Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Method Effects and the Need for Cognition Scale

Individual differences in the need for cognition are typically assessed using the 18-item Need for cognition scale (NCS) developed by Cacioppo and Petty (1982). However, in contrast to the unidimensional model proposed by the scale developers, recent factor analyses have produced two- and three-dimensional models of the scale. Confirmatory factor analyses were used in this study to evaluate different measurement models based on data provided by 590 (236 males, 354 females) young adult members of the general public. Although some alternative models showed promise, a single factor model with method effects associated with positively and negatively worded items provided best fit. Implications for the assessment of need for cognition are considered.
The Influence of IT on Organizational Agility in Malaysia

This exploratory study examined the influence of information technology on organizational agility. Based on the well-established Technology Acceptance Model we identified the relationships between IT acceptance and usage on the ability of firms to become an agile competitor. After analyzing survey data obtained from 329 managers and executives in manufacturing firms in Malaysia the results indicated that actual technology use has the strongest direct effect on organizational agility. However, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of IT has indirect influence on organizational agility via actual technology use. Finally, we discussed some practical implications of the findings for Malaysian managers and IT practitioners.
Recycler Reaction for the Government Behavior in Closed-Loop Supply Chain Distribution Network: Based on the System Dynamics

With system dynamics, we establish three-closed-loop supply chain distribution network system model which consists of supplier, manufacturer, two retailers, and products (parts) recycler. We proposed that recycler make reflect for the government policy by adjusting the recycling ratio and recycling delay. We use vensim software to simulate this model and investigate how the products (parts) recyclers behavior influences the loop supply chain distribution system. The result shows that (1) when recyclers respond positively to government policies, recycling will increase the proportion of recyclers. When recyclers respond negatively to government policy making, recycling will reduce the proportion of recyclers. (2) When the recovery percentage of recyclers improves, manufacturers, Retailer 1, and Retailer 2 quantity fluctuations will reduce and the bullwhip effect will diminish. (3) When the proportion of recycled parts recyclers is lowered, manufacturers, Retailer 1, and Retailer 2 inventory fluctuation will increase and the bullwhip effect will be enhanced. (4) When recyclers recycling product delays increased, volatility manufacturers order quantity will rise, but there is little change in the amount of fluctuation of orders of the two retailers. (5) When recycling parts recyclers delay increases, fluctuations in the supplier order quantity will rise, but there is little change in the amount of fluctuation of orders of the two retailers.
The evolving model of capitalism in Ireland: An insight into enterprise development and policy

Contemporary capitalism in Ireland took off in the late 1950s and affirmed itself as an inward investment-focused model of development. With enterprise development at the core of the policy (as a way of developing the economy and society and ending emigration), all other policy domains – financial, governance, industrial relations, welfare and education – became subservient to the ‘industrialization-by-invitation’ strategy. This article examines and characterizes the Irish model of development, using the lens of the varieties of capitalism literature (VoC) as a starting point. The article also examines whether a stage theory of capitalism perspective can capture changes which the VoC perspective might obscure. The collapse of the Irish banking system since 2008 and the subsequent recession raises major challenges for Ireland’s variety of capitalism and may represent a critical juncture.
Earning Management, Timing Ability and Long-Run Underperformance of IPOs in Bangladesh.

This paper mainly focuses on two conjectures. Firstly the firm’s timing ability and secondly whether the firms are intentionally managing their pre-IPO discretionary accruals to overstate their earnings at the time of floatation to fetch higher price for their issues. In our study we do not find any evidence that supports the timing ability proposition of Ritter. But considering the cumulative abnormal return we find that in the long-run, IPOs have poor stock return when managers aggressively manage pre-IPO discretionary accruals of these firms than when they manage pre-IPO discretionary accruals conservatively. Keywords: Earning management, long-run underperformance, timing ability.
Ecotoxicological effects of discharge of Nigerian petroleum refinery oily sludge on biological sentinels

Ecotoxicological effects of the discharge of Nigerian petroleum refinery oily sludge on biological sentinels were examined. The ecotoxicological effects examined included acute toxicity tests on Nitrobacter sp. , fresh water shrimp (Desmoscaris trispinosa) and brackish water shrimp (Palaemoneles africanus) from the aquatic environment. It also covered chronic toxicity tests on microbial nitrogen transformation activity in soil and the growth of the terrestrial fauna, earthworm (Apporectoda longa) in pristine soils spiked with predetermined concentrations of the sludge. Analysis of the Nigerian petroleum refinery oily sludge used in this study indicated that the sludge is slightly acidic with a high total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) content of 340,000 mg/kg made up mainly between 10-40 carbon unit compounds. The sludge reduced the growth of Nitrobacter sp. in aqueous medium and also caused chronic effect on microbial nitrogen transformation activity in soil because it exceeded the 25% inhibition limit for chemicals with the potential to cause chronic effects on soil microbial activities. Similarly, the sludge exhibited toxicity on fresh and brackish shrimp. The freshwater shrimp was however more affected with an LC50 of 1097.375 ± 0.62 mg/kg when compared with an LC50 of 1590. 37±0.92 mg/kg obtained for the brackish water shrimp. It also reduced the growth rate of the earthworm (A. longa) progressively as the sludge concentration increased. Key words: Toxic effects, petroleum refinery oily sludge, biological sentinels.
Volatility Co-movement of ASEAN-5 Equity Markets

