Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The conservation genetics of three cave-dwelling bat species in southeastern Europe and Anatolia

Genetic data from populations are currently being used in order to assess the conservation status of various species. In this study, the conservation implications of the genetic structure of 3 cave-dwelling bat species in southeastern Europe and Anatolia are discussed. These species are the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum), the bent-winged bat (Miniopterus schreibersii), and the long-fingered bat (Myotis capaccinii). The conservation status of the species is evaluated using 3 conservation unit approaches, specifically evolutionarily significant unit and management unit definitions and population aggregation analysis. These approaches are implemented simultaneously for the first time for any species in Turkey, through an evaluation of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data previously generated for these species. Based on these data, both regional and cave-specific conservation recommendations are made. The results suggest that for M. capaccinii, the area to be protected in order to maximize the conservation of genetic diversity is around the border of Turkey with Bulgaria and Greece. For the other 2 species, these areas are within Anatolia.
ASAC 2009

There is a rich literature on the relationship between investor protection and corporate governance in the field of corporate finance (e.g., La Porta et al. (2000); Morck et al. (2000); Wurgler (2000); Lombardo and Pagano (2002); Shleifer and Wolfenzon (2002); Burkart et al. (2003); Castro et al.(2004); Durnev et al. (2004a,b)). As pointed out by John et al. (2007), however, most of the previous studies on this topic focus on the financing structure issues, while very few of them emphasize on corporate investment, especially the corporate risk-taking behaviors. In prior research on investor protection, empirical results show that generally, there is a positive relationship between the level of investor protection and that of corporate risk taken by firms; in other words, higher investor protection results in choosing value-enhancing projects with higher risk. This conclusion has also been supported by crosscountry studies (e.g., La Porta et al. (1999); Leuz et al. (2003); John et al. (2007)) in this field using the variation of cash ow-total assets ratios as proxies for corporate risk (La Porta et al. (1997, 1998)).
The Effects of Sense of Meaningfulness and Teaching Role Attributes on Work Outcomes Using the Insight of Job Characteristics Model

The present study sought to examine the effects of teaching role attributes and sense of meaningfulness to work outcomes. In previous studies that examined the relationship between job attributes and work outcomes, the mediating variable was underrepresented and excluded from the model. Teaching role attributes was measured by combining four major teaching roles (pedagogical, managerial, technical and subject-designing) into an index. The work outcomes examined were internal motivation, job satisfaction and perceived work effectiveness. Sense of meaningfulness was hypothesized as the mediating variable in the relationship between teaching role attributes and the work outcomes. Two hundred and ninety two lecturers teaching in Malaysia tertiary educations were involved in this study. Questionnaires were used to solicit their ijcrb.webs. com INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS COPY RIGHT © 2010 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 405 SEPTEMBER 2010 VOL 2, N O 5 responses which were distributed using various means; online, personal visits and regular mails. The measurement items were mainly adapted from Job Diagnostic Survey. The results from the findings indicated that sense of meaningfulness mediated the relationships between teaching role attributes and the work outcomes. It showed that to maximize teachers work outcomes, they must experience the sense of meaningfulness in their jobs.
Multinationals and foreign direct investment: Main theoretical strands and empirical effects

Este articulo ofrece una sintesis y valoracion de la literatura sobre empresas multinacionales y flujos de inversion extranjera directa, desde una perspectiva tanto teorica como empirica. En su parte teorica desgrana las principales corrientes cronologicamente; desde los analisis de competencia perfecta de los anos 60, hasta contribuciones mas recientes. En el plano empirico se centra en los controvertidos efectos de las empresas multinacionales y de los flujos de inversion extranjera directa en los paises receptores, analizando su impacto sobre el comercio exterior, la productividad de las empresas nacionales, la estructura de mercado, los salarios y el crecimiento del PIB
Technical Trading Rules in Emerging Markets and the 1997 Asian Currency Crises

The ability of simple technical trading rules to forecast future stock market movements is considered for seventeen emerging markets, sampled from January 1986 to September 2003. Some of the trading rules considered generated significant returns; this information could be exploited profitably on occasion. Market conditions and trading volume are found to be important to determining the usefulness of technical trading rules.
Alternative Sub-Domain Moment Methods for Analyzing Thin-Wire Circular Loops

