Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noor Iterations for Asymptotically Nonexpansive Mappings in CAT(0) Spaces

In this paper, Δ and strong convergence theorems are established for the Noor iterations of asymptotically nonexpansive mappings in CAT(0) spaces. Our results extend and improve the recent ones announced by Dhompongsa and Panyanak [10], Nanjaras and Panyanak [25], Xu and Noor [29] and many others.
EVALUATION OF SINGLE-STEP STEAM PYROLYSIS-ACTIVATED CARBONS FROM LESOTHO AGROFORESTRY RESIDUES

Activated carbon has been widely used worldwide as an effective filtration or adsorption material for removing biological and chemical contaminants from drinking water. The potential of producing activated carbon (AC) from local agroforestry residues by single-step steam pyrolysis processes was investigated. The research aims to promote innovative use of local raw materials and relatively low-cost techniques in production of activated carbon. Four varieties of activated carbons from four different agroforestry residues, pine (Pinus contorta) cones (PC), Abies (Abies cilicica) seeds (AS), maple (Acer ginnala) seeds (MS) and peach (Prunus persica) stones (PS), were prepared and evaluated. The ACs were evaluated for % carbon yield and their characteristics iodine number, phenol specific area, ash content, pH, moisture content, and solubility in water and in HCl. The % AC yields for PS, PC, AS and MS were found to be 23.0%, 18.0%, 17.8% and 14.6% respectively, which are generally comparable to the commercially recommend minimum AC yield (20%). The phenol specific areas for the ACs were 399, 388, 381 and 415m 2 /g, while iodine values were 73.6, 61.4, 52.2 and 100.3g/100g for PSAC, MSAC, ASAC and PCAC, respectively. Phenol and iodine values for a commercial activated carbon (CAC) were 600 m 2 /g, and 172.9g/100g. Although the adsorption properties for the experimental ACs were generally lower than those of the analyzed CAC, the results still revealed that the experimental ACs possesses high absorptive properties as desired in industrial applications. Other investigated properties namely pH (ranging 8.3 to 9.8), solubility in HCl (2.2 to 4.7%) and solubility in water (2.3 to 5.0%) also showed that single-step steam pyrolysis can produce ACs of close comparison to CAC. Overally, this preliminary investigation has demonstrated potential in application of any of the four materials, coupled with the single-step steam pyrolysis technique, in production of AC.
Environmental quality as an important dimension of customer satisfaction in apartment industry

This study aims to determine the dimensions of customer satisfaction. For this purpose, researchers developed a model by taking an experiential view. In this article, a standard questionnaire was used for collecting the data and, the authors report a comparative study that was conducted on two samples of real customers at apartment industry (low income and high income) in Iran. The results from a low income sample revealed that the customer satisfaction is influenced more by customer cost and product quality than other constructs. Moreover, the role of customer satisfaction as a mediating factor in the intention of word of mouth is supported. In contrary, in high income sample customer satisfaction influenced more by product quality and service quality than other constructs. In addition, the role of customer satisfaction as a mediating factor in the intention of word of mouth is rejected. A notable advantage of the model developed in this study is that, it covers essentially all the quality issues an apartment customer may encounter (that is, physical or product, service, and environment). Key words: Customer satisfaction, word of mouth, service quality, apartment industry, Iran.
Age at Migration and Fertility Patterns in Spain : Differences by Origin and Length of Stay ( Draft Version 23 / 05 / 2011 )

This is a study of interactions between fertility and migration for foreign populations living in the Spanish region of Catalonia in year 2007. By interactions we understand not only the effects of the migratory movements on reproductive behaviors, but also that the fertility behaviors at place of origin can be a factor of the migration process. In order to study these interactions, we choose to consider all the reproductive life of migrants, which means before and after the main migratory event. We use a retrospective survey with complete maternal histories, for both native-born and born abroad women. We compute age specific fertility rate and duration of stay specific risk of birth. Analysis takes into account age at migration, continent of origin and union status at time of migration. Results show four different migration effects on fertility: causal effect and disruption effect as pre-migratory effects; and arrival effect and adaptation effect as postmigratory effects.
Government Expenditures, Health Outcomes and Marginal Productivity of Agricultural Inputs: The Case of Tanzania

