Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PSYCHIC DISTANCE, FIRM SIZE, PERCEIVED RISK AND EXPORT MARKET CHOICE OF EXPORTING FIRMS IN UGANDA

The purpose of study was to investigate the relationship between psychic distance, firm size, perceived risk and market choice of Uganda’s exporting firms. The research question is based on the fact that there is a notable shift of Uganda’s firms from exporting to markets that are geographically distant to nearer regional markets, a situation that could be attributed to psychic distance which leads to higher levels of perceived risk that the small and medium sized Ugandan firms could be trying to avoid due to their limited resources. The study used a cross-sectional research design and collected quantitative data using a structured questionnaire from a sample of 80 exporting firms of which only 72 questionnaires were used for analysis. The analysis indicated that psychic distance is positively correlated with the perceived risk while it was also established that psychic distance was negatively correlated to export market choice. The regression showed that both psychic distance and perceived risk were found to be having a significant effect on export market choice. The study recommends that firms should invest in psychic reducing activities and these could include; participating in international trade exhibition in countries perceived to be psychically distant and recruit psychically sensitive employees and/or export managers who are internationally exposed, multilingual and can understand other languages and cultures in the foreign market. Governments can also seek out trade arrangements with distant countries to facilitate trade amongst themselves in a a harmonized trade environment that is free of differences. European Scientific Journal April 2013 edition vol.9, No.10 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 18577431 199
The Influence of Infrastructural Investment on Adoption of ICT in Health Information System: A Case of Sub County Referral Hospitals in Nakuru County, Kenya

The use of Information Communication Technology is essential in overcoming the challenges of inadequate health workers and low quality of service delivery. This study was an effort to strengthen the Health Management Information Systems pillar by seeking to assess the adoption of ICT in Health Systems in Nakuru County. The overall objective for this study was to assess the adoption of ICT in health information systems. For the purpose of this paper the researcher has focused on establishing the influence of infrastructural investment on adoption of ICT in HIS. The study employed cross-sectional design with a deductive approach. The target population was 534 made of medical personnel drawn from the sub-county Hospitals within Nakuru County out of which a sample of 98 respondents was used in the study. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires with questions based on five points Likert Scale which required the respondents to indicate their level of agreement with the statements. The data was analyzed and descriptive statistics used to summarize the responses into frequencies and percentages. The findings were presented in bar graphs with descriptive narratives. The results showed that Lack of adequate ICT infrastructure has hampered ICT adoption in public hospitals in Nakuru County. The study recommends improvement of ICT infrastructure. The County Health Ministry should also support ICT adoption in the public hospitals by allocating adequate funds for this purpose. Keywords: Adoption of ICT, Health Information Systems, ICT Infrastructure
Milky Way globular cluster metallicity and low-mass X-ray binaries: the red giant influence

Galactic and extragalactic studies have shown that metal-rich globular clusters (GCs) are approximately three times more likely to host bright low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) than metal-poor GCs. There is no satisfactory explanation for this metallicity effect. We tested the hypothesis that the number density of red giant branch (RGB) stars is larger in metal-rich GCs, and thus potentially the cause of the metallicity effect. Using Hubble Space Telescope photometry for 109 unique Milky Way GCs, we investigated whether RGB star density was correlated with GC metallicity. Isochrone fitting was used to calculate the number of RGB stars, which were normalized by the GC mass and fraction of observed GC luminosity, and determined density using the volume at the half-light radius $r_{h}$. The RGB star number density was weakly correlated with metallicity [Fe/H], giving Spearman and Kendall Rank test $p$-values of 0.00016 and 0.00021 and coefficients $r_{s} = 0.35$ and $\tau = 0.24$ respectively. This correlation may be biased by a possible dependence of $r_{h}$ on [Fe/H], although studies have shown that $r_{h}$ is correlated with Galactocentric distance and independent of [Fe/H]. The dynamical origin of the $r_{h}$-metallicity correlation (tidal stripping) suggests that metal-rich GCs may have had more active dynamical histories, which would promote LMXB formation. No correlation between the RGB star number density and metallicity was found when using only the GCs that hosted quiescent LMXBs. A complete census of quiescent LMXBs in our Galaxy is needed to further probe the metallicity effect, which will be possible with the upcoming launch of eROSITA.
Effect of Priming on Seed Germination of Cucurbita Pepo under Copper Stress