An alternative sub-domain formulation is presented, in two variants, for the analysis of thin-wire circular loops via moment methods. Curved piecewise sinusoids are used as basis functions, while both point matching and reaction matching (Galerkin's method) are examined as testing schemes. The present study is primarily focused on frill-driven loops, but some of the essential similarities and differences between them and gap-driven ones are also discussed in brief. Numerical results are presented to verify the two variants of the proposed formulation and demonstrate their capabilities for analyzing small and large loops. Special attention is drawn to the behavior of the solutions as the number of basis/testing functions grows. Finally, a complexity analysis is attempted and the potential savings in execution times that may be attained by taking advantage of certain features of the proposed numerical schemes are discussed.
Diocotron instability in pulsar electrospheres I. Linear analysis

In a previous work, we have shown that the electrospheric plasma of a pulsar's magnetosphere with vacuum gaps is subject to dierential rotation in the equatorial belt. Here we examine the stability of a simplied model of this belt. The model consists of a charged thin plasma disc in dierential rotation, embedded in a dipolar magnetic eld anchored in the neutron star. In the linearized electrostatic perturbation approximation, this disc appears to be unstable to the so-called diocotron instability. We present several eigenspectra and eigenfunctions for dierent disc models, which dier by the total charge of the disc-star system. Velocity and electric eld perturbations are also shown in the disc plane for a few fast-growing modes. Increasing the total charge has a stabilizing eect, in the sense that the growth rate of the fastest-growing eigenvalue decreases with total charge and eventually vanishes. When the system is unstable, the growth rates are of the order of the azimuthal rotation rate. This means that the diocotron instability, which develops in a few pulsar's periods, should be very ecient in causing particles to migrate across magnetic surfaces.
: Analysis and Computation : International Conference in honor of

In the machine learning literature, one approach to "prediction" assumes that there are two or more "experts"; the best prediction in this setting is the one that "minimizes regret", i.e. minimizes the shortfall relative to the best-performing expert. My talk focuses on a model problem involving the prediction of a binary sequence (loosely speaking: a stock whose price is restricted to a binomial tree) when there are just two experts. I'll discuss a continuum limit in which the optimal prediction is determined by solving a 2nd order parabolic PDE. This is joint work with Kangping Zhu (for two very simple experts) and Nadejda Drenska (for more realistic experts).
Abusive Transfer Pricing and Economic Activity

This paper investigates how concealment costs of transfer pricing and the probability of detection affect transfer pricing and firm behavior. We find that transfer pricing in intermediate production factors does not affect real activity of a multinational firm if the firm’s concealment effort as well as the probability of being audited by tax authorities are conditioned on the amount of shifted profits. If tax authorities rely on the standard OECD arm’s-length principle instead by reacting to a deviation of the transfer price from the market price, the multinational will for tax reasons adjust its production structure. A policy implication of the paper is that it should be preferable to condition audits on the amount of income shifted rather than on the distortion of the transfer price proper. Another policy finding is that improving the quality of tax law might be superior to higher detection effort. The former reduces profit shifting and concealment effort, whereas the latter leads to more wasteful use of resources on concealment and has an ambiguous effect on profits shifted.
The SOS Response Mediates Sustained Colonization of the Mammalian Gut

Bacteria have a remarkable ability to survive, persist, and ultimately adapt to environmental challenges. A ubiquitous environmental hazard is DNA damage, and most bacteria have evolved a network of genes to combat genotoxic stress. ABSTRACT Bacteria have a remarkable ability to survive, persist, and ultimately adapt to environmental challenges. A ubiquitous environmental hazard is DNA damage, and most bacteria have evolved a network of genes to combat genotoxic stress. This network is known as the SOS response and aids in bacterial survival by regulating genes involved in DNA repair and damage tolerance. Recently, the SOS response has been shown to play an important role in bacterial pathogenesis, and yet the role of the SOS response in nonpathogenic organisms and in physiological settings remains underexplored. Using a commensal Escherichia coli strain, MP1, we showed that the SOS response plays a vital role during colonization of the murine gut. In an unperturbed environment, the SOS-off mutant is impaired for stable colonization relative to a wild-type strain, suggesting the presence of genotoxic stress in the mouse gut. We evaluated the possible origins of genotoxic stress in the mouse gut by examining factors associated with the host versus the competing commensal organisms. In a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) colitis model, the SOS-off colonization defect persisted but was not exacerbated. In contrast, in a germ-free model, the SOS-off mutant colonized with efficiency equal to that seen with the wild-type strain, suggesting that competing commensal organisms might be a significant source of genotoxic stress. This report extends our understanding of the importance of a functional SOS response for bacterial fitness in the context of a complex physiological environment and highlights the SOS response as a possible mechanism that contributes to ongoing genomic changes, including potential antibiotic resistance, in the microbiome of healthy hosts.
WILD CLUSTER BOOTSTRAP CONFIDENCE INTERVALS