type="main" xml:id="jage12063-abs-0001"> This paper examines the impact of health expenditures on agricultural labour productivity in order to inform the necessary policy decisions about targeting scarce public resources towards their most effective uses. We link health sector expenditures in rural Tanzania to health outcomes and agricultural labour productivity using data from the 2008 Household Budget Survey (10,975 households) and the 2007/08 Agricultural Census (52,594 households) across 113 districts in Tanzania. The results indicate that the marginal productivity of labour as well as land and fertilisers respond significantly to health expenditures. However, the magnitude of the response varies across types of disease, categories of expenditures and agricultural inputs. These findings suggest both the need and scope for targeting public expenditures in the health sector to achieve better agricultural growth outcomes.
WaveNet MH-SRU: Deep and Wide Multiple-history Simple Recurrent Unit for Speech Recognition

Recently the high-order multiple-history long short-time memory (MH-LSTM) is proposed for speech recognition. The high-order connections to an MH-LSTM cell come from signals similar to the original one but running with progressively longer time lags. Each time-lagged signal keeps a slightly different history of the input, and the history ensemble helps improve the model’s robustness against mis-labeling or mis-alignments in the training targets. When an MH-LSTM cell is unfolded in time, it becomes a deep neural network with wider and wider layers towards the inputs. Although a wider MH-LSTM is more resilient to noisy data, we notice that when it is too wide, it is easily under-trained and the increased history/input contexts are not effectively utilized. In this paper, LSTMs are replaced by the faster simple recurrent units (SRUs), which remove the dependency on the hidden states of an MH-LSTM, and high-order connections are instead directly applied to the inputs of an MH-SRU. The high-order connections are further modeled by a WaveNet block which makes use of dilated causal convolution to provide a wider receptive field more effectively. Experimental results on NTIMIT and CHiME-2 demonstrate the effectiveness of the new WaveNet MH-SRU. For example, on CHiME-2, it achieves 1.8% and 0.6% absolute WER reductions over the SRU and MH-SRU baseline models that have similar number of model parameters.
Collateralization of Loans: Testing the Prediction of Theories

What are the determining factors of banks loans collateralization? Our paper answers this question by using the unique internal data of eight Italian banks at 2008 reporting 9,930 bank-firm relationships. We have three main results. First, we provide evidence that observed riskier borrowers are encouraged to give more collateral to banks in order to obtain a loan, while in presence of hidden information are the less risk borrowers to offer collateral in order to signal their quality. Second, we show relationship banking has a direct impact on the use of collateral as well as produces moderating effects on the other determining factors. Finally, unlike lender-based theories we observe distant banks, i.e., banks with more difficulties to collect and transfer soft information, are more likely to pledge collateral than local banks.
A regional look at the selection of a process-oriented model for flood peak/volume relationships

Abstract. Recent research on the bivariate flood peak/volume frequency analysis has mainly focused on the statistical aspects of the use of various copula models. The interplay of climatic and catchment processes in discriminating among these models has attracted less interest. In the paper we analyse the influence of climatic and hydrological controls on flood peak and volume relationships and their models, which are based on the concept of comparative hydrology in the catchments of a selected region in Austria. Independent flood events have been isolated and assigned to one of the three types of flood processes: synoptic floods, flash floods and snowmelt floods. First, empirical copulas are regionally compared in order to verify whether any flood processes are discernible in terms of the corresponding bivariate flood-peak relationships. Next the types of copulas, which are frequently used in hydrology are fitted, and their goodness-of-fit is examined in a regional scope. The spatial similarity of copulas and their rejection rate, depending on the flood type, region, and sample size are examined, too. In particular, the most remarkable difference is observed between flash floods and the other two types of flood. It is concluded that treating flood processes separately in such an analysis is beneficial, both hydrologically and statistically, since flood processes and the relationships associated with them are discernible both locally and regionally in the pilot region. However, uncertainties inherent in the copula-based bivariate frequency analysis itself (caused, among others, also by the relatively small sample sizes for consistent copula model selection, upper tail dependence characterization and reliable predictions) may not be overcome in the scope of such a regional comparative analysis.
Validation of the Malaysian Version of the Teacher Education Program Coherence Questionnaire