Purpose – Economic cross-linkages and the increased co-movement of asset prices across international markets are important outcomes as the result of globalization. Hereby, the nature of international stock markets and the extent to which the 1997-1998 East Asian turmoil had affected the market relationship of five countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-5) remain as probing questions. Design/methodology/approach – We resort to the standard time series econometrics analysis. These include the unit root, cointegration and the Granger causality tests. Hereby, further empirical analyzes is conducted upon two sub-periods of interest: (1) pre-crisis period from 1987:1 to 1997:7 and (2) post-crisis period from 1997:8 to 2007:12. This is to allow for possible transitional motion leading to and departing from the crisis. Findings – Using an array of econometrics analysis upon the stock price volatility series, we found partial market integration for the pre-crisis; whereas in the post-crisis, complete integration prevails. Hence, the financial meltdown in 1997 is said to be a contagion led crisis as markets integrate well off after the crisis than prior to it. Nonetheless, long run portfolio asset diversification benefits across the ASEAN-5 basin are reduced as markets are integrated in both the pre- and post-crisis. Originality/value – The paper is of value by showing to uncover the issue of interdependence of stock market integration focusing on the ASEAN-5 economies. The formation of the ASEAN Investment Area (AIA- 1998) parallel with the establishment of a developed ASEAN Index-Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) regional index is viable to foster deeper regional market convergence.
and Kimmo Eriksson The Dynamics of Contracts and Generalized Trustworthiness

Generalized trust, or trust in strangers, has been traced to a wide range of societal benefits. But generalized trust is not sustainable in the absence of widespread generalized trustworthiness, that is, the tendency for strangers to honor trust extended to them. While there has been much work on the origins and consequences of generalized trust, surprisingly little research has addressed the antecedents of generalized trustworthiness. We argue that generalized trustworthiness is negatively affected by prior exposure to a ubiquitous extrinsic motivator of trustworthy behavior, contracts. Specifically, drawing on classic social psychological research on the overjustification effect, we argue that actors previously constrained by contracts will attribute their own ‘trustworthy’ behavior in those interactions to the contract itself. According to overjustification arguments, this misattribution should lead to a decrease in intrinsic motivations to act trustworthily in interactions where the actor is not constrained by the contract. Results of a new experiment support this argument.
Relation of Healthy Eating Index with Body Composition Parameters in Iranian Adult

1 Department of Health Services Management, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch, Shiraz, Iran. 2 Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 3 Larestan School Of Medical Sciences, Larestan, Iran 4 Department of Nutritional Science, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 5 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 6 Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Multi-year Downscaling Application of Online Coupled WRFCMAQover East Asia for Regional Climate and Air QualityModeling: Model Evaluation and Aerosol Direct Effects

In this study, a regional coupled climate-chemistry modeling system using the dynamical downscaling technique 15 was established by linking the global Community Earth System Model (CESM) and the regional online coupled Weather Research and Forecasting Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model for the purpose of comprehensive assessments of regional climate change and air quality and their interactions within one modeling framework. The modeling system was applied over East Asia for a multiyear climatological application during 2006-2010 driven with CESM downscaling data under Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (RCP 4.5) as well as a short-term air quality application 20 in representative months in 2013 driven with a reanalysis dataset. A comprehensive model evaluation was conducted against observations from surface networks and satellite observations to assess the model’s performance. This study presents the first application and evaluation of the online coupled WRF-CMAQ model for climatological simulations using the dynamical downscaling technique. The model was able to satisfactorily predict major meteorological variables. The improved statistical performance for the 2-m temperature (T2) in this study compared with the Coupled Model Inter25 comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) multi-models might be related to the use of the regional model WRF and the biascorrection technique applied for CESM downscaling. The model showed good ability to predict PM2.5 in winter and O3 in summer in terms of statistical performance and spatial distributions. Compared with global models that tend to underpredict PM2.5 concentrations in China, WRF-CMAQ was able to capture the high PM2.5 concentrations in urban areas. In general, the online coupled WRF-CMAQ model performed well for both climatological and air quality applications. The coupled 30 modeling system with direct aerosol feedbacks predicted aerosol optical depth relatively well and significantly reduced the overprediction in downward shortwave radiation at the surface (SWDOWN) over polluted regions in China. The performance of cloud variables was not as good as other meteorological variables, and underpredictions of cloud fraction Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss. , doi:10.5194/gmd-2016-261, 2016 Manuscript under review for journal Geosci. Model Dev. Published: 7 December 2016 c © Author(s) 2016. CC-BY 3.0 License.
Study of pathogenic bacteria detected in fly samples using universal primer-multiplex PCR