Confidence intervals based on cluster-robust covariance matrices can be constructed in many ways. In addition to conventional intervals obtained by inverting Wald (t) tests, the paper studies intervals obtained by inverting LM tests, studentized bootstrap intervals based on the wild cluster bootstrap, and restricted bootstrap intervals obtained by inverting bootstrap Wald and LM tests. It also studies the choice of an auxiliary distribution for the wild bootstrap, a modified covariance matrix based on transforming the residuals that was proposed some years ago, and new wild bootstrap procedures based on the same idea. Some procedures perform extraordinarily well even with the number of clusters is small.
Schizosaccharomyces selective differential media

This study discusses the optimisation of a selective and differential medium which would facilitate the isolation of Schizosaccharomyces (a genus with a low incidence compared to other microorganisms) to select individuals from this genus for industrial purposes, especially in light of the recent approval of the use of yeasts from this genus in the wine industry by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, or to detect the presence of such yeasts, for those many authors who consider them food spoilers. To this end, we studied various selective-differential agents based on the main the physiological characteristics of this species, such as its high resistance to high concentrations of sugar, sulfur dioxide, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, acetic acid or malo-ethanolic fermentation. This selective medium is based on the resistance of the genus to the antibiotic actidione and its high resistance to inhibitory agents such as benzoic acid compared to possible microorganisms which can give rise to false-positive results. Malic acid was used as a differential factor due to the ability of this genus to metabolise it to ethanol, which allows detecting of the degradation of this compound. Lastly, the medium was successfully used to isolate strains of Schizosaccharomyces pombe from honey.
Organisational barriers to effective pain management amongst oncology nurses in Saudi Arabia

Cancer pain is a multi-dimensional syndrome with a combination of acute and chronic pain that causes physical, psycho-social, behavioural, emotional and spiritual problems resulting in adverse effects on patients’ quality of life. Nurses need to be well prepared with knowledge on pain assessment and management techniques in oncology units, due to their vital role in the decision-making process regarding pain management. However, limited research has been conducted regarding nurses’ barriers regarding pain management in oncology units, especially in Saudi Arabia. The overall aim of this study was to explore the nurses’ perceived barriers that hinder the delivery of effective pain management to cancer patients. Five focus group discussions were conducted using a purposive sampling of six to eight nurses in each group, with a total of 35 oncology nurses. The results of focus group analysis revealed two main thematic categories with associated sub themes, being nurses’ workloads, and the absence of health team collaboration. This study provides an increased awareness of the barriers that may hinder the efficacy of pain management provided to cancer patients in Saudi Arabia context. Significant implications will benefit nursing practice, administration and education, in addition to identifying potential future research.
Physiological response of sweet corn (Zea mays var. merit) to foliar application of salicylic acid under water deficit stress

The effect of water deficit stress and salicylic acid application on physiological characteristics of sweet corn (Zea mays var. Merit), an experiment was conducted. Treatments were water deficit stress in three levels: a1: normal irrigation (100% FC irrigation), a2: fair stress (75% FC irrigation) and a3: mild stress (50% FC irrigation). The second factor was the 0/1 mM salicylic acid application in six levels [b1: control, b2: seed priming, b3: SA application in 3 leaves stage, b4: SA application in pollination stage, b5: seed priming + SA application in pollination stage and b6: SA application at 3 leaves stage + pollination stage. The analysis of variance showed significant effect of interaction between water deficit stress and SA application on Chl. a, Chl. b, Chl. a + b, 100-grain weight and ear yield (p < 0.01). Results showed that SA application at 3-leaves stage + pollination stage indicated five times more Chl.a as compared with control in 50% FC irrigation. SA application at 3-leaves stage proved 4/2 and 4/4 times more Chl.b and Chl. a + b as compared to control in mild stress. SA application at pollination stage had the highest (36/15 g) and control at mild stress had the lowest (10/56 g) 100-grain weight. Also, SA application at 3-leaves stage + pollination stage had the highest (245/1 g/plant) and control at mild stress had the lowest (74/25 g/plant) ear yield.
Consumer's Attitude towards Ramadan Advertising

Advertising in the Ramadan is at peak in Pakistan and other Muslim countries. It now resembles other festival theme based advertising. In view of the lack of the studies on the issue, this study has adopted the constructs commonly used in measuring attitude towards advertising. The adapted questionnaire was administered to a population of 320, and the valid sample size was 303. After ascertaining normality, validity, and reliability, initially overall model was tested through multiple regressions. Subsequently, hypotheses were tested separately through simple regression. The study found that entertainment, information, credibility and good for the economy and irritation positively influence consumers' attitude towards advertising. The study validates all the results, except irritation. This relationship is positive in this study but is inconsistent with earlier studies that found a negative relationship between irritation and attitude. The media industry will benefit from the finding of this study in developing right communication strategy on Ramadan Theme advertising. This study has not explored the effects of demographic factors and the moderating effect of different media, which could be incorporated in future research.
The effects of swimming exercise on recognition memory for objects and conditioned fear in rats