The main purpose of this study was to validate a Malay Language version of a 30-item teacher education program coherence questionnaire. Two different samples of preservice teachers completed the Malay translation of the questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis (N=220) showed four types of perceived program coherence which had good internal consistency ranging from 0.79 to 0.86: ‘Opportunity to enact practice’, ‘Opportunity to analyze practice’, ‘Opportunity to connect ideas across courses’ and ‘Coherence between courses and practical experience’. The confirmatory factor analysis (N= 234) provided support for a four-factor model. In addition, an analysis of criterion validity of the four types of perceived program coherence also indicated meaningful relationships to teaching efficacy. Our study supports the applicability of the Malaysian teacher education program coherence questionnaire for use among Malaysian preservice teachers. Both theoretical and practical implications are provided for teacher educators and researchers.
Variation of the Common Shrew (Sorex Araneus L.) Dentition

Variation of the Common Shrew (Sorex Araneus L.) Dentition Variation of the upper arch dentition was studied in 162 individuals of Sorex araneus. Seven types of dentition were observed. Type V dentition was the most common (constituting 54.2% of the analysed dental rows), while type VII2 was the rarest (1.4%). Dental anomalies, i.e. retention or polyodontia, were not found in the analysed material. Zróżnicowanie Uzębienia Ryjówki Aksamitnej (Sorex Araneus L.) Zbadano zróżnicowanie uzębienia górnego łuku zębowego 162 osobników S. araneus. W badanym materiale stwierdzono występowanie 7 różnych typów uzębienia. Najczęściej występującym typem był typ V (stanowiący 54,2% przeanalizowanych szeregów zębowych), a najrzadziej typ VII2 (odpowiednio 1,4%). Nie stwierdzono występowania typu VI. Brak w badanym materiale anomalii uzębienia tj. retencji lub polidoncji.
Joining and leaving a new religious movement: A study of ex-members’ mental health

The impact of membership in new, often socially contested, religious movements (NRMs) on mental health of members and ex-members is still a controversial question in the psychological literature. In the present study, we interviewed 20 ex-members of various NRMs who also completed questionnaires measuring several cognitive (need for closure, world assumptions) and affective-emotional (parental and adult attachment, social relationships, depression) constructs. Ex-members were then compared with current NRM members and with individuals not involved in NRMs. It appeared that NRM membership compensated for some previously existing vulnerabilities reported by members (insecure attachment in childhood, few social relationships, negative life events). However, this supportive effect did not persist after the destabilizing experience of disaffiliation. Yet, ex-members remained strong believers and were very inclined to spirituality.
Provenance Variation in Pinus palustris Foliar δ13C

Longleaf pine forests are currently being restored in the southern U.S. To aid in the deployment of longleaf pine under current and future climate conditions, we tested the hypothesis that genetic variability in foliar carbon isotope composition (δ13C) exists in this species. Foliar δ13C, height and diameter were measured at ages of 5 and 6 years, and needle length, specific leaf weight (SLW) and foliar N concentration were measured at an age of 6 years in 16 longleaf pine families representing a large portion of the species’ range. Families were grown in common garden tests in North Carolina and Mississippi and grouped for analysis into six provenances based on climate, soils, and discontinuities in the species’ range. No genetic by environment interactions were observed. Greater foliar δ13C was observed in trees from the provenance consisting of the Piedmont and Montane Uplands than from the provenances representing the western and eastern Gulf Coastal Plains. Foliar δ13C was not significantly correlated to height at age 6, suggesting that it may be possible to select for improved foliar δ13C without sacrificing growth. These results represent a first step in identifying potential genetic variation in leaf water use efficiency and drought tolerance of longleaf pine.
Weather and Air Quality Drive the Winter Use of Utah’s Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons

