Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MOTOR RELEARNING PROGRAM VERSUS PROPRIOCEPTIVE NEUROMUSCULAR FACILITATION TECHNIQUE FOR IMPROVING BASIC MOBILITY IN CHRONIC STROKE PATIENTS-A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Methodology: 30 participants were allocated by a simple random sampling using lottery method into MRP (Experimental-Group A) and PNF (Control/Conventional Group B). Both groups received treatment for 30 minutes per day,3 times per week for 3 weeks. Outcome measures were recorded at pretest, post test and post 1 month follow up using Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) and Sit to stand (STS) item of Motor Assessment Scale (MAS). Study was done in respective participants home. ANOVA was used for data analysis.
Fertility postponement and labor market outcomes

The rise in the average age of women bearing their first child is a well-established demographic trend in recent decades. Postponed childbearing can have important consequences for the mother and, at a macro level, for the country as a whole. Research has focused on the effect postponing fertility has on the labor market outcomes for mothers and on the total number of children a woman has in her lifetime. Most research finds that postponing the first birth raises a motherâ€™s labor force participation and wages but may have negative effects on overall fertility, especially in the absence of supportive family-friendly policies.
Secondary mineral formation in the White River tephra in grassland and forest soils in central Yukon Territory

Strickland, A. J., Arocena, J. M. , Sanborn, P. and Smith, C. A. S. 2005. Secondary mineral formation in the White River tephra in grassland and forest soils in central Yukon Territory. Can. J. Soil Sci. 85: 637‐648. Selected surface horizons of grassland and forest soils formed under a cold, semi-arid climate were investigated to evaluate the formation of secondary minerals within the White River tephra, a Late Holocene rhyolitic tephra (~1150 14 C yr BP) veneer that overlies the soil landscapes of central Yukon. Concentrations of extractable Fe (< 0.48%), Al (< 0.26%) and Si (< 0.082%) concentrations in surface tephra-contaning horizons of grassland and forest pedons are low. The high amount of exchangeable calcium in grassland soils is likely due to cycling by vegetation and perhaps, aeolian inputs of Ca and Mg carbonates. Al is incorporated into Al-humus complexes in forest pedons and allophane in grassland pedons. Allophane content is low (< 0.56%) in all soils as is ferrihydrite (< 0.34%). Mineral composition of the sand fraction from tephra horizons is dominated by volcanic glass, plagioclase feldspars, amphiboles, epidote, pyroxenes and very limited quantities of quartz and primary Fe oxides. Chlorite and an expanding phyllosilicate were also detected and are assumed to be of detrital origin. Clay mineralogy is dominated by volcanic glass, quartz, feldspars and minimal quantities of kaolinite and dehydrated halloysite in surficial horizons. Kaolinite is assumed to be of detrital origin while dehydrated halloysite is a product of a low leaching and dry environment where limited resilication occurs. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigation indicates the presence of opaline silica in surface horizons from forest pedons which has likely formed due to freezing of the soil solution in combination with dehydration and resilication. Overall, the soil horizons formed within the veneer of White River tephra have experienced minimal weathering and very little silicate clay mineral development.
Observations of rapid aerosol optical depth enhancements in the vicinity of polluted cumulus clouds

