Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis and Characterizations of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles for Antibacterial Applications

In this study various shapes and sizes of the wurtzite structure of ZnO nanoparticles were synthesised via a wet chemical method for antibacterial applications. The synthesised ZnO NPs were also modified using biologically active compound, caffeine. The ZnO nanoparticles were investigated by XRD, SEM, FTIR, UV-Vis and Fluorescence spectroscopy. The average crystallite size of the ZnO NPs using XRD was within the ranges of 28.09-31.86 nm. The shape of ZnO NPs synthesised from Zn (NO3)2.6H2O, ZnCl2 and Zn (CH3COO)2.2H2O grain, spherical and rod-like respectively. The variations in size and shape of ZnO NPs are due to the difference in precursors and calcinations temperature. The absorption peak of the ZnO NPs was observed at 278 nm, 374 nm and 378 nm for ZnCl2, Zn (NO3)2.6H2O and Zn (CH3COO)2.2H2O respectively. The FTIR peaks due to vibrational phonons of ZnO NPs also confirm the successful production of ZnO nanoparticles. The emission spectra of ZnO NPs were observed in ultraviolet due to the electronic transition from conduction band edge to valence band, and visible emission band due to defects that are related to deep level emissions. The synthesised ZnO NPs were applied for antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli bacteria using agar disc diffusion method. All the three ZnO Nps performed better antibacterial activity than the standard antibiotics and also S. aureus was shown to be more sensitive to ZnO NPs than E. coli.
The Effect of Role-Play and Simulation Approach on Enhancing ESL Oral Communication Skills

This study investigated the effect of role-play and simulation approach on Malaysian Polytechnic engineering students’ ESL oral communication skills. In addition, the study examined the students’ perceptions of the effect of the role-play and simulation on their oral communication skills. A mixed method design was employed, using both quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches. The quantitative data were collected from the quasiexperimental study (n=100). The data were collected using a set of questionnaire, a pre and post-test. The data from the questionnaires were analysed using descriptive statistics (percentages and means). The results showed that there was a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test scores of the role-play and simulation group compared to the traditional group. The findings indicated that the students in the role-play and simulation group had performed better in the post-test compared to the pretest after the exposure to the role-play and simulation approach in the ESL oral communication skills classes. An implication of the study is that roleplay and simulation approach can serve as a possible strategy to improve on their ESL oral communication skills.
EFFECTS OF ARTIFICIAL DIETS ON BIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCES OF ACANTHOPAGRUS LATUS BROOD STOCK IN THE PERSIAN GULF

Effects of artificial diets on growth, spawning performance, egg and larval biochemical compositions and quality of Acanthopagrus latus in the Persian Gulf were studied. Nine diets representing a combination of three protein levels (40, 50 and 60%) and three energy levels (22.5, 23.5 and 24.5 MJ GE/Kg) were tested in triplicates. Each tank was stocked with 10 fish with a sex ratio of 1:1 and with an average weight of 415g and 236g for females and males, respectively. Fish were fed to satiation, twice daily. The growth of Acanthopagrus latus broodstock was not significantly affected (P>0.05) by dietary protein and energy levels. Biometry, relative fecundity and survival rate and crude protein and lipid of eggs, hatchling and 3 day post-hatch (3DPH) larvae were significantly affected (P<0.05), but spawning performance and body composition of broodstock, with the exception of body crude protein and lipid were not significantly affected by dietary protein and energy levels. This study revealed the best spawning performances of A. latus broodstock were achieved at 40% dietary protein and 23.5 MJ GE/Kg dietary energy.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE USE OF A PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM, ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND THE PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS

This research studies the accountability and performance of public sector organizations. It provides empirical evidence about the relationship between the use of a performance measurement system and the organizational factors of accountability and organizational performance. We investigate the three roles of a performance measurement system (its operational use, incentive use, and exploratory use), and three organizational factors (contractibility, the legislative mandate, and management commitment). A mixed method approach with squential explanatory design was used to answer the research question. The hyphoteses testing used Structural Equation Modelling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS). Our findings were based on survey data from 137 SKPD officers in the local government of Yogyakarta Province, and showed that management commitment had a positive association with accountability and organizational performance. We also found a positive association between the legislative mandate and accountability. However, this research did not find any significant association among the three roles of the performance measurement system with accountability and organizational performance. Based on the institutional theory, our findings show substantial contributions by the institutional isomorphism, which was used in an appropriate manner to explain the context of public sector organizations, especially in the local government of Yogyakarta Province. Keywords: the use of performance measurement system, organizational factors, accountability, mixed method
Banana farming as a business: the role of tissue cultured planting materials in Kenya