Experiments conducted in animals have repeatedly demonstrated the ability of exercise to enhance cognitive function. This study examines the effects of chronic swimming exercise on non-spatial memory in adult rats after 12 weeks of swimming exercise in object recognition and elevated T-maze tests. In the object recognition test, repeated measures analysis of variance revealed a group effect (F1,42 = 26,093; p < 0.001), control rats had lower discrimination ratios than the exercise group. However, the swimming exercise did not affect the performance of inhibitory avoidance and escapes, when memory was tested in elevated T-maze. Analysis of variance showed a significant reduction in inhibitory avoidance 24h after the first training (F1,42 = 14,552; p < 0.001). Results indicated that regular swimming exercise significantly increased non-spatial memory in object recognition behavior, but did not affect the performance of inhibitory avoidance and escape on elevated T-maze test in adult rats. These findings suggest that the perirhinal cortex plays a role in memory consolidation and storage in addition to that of the amygdala, which could be regarded as the center of a second memory system, separate from those governed by the perirhinal cortex.
Framing the Adoption of Serious Games in Formal Education

Nowadays formal education systems are under increasing pressure to respond and adapt to rapid technological innovation and associated changes in the way we work and live. As well as accommodation of technology in its ever‑diversifying forms, there is a fundamental need to enhance learning processes through evolution in pedagogical approaches, so as to make learning in formal education more engaging and, it is hoped, more effective. One opportunity attracting particularly close attention is Serious Games ( SG), which offer considerable potential for facilitating both informal and formal learning. SG appear to offer the chance to hook today's (largely) digital‑native generation of young learners, who are at risk of falling into an ever‑widening gap between networked lifestyles and the relative stagnant environment they experience in school and university. However, there are a number of inhibitors preventing wider SG take‑up in mainstream education. This paper investigates SG in formal education, initially by concentrating on pedagogical issues from two different but complementary perspectives, game design and game deployment. It then goes on to examine game based practice in formal settings and focuses on the pivotal role of the educator within the emerging panorama. This is followed by a brief look at some specific implementation strategies, collaboration and game building, which are opening up new possibilities. Finally some points for further consideration are offered.
Ross Sea deep-ocean and epipelagic microzooplankton during the summer-autumn transition period

Microzooplankton populations are key participants in the transfer, recycling and export of carbon in epipelagic waters, but little is known about their role, abundance and diversity at depth, especially in the Antarctic region. We surveyed microzooplankton populations and their potential prey in the Ross Sea area from 66° S to 77° S during the New Zealand IPY-CAML survey, 12 February to 11 March 2008. Samples were taken throughout the available water column at depths between ~5 and 3400 m, allowing us to compare deeper, largely unknown, mesopelagic and bathypelagic waters with the traditionally studied epipelagic zone. Microzooplankton diversity and abundance were highest in the high chlorophyll a, diatom-dominated waters of the epipelagic zone, but occasionally, peaks did occur in the upper mesopelagic before populations declined with depth. Ciliates and dinoflagellates declined more rapidly than heterotrophic nanoflagellates, which led to the latter dominating at depth. Ciliate populations in epipelagic waters were correlated with bacteria, picophytoplankton and chlorophyll a, but these potential prey did not correlate well with heterotrophic nanoflagellates in deeper or low-biomass waters. Despite their rapid decline with depth, due to the large volume of deeper waters, the total integrated microzooplankton biomass exceeded that found in the epipelagic zone. This indicates that the deeper waters of the Ross Sea, at this time, contained a significant pool of microzooplankton biomass. These deeper populations are likely to aid in the recycling and remineralisation of sinking phytoplankton biomass traditionally thought to be exported to the ocean floor.
Market forces in higher education : cheating and the student-centred learning paradigm

This chapter discusses the globalisation of education and the challenges and opportunities arising from technologies that can impact cheating behaviours in higher education students. The chapter, commencing by contextualising cheating, discusses the endemic nature of cheating and presents various reasons for and factors that may encourage students to engage in cheating. To illustrate the potential for favourable outcomes when the particular needs of a student cohort are recognised, the chapter then considers a case study that proactively changed assessment strategies in postgraduate education to forestall cheating. The positive outcomes are then used to support a proposition to offer students more than one learning pathway as a means of recognising that student populations have become increasingly diverse with a corresponding need for diversity in teaching paradigms.