Abstract. During the July 2011 Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality (DISCOVER-AQ) field experiment in Maryland, significant enhancements in Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sun–sky radiometer measured aerosol optical depth (AOD) were observed in the immediate vicinity of non-precipitating cumulus clouds on some days. Both measured Angstrom exponents and aerosol size distribution retrievals made before, during and after cumulus development often suggest little change in fine mode particle size; therefore, implying possible new particle formation in addition to cloud processing and humidification of existing particles. In addition to sun–sky radiometer measurements of large enhancements of fine mode AOD, lidar measurements made from both ground-based and aircraft-based instruments during the experiment also measured large increases in aerosol signal at altitudes associated with the presence of fair weather cumulus clouds. These data show modifications of the aerosol vertical profile as a result of the aerosol enhancements at and below cloud altitudes. The airborne lidar data were utilized to estimate the spatial extent of these aerosol enhancements, finding increased AOD, backscatter and extinction out to 2.5 km distance from the cloud edge. Furthermore, in situ measurements made from aircraft vertical profiles over an AERONET site during the experiment also showed large increases in aerosol scattering and aerosol volume after cloud formation as compared to before. The 15-year AERONET database of AOD measurements at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Maryland site, was investigated in order to obtain a climatological perspective of this phenomenon of AOD enhancement. Analysis of the diurnal cycle of AOD in summer showed significant increases in AOD from morning to late afternoon, corresponding to the diurnal cycle of cumulus development.
Comparative Study on Performance Measures and Attributes between ISO and Non-ISO Certification Companies

This study surveys a sample of 162 public listed companies on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. The study utilises eight different measures of company performance, ROA, ROE, WC, ROS, CF, TQ and EVA, and five company’s attributes, namely size, growth. capital structure, age and industrial category. The analyses revealed that ISO registered Malaysian companies outperformed their non-ISO registered counterparts during the period of this study. This study finds that ISO 9000 registered companies in Malaysia are better off than non-ISO 9000 registered companies in terms of performance measures ROA, ROS and WC, except for EVA. ISO 9000 registered companies are younger, larger, and have a higher growth and a lower capital structure than non-ISO 9000 registered companies.
The Utilization of Health Services among PoorHouseholds with User Fee Payment WaiverCertificate in Gamo Gofa Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Introduction: The introduction of user fees for health care in low income countries often try to remedy inequalities in healthcare utilization by putting in place safety nets in the form of exemptions and waivers. Examining the performance of such mechanisms contributes to understanding the efforts of closing the gap between the haves and the have-nots in the use of health services. Methods: Community based cross-sectional study was conducted in 633 randomly selected households in five districts of Gamo Gofa Zone (an administrative structure between region and district). Data collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire developed after reviewing relevant literatures; especially South Nations, Nationalities and peoples’ regional health bureau, health care financing check-list. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed. P-value less than 0.05 and 95% confidence intervals were used to determine association between dependent and independent variables. Results: More than half (59.6%) of fee-waiver-certified households have utilized health service from government health service organizations. Shortage of drugs and procedures (therapeutic and diagnostic) at the public health facility [AOR=2.58 (95% CI: 1.18, 5.63)], referral to a higher level [AOR=5.95, 95% CI: 2.63, 13.46] and households cost of transportation and other non-medical costs [AOR=5.27 (95% CI: 2.33-11.95)] and were significantly associated with not utilizing health services’ by those households included in user fee payment waiver scheme. Conclusion: More than one third of the beneficiaries did not utilize their exemption for health services use in public health facilities. They fail to use this opportunity as a result of shortage of drugs and procedures in public health facility, challenge of high non-medical costs, and limited applicability of poverty certificate.
The Effects of Internet Usage and GDP on Electricity Consumption: The Case of Turkey

Bu calisma Turkiye icin 1994-2014 donemi yillik zaman serisi verilerini kullanarak elektrik tuketimi, GSYH ve internet kullanimi arasindaki iliskileri gostermeyi amaclamaktadir. Internet kullanimi bilgiye erisimde en hizli yollardan biri oldugu icin, elektrik tuketimine etkisi de ekonomik buyume acisindan buyuk oneme sahiptir. Bu amac yonelik olarak ARDL sinir testi uygulanmis ve degiskenler arasinda esbutunlesme iliskisi tespit edilmistir. Ardindan secilen ARDL modelinden kisa ve uzun donem katsayilari tahmin edilmistir. Sonuclar hem uzun hem de kisa donemde Turkiye’de internet kullanimi ve GSYH’nin elektrik tuketimi uzerinde pozitif ve istatistiksel olarak anlamli etkilerinin oldugunu gostermistir. Ayrica gecikmeli hata duzeltme katsayisi, uzun donem iliskisini onaylayacak sekilde negatif isaretli olarak bulunmustur. Ancak, bu katsayi -1 ile -2 arasinda yer aldigindan uzun donem dengesinin dalgalanarak azalan bir bicimde saglandigi sonucuna varilmistir. Sonuc olarak Turkiye icin enerji koruma politikalari onerilmistir.
Ecological Gradients Influencing Waterbird Communities in Black Water Lakes in the Anavilhanas Archipelago, Central Amazonia