Winter outdoor recreation opportunities in Utah are directly impacted by the effects of climate change and deteriorating air quality. We examine the influences of daily weather conditions and air quality on winter use of two prominent Utah canyons located just outside Salt Lake City-Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. Daily weather data were collected both within the canyons and in Salt Lake City; daily air quality data were collected for just Salt Lake City. We hypothesized that desirable weather within the canyons (i.e., cooler temperatures, more snowfall, and deeper snow depths) serves as a “pull” factor, positively influencing the volume of traffic. We also hypothesized that poor air quality within the city acts as a “push” factor on individuals’ travel behavior, this too would positively influence the volume of traffic up the canyons. We used a panel time-series regression model to determine the influence of both these “push” and “pull” factors on use of the canyons during the winter months. Our results revealed that, as expected, cooler temperatures and greater amounts of snow in the canyons, as well as poorer air quality in the city, have a positive and significant influence on winter canyon use. These findings suggest that warmer winter temperatures, as well as deteriorating air quality in the city, may have substantial impacts on Utah’s outdoor recreation economy.
The effect of income on mortality—new evidence for the absence of a causal link

We analyse the effect of income on mortality in Austria by using administrative social security data. To tackle potential endogeneity concerns arising in this context, we estimate time invariant firm‐specific wage components and use them as instruments for actual wages. Although we find quantitatively small yet statistically significant effects in our naive least squares estimations, instrumental variables regressions reveal a robust zero effect of income on 10‐year death rates for workers aged 40–60 years, both in terms of coefficient magnitude and narrow width of confidence intervals. These results are robust to various sample specifications and both linear and non‐linear estimation methods.
Effect of honey supplementation on Egyptian buffalo semen

This study testified the effect of honey supplementation (0.5-4.0%) in milk on the quality of chilled and frozen buffalo spermatozoa. Semen was chilled with/without honey and examined for motility, viability, plasma membranes integrity by hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOS) at 0, 1, 2 and 4 h. Frozen-thawed semen was examined for the same criteria beside the viability index and in vitro cleavage rate. The motility, livability and HOS of chilled semen upsurge with honey supplementation 1.0-2.0%. The normality of chilled spermatozoa was improved in the presence of 2.0-4.0% of honey at 4 h. Tail abnormalities decreased with milkhoney 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% at 2, 1 and 4 h, respectively. Incorporation of honey in milk extenders at levels of 0.5-2.0% was associated with an enhanced postequilibration motility. The post-thawing motility showed a steady increase with honey levels. The viability index increased (P < 0.001) with milk-honey 2.0% (109.00 ± 9.91) and 4.0% (112.00 ± 14.41). In vitro cleavage rate was clearly (P 0.001) enhanced in the co-existence of milk-honey 2.0% compared with control (74.00 vs. 45.83). In the meantime, a reasonable high cleavage rate (67.00%) was encountered with milkhoney 0.5%. In conclusion, incorporation of honey in skim milk extenders is promising to enhance the characteristics and fertilizing potential of stored buffalo’s semen due to its nutritive and protective properties.
Strategic versus Ad-hoc Corporate Social Performance: An Analysis of CSP Maturity and Its Relationship to Corporate Financial Performance

This paper extends empirical research that examines the Corporate Social Performance (CSP)-Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) relationship. Previous studies display mixed findings with no unified evidence regarding the CSP-CFP relationship’s direction or impact. We introduce the concepts of strategic CSP and ad-hoc CSP, which we collectively term “CSP maturity. ” Using panel data on 86 large European banks and insurance companies, we investigate whether there is a relationship between a company’s financial performance (CFP) and CSP maturity and, if a relationship is present, its direction and causality. Correlation analysis suggests CSP maturity and CFP are negatively related to one another; independent sample t-tests show statistically significant different means of ROA and ROS for companies engaged in strategic and ad-hoc CSP. Ad-hoc companies were on average associated with better ROA and ROS. No significant difference was present for ROE. In contrast, regression analysis did not show a relationship between CSP maturity and CFP, suggesting CSP maturity does not have an impact on CFP nor can CFP be used to explain CSP maturity. The results of this study may be limited in their generalizations because the data includes 2007-2008; a period of time the global economy experienced a major recession.
The Role of Illiquidity Risk Factor in Asset Pricing Models: Malaysian Evidence

