or superior to that of class IA drugs. The findings of these trials must be weighed, however, against the significant potential for toxicity and drug interactions associated with amiodarone. Cardiovascular toxicities, including proarrhythmic effects, appear to be relatively rare. In contrast, noncardiovascular effects are common and potentially serious. Conclusions: Although the preliminary data using amiodarone in AF are encouraging, many questions remain unanswered. Prospective, randomized trials are needed to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of amiodarone in patients with AF. Studies also are needed to determine the optimal dosing regimen. Until these data are available, each patient must be evaluated individually, taking into account the relative benefits and risks of therapy. Amiodarone may be particularly useful in patients with significant risks for proarrhythmia and those whose AF is refractory to traditional therapy.
Culture, Management Practices, and the Entrepreneurial Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises: Applications and Empirical Study in the Middle East

Abstract The role of small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East is crucial in the economy and the labor market. Many studies were conducted on the success factors of small business, but they have not taken the entire cycle to explore the success of the enterprise beyond its launch and growth phase, into its longterm sustainability. The present paper proposes a theoretical framework on SME managerial practices then tests it empirically using data collected from 173 entities. The six factors were represented by independent variables and studied in relation with SME performance as the dependent variable in a linear regression analysis. The analysis showed that (1), (3), (4) and (6) were positively and significantly correlated with business performance, while (2) and (5) were found insignificant. The first four findings are consistent with preliminary results from the exploratory research phase. The finding that succession planning and equity in compensation are insignificant in relation to performance requires further research. However, this finding is partially explained in focus interviews that respondents expect successors to be selected on grounds that include several factors besides performance. Compensation is affected by job markets where professionals may accept pay levels below their merit and not necessarily reflecting internal equity.
High prevalence of goiter in schoolchildren in Isfahan; zinc deficiency does not play a role.

INTRODUCTION There are controversial data about the role of zinc deficiency in the aetiology of endemic goiter. The aim of the present study was to determine the association between zinc status and goiter in schoolchildren of Isfahan. MATERIAL AND METHODS This study was performed in 2005. Two thousand three hundred and thirty-one schoolchildren were enrolled, and thyroid size was determined by inspection and palpation. Urinary iodine concentration (UIC) and serum zinc level were measured in a group of those children. RESULTS The prevalence of goiter was 32.9%. The median UIC was 195.5 microg/L. Serum zinc was measured in 94 goitrous and 326 nongoitrous children. The mean + or - standard deviation of serum zinc in goitrous and non-goitrous children was 100.81 + or - 22.33 and 96.00 + or - 25.79 microg/dL, respectively (P = 0.08). The prevalence of zinc deficiency (serum zinc < or = 65 microg/dL) in goitrous and non-goitrous children did not differ significantly (6.4 % v. 8.0%, P = 0.61). CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of goiter is still high in Isfahan schoolchildren. It seems that zinc status is not involved in the high prevalence of goiter in this region. The role of other possible goitrogens should be investigated in Isfahan.
Examining the Performance of IPOs

This paper examines the performance of 648 initial public offerings (IPOs) listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) from June 1992 to March 2002 over a five-year period. Voluminous research across the world suggests that IPOs unanimously witness very high returns in the short run; as opposed to it, the long-run performance of IPOs does not observe any ubiquitous pattern and this paper is an attempt to draw conclusions about the performance of IPOs in India. In order to get robust conclusions on IPO performance, the patterns of IPO performance have been analyzed for 60 months subsequent to listing. Furthermore, the study attempts to find out the factors that determine the performance of Indian IPOs.
Student Engagement and Marketing Classes

A study is reported that investigates the goals underlying undergraduate students’ engagement in their major classes, nonmajor classes, and in extracurricular activities. The qualitative study employs both focus groups and goal-mapping exercises. The results suggest that students tend to focus on utilitarian, attribute-level considerations mainly related to credentialing for purposes of employment. The results are considered from the perspectives of judgment and decision making, learning models, and the emerging service marketing perspective. These model considerations underscore an argument for moving toward models of education delivery focusing on value co-creation instead of the current emphasis on providing value to students. A series of recommendations are offered to help facilitate faculty efforts to increase course engagement, particularly in large-section course offerings. However, the authors ultimately conclude that student engagement with their course-related experiences will best be served in models of value co-creation by a focus on more than intellectual maturity in education. Specifically, an argument is presented for also targeting moral and motivational maturity. The practical and research implications of the study are presented and discussed.