For the first time, and in a large spatial scale, the influence of ecological properties on the aquatic bird community of black water lakes in Brazilian Amazonia is evaluated. Bird surveys were conducted in 45 lakes. A total of 3626 individuals in 48 bird species were recorded; of these, 31 are aquatic, and 18 of these are primarily piscivorous. Bird richness and abundance were not significantly related to lake shape and productivity but were influenced by hydrological period (low versus high), water depth, transparency, lake isolation, and habitat richness. Matrices of bird species by lake were subjected to multivariate analyses (NMDS) to evaluate how these parameters influence bird community. The variation in bird species composition was positively correlated to lake depth and isolation and negatively correlated to water transparency and habitat richness. The results indicate that period, lake physical characteristics (depth, water transparency), isolation, and habitat richness are determinants of aquatic bird community composition in the black water lake systems of Amazonia.
The Relationship between Different Leadership Styles and Emotional Intelligence (EI) in Managers of Educational Groups (Case Study: Tehran Schools)

This article summarizes the findings of study of the relationship between different leadership and management styles and emotional intelligence (EI) among managers of educational groups in high schools of Tehran. Considering the nature of this study, the research method is correlational. The statistical population is consisted of 33 educational managers and 454 high school teachers in district 2 of Tehran city; among them, 33 educational managers and 80 teachers have been selected as sample group using stratified random sampling method in proportion to the volume of the population. The measurement instruments used in this research are the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) questionnaire and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) with reliability coefficients of 0.90 and 0.94, respectively. The analysis of research results reveals that: 1) the coefficient of correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and transformational leadership style is r=0.347 which is significant at the p<0.05; therefore there is a significant relationship between EI and transformational leadership. 2) The coefficient of correlation between emotional intelligence and transactional leadership is r=0.269 which is not significant at the p<0.05; therefore there is no significant relationship between EI and transactional leadership style. 3) The coefficient of correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and laissez-fair leadership style is r=0.044 which is not significant at the p<0.05; therefore there is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and laissez-fair leadership style.
Limited recruitment during relaxation events: Larval advection and behavior in an upwelling system

We capitalized on a long‐term record of larval recruitment and a distinctive oceanographic signature to reveal how changes in ocean conditions affect larval advection, behavior, and recruitment in a region of strong, persistent upwelling and recruitment limitation. We repeatedly sampled the vertical and horizontal distribution of a larval assemblage and ocean conditions during infrequent relaxations of prevailing upwelling winds near Bodega Bay, California. During prolonged relaxation events, a poleward, coastal, boundary current imported low‐salinity surface waters that were devoid of larvae to the study area. The resident larval assemblage was restricted to cold, saline, bottom waters and pushed offshore while diel vertical migrations were suppressed. Hence, changes in oceanographic conditions strongly affected behaviorally mediated larval distributions, revealing the reason that few species recruit during relaxation events in this region. During relaxation events in upwelling regions, poleward coastal boundary currents will force larvae offshore throughout the water column at small headlands and in seaward‐flowing bottom currents at straight coastlines, but recruitment may decrease markedly only near estuaries where few larvae will arrive in low‐salinity surface waters. Targeted profiling of larval assemblages complements widespread monitoring of recruitment from shore and is necessary to determine how changing ocean conditions affect larval distributions, recruitment dynamics, and the connectivity of populations.
Evaluating the Impact of Trade Openness on Women’s Job Opportunities: An Analysis for Middle East Countries