In order to study the effects of priming on seed germination and seedling growth of Cucurbita pepo under copper stress conditions, an experiment was conducted. Seeds of cucumber were soaked in aerated solution of GA3, 2 mM (hormonal priming) and in distilled water (hydro-priming). The results showed a trend of tolerance to the effects of copper at different concentrations on seed germination of Cucurbita pepo. The hydro-priming improved the morphology of germinated seeds in Cucurbita pepo. Similarly, it enhanced the tolerance index and the T/50 in the no stressed seeds by copper. Priming with GA3 at low dose had no effect on seed germination of this species.
Diel Feeding Chronology, Gastric Evacuation, and Daily Food Consumption of Juvenile Chinook Salmon in Oregon Coastal Waters

Abstract The diel feeding periodicity of juvenile Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha was determined from stomachs collected in coastal waters off Oregon in 2000 and 2003. Juvenile Chinook salmon exhibited a diurnal feeding pattern with morning and evening feeding periods. There were differences in the duration and magnitude of the dawn and dusk peaks between the 2 years. Gastric evacuation rates of euphausiid meals were estimated from laboratory experiments at 9.3, 10.7, and 13.9°C. Based on an exponential model, the instantaneous evacuation rates at these three temperatures were 0.0407, 0.0589, and 0.0807 per hour, respectively. The daily ration of juvenile Chinook salmon in Oregon coastal waters in 2000 and 2003 was estimated using three models. Using laboratory-derived evacuation rates, the Elliott and Persson and Eggers models produced daily ration estimates of 2.04% and 2.57% of body weight (BW), respectively, in 2000 and 2.93% and 2.46%BW in 2003. The MAXIMS model, which does not rely on labora.
Biological and biogeochemical effects of organic matter and drilling discharges in two sediment communities

The present study investigates the relation between community characteristics, input of organic matter and drill cuttings. Drill cuttings are discharged from offshore oil and gas exploration, and settle on soft bottom sediments where the benthic fauna may be affected. In a 3- factorial mesocosm experiment, 2 benthic communities were treated with either water-based drill cuttings or natural sediment in combination with addition or no addition of organic matter, and biochemical and biological responses were studied. The biogeochemical response of organic mat- ter and drill cuttings additions resembled each other, in both cases resulting in enhanced sedi- ment-water fluxes of oxygen, nitrate and ammonium, and reduced concentration of oxygen in sed- iment pore water. This finding indicated degradation of an organic compound in the water-based drill cuttings. Regarding the biological response, benthic community composition was signifi- cantly different for all treatment factors, evidenced by PERMANOVA. Abundance and biomass were reduced in boxes without addition of organic matter, probably as a response to starvation, while abundance and taxa richness were reduced in boxes with drill cuttings. The particular effect of water-based drill cuttings on the environment seems to be complex, and should be investigated further.
A Short Review on SMEs, Innovation and Financial Markets

The main aim of this paper is to provide up-to-date information about the relatedness of innovation and financing activities in SMEs in the case of Turkey by referencing researches in literature. Scientific and technological developments have opened new ways in terms of SMEs and their contribution to the development of countries. At that stage financing of innovation and supporting the sustainability of technological improvements within SMEs carry a great importance.
Knowledge and Attitudes about HIV/AIDS among Health Care Officers in S. Korea

Objective: This study explores the level of knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS and the relationship between knowledge and attitude among social workers and nurses working in the public sector in Gwangju, S. Korea. Methods: The sample was composed of 121 nurse and 124 social workers. For the purpose of this research participants completed a questionnaire designed to assess their knowledge and attitudes about HIV/AIDS. The data was collected between December 2008 and January 2009. All data was analyzed using SPSS WIN version 12.0 for technical statistics. t-Test, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis was employed. Results: First, the result of this research showed that the level of participants knowledge on HIV/AIDS was 85.9%. The nurses score was significantly higher than social workers on knowledge. Second, the outcome also showed that nurses generally had a more positive attitude about HIV/AIDS patients than social workers but it was not significant. Third, participant's attitudes towards HIV/AIDS was significantly influenced by the level of knowledge and previous education about HIV/AIDS. Fourth, the results also showed that knowledge on HIV/AIDS is the most important influencing factor towards the participants attitude. Conclusion: This result has important implications for future education programs designed for health care professionals including nurses and social workers. Given the importances of the role of public officers as practitioners and policy makers on HIV/AIDS, the education program should not only focus on lectures but also include a sharing of practical experience and knowledge.
DISCRIMINATION OF PORE FLUIDS FROM P AND CONVERTED SHEAR-WAVE AVO ANALYSIS