Filth flies, especially house fly, Musca domestica L. , not only is a nuisance pest, but also acts as an important mechanical vector for pathogenic microorganism agents, including bacteria, protozoa, worms, fungi and viruses amongst humans and animals. More than 100 pathogens are associated with the house fly and bacteria have been isolated from feces, vomits, external surfaces, and internal organs of this species (De Vos V, et al., 1998; Dragon, DC, 1995; West, 1951; Markus, 1980; Kasprzak et al, 1981; Akinboade et al., 1984; Iwasa et al., 1999). The aim of this study was to detect pathogenic bacteria from house fly by UP-M-PCR. In this study, totally 267house flies were collected and we tried to find a procedure enabling the detection of three pathogens namely, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp and employed for multiplex PCR analysis in house fly. The most common isolated bacteria were L. monocytogenes(132 cases: 49.4%) and another isolated bacteria belong to E. coli (114 case: 42.6%) and Salmonella spp (98 cases: 36.7%). The results of the current study confirm that flies are much more than a nuisance and that they pose potentially serious health risks. The epidemiologic potential of house flies to disseminate pathogenic bacteria may be greater than initially suspected. Mongolian Journal of Agricultural Sciences Vol.15(2) 2015; 27-32
Transfection Efficiency and Cytotoxicity of Transfection Reagents in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

Background. Gene therapy is a new approach in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, restenosis, hypertension, and thrombotic disease. Non−viral delivery systems have low transfection efficiency, especially in primary cells such as vascular endothelial cells. To improve the delivery efficiency of genetic mater− ial into cells by non−viral carriers, further investigations are required. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to evaluate non−viral transfection reagents with respect to transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity in the HUVEC line. The transcriptional activities of the CMV and SV40 promoters in human endothelial cells were also analyzed and compared. Material and Methods. Four commercially available transfection reagents (ExGen 500, jetPEITM, FuGENE® HD, and MetafecteneTM PRO) and EGFP−encoding plasmid were studied. In vitro transfection efficiency in the HUVEC line was assayed by the number of EGFP−expressing cells using fluorescence microscope. Cytotoxicity was assessed 24 h later by Hoechst 33258 staining. Results. The results indicated that transfection efficiency depended on the type of reagent. The linear poly− ethylenimine agents ExGen 500 and jetPEITM were significantly more cytotoxic than the lipid compounds; they changed the cells’ morphology and decreased their viability. Moreover, the CMV promoter had a higher ability to express the reporter gene (EGFP) than the SV40 promoter. Conclusions. Considering the transfection efficiency and lack of cytotoxicity in HUVECs, it was established that FuGENE® HD in the ratio of 5 : 2 was the most effective of the four reagents used for HUVEC line transfection (Adv Clin Exp Med 2008, 17, 6, 625–634).
Widespread influence of resuspended sediments on oceanic particulate organic carbon: Insights from radiocarbon and aluminum contents in sinking particles

Particulate organic carbon (POC) in the ocean often exhibits more depleted radiocarbon contents (lower Δ 14C values) than expected if its sole source were POC recently synthesized by primary production and export from the overlying surface waters. An examination of available Δ14C data sets for sinking POC show that this phenomenon is both common and globally widespread. Also, a strong correlation is found to exist between Δ14C values of organic carbon and aluminum content in sinking particles that is consistent over a range of oceanic settings. Together, these findings imply that aged organic carbon associated with lithogenic material from sediment resuspension is responsible for the observed low Δ 14C values as opposed to other processes such as incorporation of dissolved inorganic carbon or dissolved organic carbon into POC at depth. An estimate based on POC flux‐weighted Δ14C values shows that about 35% of sinking POC at the locations studied is derived from resuspended sediment. Our results suggest that resuspension of sediment and its subsequent lateral transport is an important component of the oceanic carbon cycle and should be considered in models of oceanic carbon export and burial.
Comparison of Red Fox Vulpes Vulpes and Pine Marten Martes Martes Food Habits in a Deciduous Forest in Hungary