The level of employment is an important determinant of economic welfare. Since social protection systems are weak in developing countries, the effect of trade liberalization on the employment structure determines the level of poverty and the distribution of income and wages. These variables are strongly associated with trade liberalization. Therefore, this study seeks to understand the relationship between openness to international trade (resulting from trade liberalization) and changing employment opportunities for women in the 16 Middle East economies. In this study, we consider the trade share as (%) of GDP as a measure of openness. To measure women’s absolute employment rate we used female employment rate data. To analyse the effect of trade openness on the gender gap we used gender inequality in education (gender parity index (GPI)); namely the ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary enrolment . Female labor force as a percentage of the total shows the extent to which women are active in the labor force. A simple linear regression used to measure the impact of openness on women’s employment opportunities in Middle east countries. All data are from World Development Indicators based on International Labour Organization, Key Indicators of the Labour Market database. Results indicated a statistically significant impact for the trade openness on women’s absolute employment rate for all countries being involved except (Egypt, Israeli entity, Jordan, and West Bank and Gaza). The results also shows statistically significant impact for the Trade openness on the Female employee ((% of Total Labor Force) for all the countries being involved except(Egypt, Israel entity, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and West Bank and Gaza). Finally, The results indicates statistically significant impact for the Trade openness on Gender gap for (Iran, Lebanon, Oman, Syrian Arab Republic, and Turkey) and that the Gap was in favour of (Males), while the Gap for (Kuwait) was in favour of (Females). While the countries (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Qatar) had not significant impact of Trade openness on Gender gap.
Israeli-Hezbollah War and Global Financial Crisis in the Middle East and North African Equity Markets

This paper, which relies on a dynamic conditional correlation model covering eight years of daily data for twelve equity markets in the Middle East and North Africa, examines the dynamic behaviour of equity returns and the response to international and regional stress periods. We assess whether the Israeli-Hezbollah war and the global financial crisis have accentuated equity linkages and find strong evidence that, although war and financial crisis shocks caused harmful consequences in most MENA markets, there were significant benefits of regional diversification during stress periods in some MENA markets. Low equity correlations across several markets are driven by both the war and the global financial crisis, implying that there still appear to be benefits from regional diversification, especially in the times of stress when it is most needed. Our empirical results are useful for asset managers seeking to construct portfolios that can better resist adverse market conditions.
Assessment of herbs and spices extracts/meal on rumen fermentation: a review

The ban on antibiotics use in animal agriculture especially in Europe and the increased awareness of the consumers about the health hazards that occurs due to the use of antibiotics as feed additives in animal nutrition triggered a need for natural and safe feed additives such as plant extracts. Therefore, there is a need to explore/exploit different natural plant products to achieve better production in farm animals. Herbs and spices are known to have health benefits on animals when used as feed additives in animal nutrition. For effective use of herbs and spices, they can be added to feed as dried plants or as extracts. Ruminants have been adapted to fill an important ecological niche because of their specially adapted digestive tract that allows them to survive on fibrous feeds. However, the degradation of these feeds in the rumen leads to loss in terms of methane production and nitrogenous wastage. Methane loss represents about 12% of the gross energy of feed fed to the animals. Because of these reasons, there is need to manipulate the rumen microbial ecosystem for the purpose of improving ruminants production efficiency. Recently, many researchers have diverted their attentions to the use of extracts/meal from herbs and spices because of their great potentials. Many researches has been carried out by various researchers using different extracts/meal of some herbs and spices using in vitro gas production techniques to manipulate rumen microbial ecosystem in order to improve the productivity of ruminants. From the findings of these researches, it can be concluded that extracts of herbs and spices have a great potential in manipulating the process of rumen fermentation thereby reducing methane production, decreasing ammonium concentration and other rumen fermentation parameters.
Exploring the influence of a cooling treatment on quality of life in patients with chronic venous disease