Natural rocks usually contain discontinuities of various forms, which control fluid moment in the subsurface. Discontinuities have a wide range of scales and are a direct consequence of Earth's stress over geological history, such as faults, fractures, joints or cracks, or are due to sedimentary deposition processes, such as contact regions in pore spaces (examples include clay platelet alignment in shales and grain particle alignment in sandstones). In this study, we show that seismic waves are sensitive to fluids contained in rock discontinuities based on and converted AVO analysis. We restrict ourselves to two types of rock discontinuities: shales where clay particle alignment will result in transverse isotropy with a vertical symmetry axis (TIV) and vertical aligned fractures (transverse isotropy with a horizontal symmetry axis or TIH). We establish a quantitative link between fluid saturation and interfacial or fracture compliance and derive simple analytical expressions which link seismic anisotropic measurements to pore and fracture filling fluids. The link between macroscopic parameters such as fracture compliance and physical quantities makes it possible to extract information, such as fluid saturation, from field seismic data. In particular, different behaviors of these parameters may be used to determine whether fractures are dry or saturated. The combined -and -wave AVO analysis can potentially be used to differentiate fluid saturations in fractures and in shales.
Preferred Learning Methods: A Comparison between International and Domestic Accounting Students

Abstract This study provides a comparison between the preferred learning modes (traditional, interactive, group case-based lectures) of international and domestic students undertaking a new undergraduate accounting topic at an Australian university. A Likert-scale survey questionnaire was used to determine the differences and similarities between the two groups. When the results are analysed using the Hofstede model of societal cultural dimensions, they indicate significant differences between the two groups of students with regard to their preferences for formal versus interactive and group case-based lectures. The paper provides a discussion of the implications of these findings for teaching methods, assessment and curriculum development.
Investigating extemporaneous compounding practices in the Polokwane tertiary hospital pharmacies in South Africa - a pilot study

Medicine availability is an important aspect of providing good quality healthcare. Some medicines are available in doses that are not suitable for a specific population group such as children or geriatric patients. Manipulation of the existing medication is undertaken instead. Studies on the practices, frequency and extent of extemporaneous compounding have been undertaken in countries such as New Zealand, Australia, United States of America and Mexico. No data exists for South Africa. Therefore the aim of the study was to explore the level of extemporaneous compounding skills at public hospital level, and to assess whether compounding is occurring in their pharmacies. A quantitative research approach applying the cross-sectional research design was used to determine the extemporaneous compounding practices in a tertiary hospital pharmacy. Twenty five pharmacists responded to a questionnaire on their knowledge and practices. Data was collected from 691 batch records and prescriptions dating from the January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2009 to determine the frequency and extent of extemporaneous compounding. Nearly all (96%) of the responding pharmacy personnel indicated having received compounding training skills through supervision by experienced pharmacists. Seventy two percent explained that they compounded medication due to the unavailability of certain prescribed drugs. In addition, 60% of the respondents confirmed that the expiry date is personally developed. The most compounded medicines were dermatological preparations (46.60%). The findings suggest that there seem to be insufficient skills within the tertiary hospital pharmacy staff for small scale compounding and identified the need for more research into this practice. Key words: Extemporaneous, compounding, quality, quality assurance.
Cherry-Picking Customers by Party Size in Restaurants

This paper examines the phenomenon of cherry-picking customers—serving the high value customers and denying service to low value customers. These actions are fundamental to revenue management, but have received essentially no attention in the context of restaurants. Two common characteristics of restaurants make them a logical environment in which to implement cherry-picking—compared to smaller parties, larger parties typically take longer to dine and spend less per person. A short example provides motivation and the author reports on an international survey of restaurant managers, which indicates that cherry-picking actions are not uncommon. The author also reports on a simulation study to explore the factors affecting the level of excess demand necessary to justify cherry-picking. Important factors are customers’ willingness to wait for tables, the length of the peak-demand window, and the proportionality of space required by different size tables. The author also evaluates two heuristics for predicting the viability of cherry-picking. The author believes that the most important finding for managers is that the viability of cherry-picking is very dependent on restaurant size, being generally impractical for larger restaurants. From an academic perspective, since this is underinvestigated topic, the author identifies nine research extensions of this work, ranging from empirical to analytical investigations.
Physics-Based Online Assessment of Surface Roughness Severity for High-Pressure Turbines

Surface roughness is a critical indicator of the health of turbine blades, due to its implications on blade surface heat transfer and structural integrity. The present work proposes a physics-based online assessment framework for industrial gas turbine engines (GTE), in order to assess the blade surface roughness in a high-pressure turbine without engine shutdown. The framework consolidates gas path analysis (GPA) based performance monitoring models and meanline turbomachinery analysis using a novel GPA-meanline matching process. This extracts meaningful performance deviation trends from GPA, while resolving the uncertainties associated with the measurements and modeling. To relate efficiency loss to surface roughness severity, a meanline-based system-identification process has been developed to establish the meanline representation of the turbine stage and to incorporate an empirical surface roughness loss correlation system.
Inhibitory control efficiency in successful weight loss participants