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role of illiquidity risk factor in asset Pricing through two variants of liquidity-based three-factor models, referred as SiLiq and DiLiq, which are developed in the context of Fama-French model. The sample comprises 230 to 480 firms which stocks are listed on Bursa Malaysia over the period of January 1987 to December 2004. To proxy for liquidity, this study tests six alternative measures based on trading volume variables, namely dollar volume (DVOL), share turnover (TURN), Illiquidity (ILLIQ), and the coefficient of variations of each of these variables (CVDVOL" cVrURN" and cVILLIQ. The preliminary results indicate that the illiquidity risk factors (L M H) that are formed from TURN consistently outperform the other alternatives as they explain as high as 36 percent variations in stock returns. The results of multiple time series regressions lend strong support for the hypothesis that illiquidity risk are priced, particularly when is LMH incorporated in DiLiq. ABSTRAK Kertas ini meguji peranan risiko ketakcairan dalam penetapan harga aset melalui dua varian model tiga-faktor berasaskan kecairan, dirujuk sebagai SiLiq dan DiLiq, yang dibentuk dalam konteks model Fama-French. Sampel kajian merangkumi 230 hingga 480 syarikat yang sahamnya disenaraikan di Bursa Malaysia bagi tempoh Januari 1987 hingga Disember 2004. Untuk menentukan proksi bagi kecairan, kajian ini menguji enam ukuran alternatif berasaskan volum dagangan iaitu nilai valom dagangan (DVDL), pusingganti saham (TURN),ketakcairan (IUIQ), dan kaefisyen variasi bagi setiap satu ukuran tersebut ((CVDVOL" CVTURN" and cV,w,)' Hasil preliminari kajian menunjukkan faktor-faktor risiko ketakcairan (LMH) yang dibentuk daripada TURN secara konsisten mengatasi ukuran alternatif lain setelah didapati ia menjelaskan 36 peratus variasi dalam pUlangan saham. Hasil daripada regresi siri masa berganda memberikan sokongan kuat terhadap hipotesis bahawa risiko ketakcairan diganjari, khususnya apabila LMH diambilkira dalam DiLiq.
A brief educational intervention using acceptance and commitment therapy: Four injured athletes' experiences

The purpose of this study was to research the experiences of four injured athletes during their rehabilitation from ACL injuries and to examine the potential usefulness of an adapted ACT intervention in addressing individuals' adherence to rehabilitation protocols and their general psychological well-being. We investigated the usefulness of a brief, 4-session ACT program adapted for educational purposes and presented data as case studies. The case studies suggested that (a) the injured athletes experienced a multitude of private events immediately following injury, throughout their recovery, and when approaching a full return to sport; (b) the injured athletes typically avoided these private events and engaged in emotion-driven behaviors; (c) an adapted ACT approach for educational purposes could be useful on at least a basic level to help injured athletes accept private events, commit to rehabilitation behaviors, and have some certainty about returning to sport; and (d) more could be done to address the needs of injured athletes beyond the structure of our 4-session educational intervention. We concluded that the ACT-based intervention, to a certain extent, educated injured athletes about how to meet the challenges of their recoveries and how to commit to their rehabilitations, as well as to exhibit behaviors that would potentially permit their successful reentries to sport.
Determinants of Poverty in Mountain Region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Using data collected from 159 households in a mountainous village of Ghizer District in Gilgit-Baltistan, this paperexamines the prevalence, penetration and severity of poverty in the mountain region of Pakistan. The paper analyses household-specific variables to determine their contribution in increasing (or otherwise) the per – capita income of residents. The results suggest that, although women actively participate in livelihood activities, the high female to male ratio does not contribute to enhancing incomes. The authors argue that investing in productive assets, in addition to the land, will help people to escape from poverty. Key w ords: Dependency Ratio, Participation rate, Poverty gap ratio, Severity of poverty.