Purpose: The study aimed to evaluate the influence of a self-administered cooling intervention on quality of life (QOL) associated with chronic venous disease (CVD), stages clinical, etiological, anatomical, pathophysiological (CEAP) C4 (skin damage) and C5 (healed ulcer). Study design and subjects: A sample of 276 individuals was randomized to receive a cooling (n = 138) or placebo control cuff (n = 138) applied to the leg skin affected by CVD. Both groups also received standard of care that included compression, leg elevation, and physical activity. QOL was measured with the venous insufficiency epidemiological and economic study (VEINES)- QOL and symptom (Sym) subscale Questionnaire at 5 time points during the 9-month study. Relationships between treatment outcomes and demographics were analyzed. Results: Cooling and control groups had significant increases from baseline in mean change VEINES-QOL scores (13.5 vs 12.8, p < 0.0001) and Sym scores (10.4 vs 6.7, p < 0.0001). No significant difference was observed for VEINES-QOL between the groups ( Δ = 0.67, p = 0.58); however, the difference was significant for Sym for cooling ( Δ = 3.7, p = 0.015). Overall QOL improvements were significant for females compared to males ( p < 0.001), not employed full-time ( p < 0.001), living in rural areas ( p < 0.002), and less effective for larger calf circumference ( p = 0.042). For age groups ≥ 65 years, cooling produced significant improvements in QOL (10.8 vs 4.5, p < 0.0004); the control group symptoms worsened during the study (–1.0 vs 8.1, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: This cooling intervention improved QOL. The greatest improvements were observed in older individuals, females, those who were married, not working full time, and living in rural areas. CVD remains a poorly controlled chronic condition and has a major negative influence on QOL.
REGULARITY OF WEAKLY WELL POSED HYPERBOLIC MIXED PROBLEMS WITH CHARACTERISTIC BOUNDARY

We study the mixed initial-boundary value problem for a linear hyperbolic system with characteristic boundary of constant multiplicity. We assume the problem to be "weakly" well posed, in the sense that a unique L2-solution exists, for sufficiently smooth data, and obeys an a priori energy estimate with a finite loss of conormal regularity. This is the case of problems that do not satisfy the uniform Kreiss–Lopatinskiĭ condition in the hyperbolic region of the frequency domain. Under the assumption of the loss of one conormal derivative we obtain the regularity of solutions, in the natural framework of weighted anisotropic Sobolev spaces, provided the data are sufficiently smooth.
Attitudes of Sultan Qaboos University Students towards Some Environmental Problems and their Willingness to Take Action to Reduce them

Problem statement: Our earth suffers from many environmental problems which need to be tackled at the individual level, requiring individuals to develop those attitudes which will guide them to environmentally supportive behavior. The objectives of this study were to investigate (i) the attitudes of Sultan Qaboos University students to some environmental problems, (ii) their willingness to take action to ameliorate these problems, (iii) the effect of students’ gender and college of study on their attitudes and (iiii) to examine the relationship between students’ attitudes and their willingness to take action to reduce these problems. Approach: Data were collected from 317 students from five different faculties. The data were collected by using a questionnaire containing 48 items distributed over 5 dimensions: Energy, water, air pollution, waste and desertification. Validity and reliability were examined. Results: The results showed generally that the students hold positive attitudes towards the issues raised and that female students showed more positive attitudes than males. The results indicated that students’ attitudes towards environmental problems did not appear to be influenced by the university faculties in which they are studying, except in the case of energy, where significant differences were observed between the attitudes of students from the faculty of Education and the faculty of Agriculture, the former showing more positive attitudes than the latter. The results showed that students were willing to take action to reduce environmental problems; this was not affected by gender or faculty. Conclusion: The findings suggested the necessity to develop students’ attitudes and willingness to take responsibility to reduce these problems.