Eating unhealthy foods and eating past satiety are inappropriate behaviors that promote obesity. The ability to effectively inhibit an inappropriate behavior is a key component of cognitive restraint and its impairment has been previously linked to obesity. In this study, a Go/No-Go fMRI task was completed by a cohort of adult women that had experienced initial weight loss followed by various levels of weight regain or continued weight loss. Region of interest fMRI analysis revealed that greater total weight loss was significantly related to decreasing activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus and the right superior frontal gyrus. These results suggest that as weight loss increases fewer cognitive resources are needed in order to maintain levels of inhibitory control. This cognitive efficiency, though only partially supported by better task performance, is supported by greater exercise. An analysis of resting state patterns of correlation between task-activated regions revealed a significant correlation between the right inferior frontal gyrus and the left middle temporal gyrus. The strength of this relationship was significantly correlated with increasing total weight loss and continued weight loss over time. Cognitive restraint was also associated with this fronto-temporal correlation and provides support for cognitive efficiency. Right inferior frontal gyrus was also correlated with left inferior frontal gyrus and this relationship was positively correlated with initial weight loss suggesting that fewer neurocognitive resources were required by those who were able to achieve greater initial weight loss. Table of
Dislocations in graphene

We study the stability and evolution of various elastic defects in a flat graphene sheet and the electronic properties of the most stable configurations. Two types of dislocations are found to be stable: ‘glide’ dislocations consisting of heptagon–pentagon pairs, and ‘shuffle’ dislocations, an octagon with a dangling bond. Unlike the most studied case of carbon nanotubes, Stone Wales defects seem to be dynamically unstable in the planar graphene sheet. Similar defects in which one of the pentagon–heptagon pairs is displaced vertically with respect to the other one are found to be dynamically stable. Shuffle dislocations will give rise to local magnetic moments that can provide an alternative route to magnetism in graphene.
In the second half of the seminar, Professor Gorard will draw out the policy implications of some EU-funded research on pupils’ views on equity in schools and on the segregation of school intakes across different European countries

some EU-funded research on pupils’ views on equity in schools and on the segregation of school intakes across different European countries. In particular, he will argue that in order to assess whether school systems are equitable we need to pay attention to the lived experience of pupils in schools, and that concerns about equality and quality in education need not be in tension with one another. Professor Gorard’s argument is that the use of school improvement models has led to an undue emphasis on the most visible indicators of schooling examination results – which may marginalise other purposes and benefits of schooling. Social, ethnic and economic segregation between schools matters, but not primarily for the sake of test results because, for pupils, schools are their life and not merely a preparation for it. In general the lessons from international studies are that the mix of pupils between schools whether in terms of occupational class, income or sex has little impact on attainment. So policy makers can feel free to use criteria other than effectiveness for deciding on the pattern of intakes to schools including criteria related to equity.
Relationship between CME Parameters and Large-Scale Structure of Solar Magnetic Fields

In this work, we explore how the parameters of coronal mass ejections (CME) associated with eruptive prominences (EP) depend on their position relative to the coronal streamer belt (CSB) and coronal streamer chains (CSCs). We show that the CMEs whose axes are close to CSB propagate at lower mean speed than the CMEs observed in the vicinity of CSCs. The CMEs concentrated at CSCs have larger mean kinetic energy than those associated with CSB. The mean mass is maximum for the events associated with CSB and minimum for events observed near the base of open magnetic field configurations (OMF) - counterparts of coronal holes. The mean angular size is virtually the same for the CMEs of both types. The CME deviation from the radial trajectory has been studied. It is shown that CMEs may deviate noticeably from the radial propagation both on their way from the origin site (prominence eruption site) up to about 2.5 solar radii (Ro) and farther, from ~2.5 up to 20 Ro. In the epoch of solar minimum and at the rise of the cycle, the deviation in the first part of the trajectory (up to 2.5 Ro) is mainly towards the equator. In the other phases, no preferable direction has been revealed. As the EP latitude increases up to 45 , the CME deviation, on the average, increases, too. It is shown that about 50% of all CMEs change the sense of deviation when passing from the near-solar part of the trajectory to its far part so that, as the CME moves away from the Sun, its propagation becomes more radial. The results obtained show that large-scale solar magnetic fields have a significant effect on the characteristics and propagation of coronal mass ejections.