Abstract Feeding habits and interspecific trophic niche overlap of two sympatric predators, the pine marten Martes martes and the red fox Vulpes vulpes, were studied in a deciduous forest habitat in Hungary with conditions of differing abundance and dominance in the rodent community. The main food source of the predators consisted of small mammals, mainly rodents. Consumption of small mammals was higher during bank vole Clethrionomys glareolus dominated years than in Apodemus mice dominated years. Both predators preferred bank voles as prey and consumed less Apodemus mice and shrews (Soricidae) than expected by availability. The two opportunistic predators utilised different, seasonally-dependent food resources. Martens consumed more plants, reptiles, amphibians and fish, whereas foxes consumed more small mammals and ungulate carcasses. In summer and autumn, percent biomass of bank voles in marten diet and Apodemus mice in fox diet was positively correlated with the number of rodents in the available food resources. In winter and spring, the density of rodents varied slightly; therefore, variations in the diets of these two predators were not related to prey density. The prey consumed was characteristically terrestrial and small sized (< 50 g). There was no difference in prey weight distribution between martens and foxes, but martens consumed more arboreal and foxes more terrestrial prey. The standardised food niche breadth did not differ significantly between the two species. Food niche overlap between the two predators was higher in winter and spring, but the difference between seasons was not significant (mean overlap = 72%). In comparison with higher latitudes, we found a larger food niche overlap in our study.
ON THE PALAEOBIOLOGY OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN HORNED THEROPOD CARNOTAURUS SASTREI BONAPARTE

Some palaeobiological traits of the horned carnivorous dinosaur Carnotaurus BONAPARTE are assessed. Its body mass and indicator of athletic capabilities are estimated. A model of the jaw mechanics is proposed, including the analysis of the cranial kinesis. Fur- ther, the strength of the horns, head and neck muscles are studied. It is concluded that Car- notaurus was an agile theropod, with a somewhat fast rather than strong bite, and that it must have used the horns in intraspecific fights or even in hunting. RESUMO: Neste trabalho, discutem-se alguns aspectos paleobiologicos do dinossaurio car- nivoro com cornos Carnotaurus BONAPARTE. Sua massa corporal e a sua capacidade atleti- ca foram estimados. Propoe-se um modelo da mecânica mandibular, incluindo uma analise da cinetica do crânio. Alem disto, a resistencia dos cornos, cabeca e pescoco e estudada. Conclui-se que Carnotaurus era um teropode agil, com uma mordida mais rapida do que for- te e que deve ter usado seus cornos para lutas intraespecificas ou mesmo para a caca.
The Requirements of Organic Pomegranate Marketing from Paveh Growers Perspective

One factor that has highlighted the role of agriculture in the economy is to make the marketing system of agricultural products more efficient. The main purpose of this study was to identify the requirements of marketing the organic pomegranate of Paveh, Kermanshah Province, Iran, from the perspective of farmers. In order to identify contributing factors, an exploratory factor analysis was used. The population of this study consisted of the pomegranate growers of Paveh (N=2000) and 320 people were selected using the Cochran formula and a proportional stratified sampling method. The main research instrument was a questionnaire that was completed by interview. Validity and reliability were con- firmed using the feedbacks of advisors through 0.78 Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results showed that the requirements were classified in eight factors of motivational improvement such as informing, technical, policy, economic, marketing, infrastructure, management, and social– services and they could explain 87 percent of the organic pomegranate marketing variance.
Estimating a Cointegrating Regression with Missing Data

We consider a cointegrating regression in which the integrated regressors, which may or may not be cointegrated with each other, contain missing observations. Under general conditions on the imputation error, we show that least squares estimation of the cointegrating vector is consistent, even though the estimator is neither asymptotically normal nor unbiased. In order to allow valid statistical inference, we construct a canonical cointegrating regression (CCR) and show that least squares estimation of the CCR provides a consistent and asymptotically normal estimator.
Corporate investments and financing constraints: unraveling investment-cash flow sensitivities

In the literature on financing constraints, recent studies estimate firm-varying investment-cash flow sensitivities (ICFS) to avoid methodological problems related to comparing sample-level estimates across groups. We go along with these advances and suggest two additional methodological improvements. First, we estimate firmvarying ICFS by modeling heterogeneous slopes in the investment equation, thereby taking into account the dynamics of the underlying investment model. Secondly, we study the drivers of ICFS in an ex-post regression thereby accounting for non-linear effects and ‘ceteris-paribus’-conditions. The results show that the ICFS is negatively related to size, dividend payout, profitability, and positively related to leverage suggesting a tight link between the ICFS and the firm’s constraints-status. Additionally, the ICFS is negatively related to the level and volatility of cash flow, suggesting that a significant ICFS occurs mainly in low cash flow-states and is lowered by the practice of cash-buffering when cash flows are volatile. Finally, we find evidence of a non-linear tangibility effect in line with the non-monotonic credit multiplier suggested in previous research.