Objective: To assess banana farming and the potential impact of Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) spread to key production areas in Central and Eastern provinces of Kenya. Methodology and results: After the outbreak of banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) in Western Kenya in late 2006, a rapid spot check on banana production was conducted in parts of Eastern and Central provinces of Kenya, aiming to assess the potential impact if the disease spread to the area. BXW was not observed in all the surveyed areas. However, potential risk of disease spread was noted since trucks and traders that visit western Kenya, where BXW is present, were also trading in bananas from Central and Eastern provinces. Banana was confirmed to be an important cash and food crop in the surveyed regions, particularly in Mwea and Meru regions, where a good bunch fetches a farm gate price of at least Ksh. 500 ($7.5). Despite the earlier adoption of the TC banana technology many farmers had reverted to obtaining suckers from their own or neighbours’ farms for planting. Conclusion and application of findings: It will be necessary to put in place measures to prevent BXW spread to banana producing areas within the eastern and central provinces as the disease would have a significantly adverse impact on livelihoods. The low uptake of tissue cultured planting materials needs to be investigated to forestall reversion to utilisation of low quality and potentially infected planting materials from existing plantations and other traditional sources. An overview of farmers’ perception of tissue culture bananas and possible interventions to ensure sustainable banana farming is discussed.
Autochthonous and allochthonous contributions to mesozooplankton diet in a tidal river and estuary: Integrating carbon isotope and fatty acid constraints

We examined the carbon sources used by bacteria and mesozooplankton in the Scheldt River and estuary (Belgium, The Netherlands) using a combined stable isotope and fatty acid composition approach. Water samples were collected monthly at six stations during 1 yr and analyzed for 13C of dissolved inorganic carbon, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and particulate organic carbon (POC). Mesozooplankton was determined up to family, genus, or species level and analyzed for 13C and fatty acid content. Suspended particles were analyzed for phospholipid fatty acids and their 13C contents to estimate isotope ratios of phytoplankton groups and heterotrophic bacteria. The carbon isotope signatures of DOC, POC, and bacterial biomass were similar and significantly enriched relative to those of diatoms and green algae, pointing to allochthonous subsidies as an important carbon source for bacteria. The contribution of algae to zooplankton diets as estimated from isotope ratios and fatty acid profiles averaged 41% and 75% respectively, and did not differ significantly among stations, taxa, or age categories. Mesozooplankton relies primarily on grazing on phytoplankton and direct consumption of particulate organic matter. Mesozooplankton appears to receive little of its carbon from DOC via bacteria.
A proof of $K$-theoretic Littlewood-Richardson rules by Bender-Knuth-type involutions

The K-theoretic Littlewood–Richardson rule due to A. Buch describes the product structure constants for the Grothendieck polynomials of Grassmannian type. We present a simple self-contained proof of the rule by generalizing Stembridge’s cancelation argument which was applied for the classical Littlewood–Richardson rule.
The management motives in analysing accounting misstatements of Malaysian public listed companies (PLCs)

This paper discusses issues concerning management motives and situational pressures that lead to financial reporting misstatements.The situational pressures and management motives are measured using financial distress, family ownership, founders on board and earnings management of Malaysian public listed firms (referred to as PLCs) that influence the occurrence of accounting misstatements.Results show that founder on board (FOUNDER) is positively significant while family ownership (FAMOWN) is negatively significant determinants of the accounting misstatement proxy financial statement restatements.Two other variables namely financial distress (DISTRESS) and earnings management (EM) interact significantly and positively to affect accounting misstatements. Additionally, family ownership interacts with EM to positively affect accounting misstatements. Findings reveal that the extent of earnings management and financial distress and family-ownership of affect the likelihood of financial statement restatements by Malaysian PLCs.
Pensamiento histórico y contenidos disciplinares en los libros de texto. Un análisis exploratorio de la Edad Moderna en 2º de la ESO

espanolEl objetivo principal de este trabajo ha sido indagar en la educacion y alfabetizacion historica del alumnado propuesta por los libros de texto de 2.o de la ESO, y asi comprobar su adecuacion a una ensenanza basada en competencias y en habilidades complejas de pensamiento. Para conseguir esta cuestion se ha informatizado las actividades propuestas por tres manuales de tres editoriales distintas sobre la Edad Moderna en una base de datos. Estos ejercicios se han clasificado en torno a cuatro categorias: tipo de actividad; nivel cognitivo que exigen al alumnado; presencia de conceptos de primer y segundo orden; y tipologia de contenidos historicos. Los resultados muestran una falta de actualizacion de contenidos disciplinares y unas actividades de baja complejidad cognitiva, que exigen principalmente al alumnado la memorizacion o reproduccion de ciertos contenidos (generalmente de historia politica, cultural o artistica) presentes en el propio texto del manual EnglishThe main objective of this paper is to investigate the historical education of students in textbooks of 2.o grade os Secundary Education, and check their suitability for teaching based on skills and complex thinking skills. To get this issue has computerized the three manual activities proposed by three different publishers for the Early Modern Age in a database. These exercises have been classified into four categories: type of activity; cognitively demanding to students; presence of concepts of first and second order; typology of historical knowledge. The results show a lack of updating of disciplinary content and activities of a low cognitive complexity, which mainly require the students memorizing or reproducing certain content (usually political, cultural or artistic history) in the text of the manual
Fiscal Consolidation in a Small Euro-Area Economy

This article focuses on the costs and benefits of a fiscal consolidation in a small euro area economy. The macroeconomic impacts and the welfare analysis are conducted in a New-Keynesian general equilibrium model with non-Ricardian agents. We define a benchmark fiscal consolidation strategy based on a permanent reduction in Government expenditure. We find that, over the long run, fiscal consolidation leads to a considerable increase in the level of output and consumption, and is welfare improving. In addition, the gains are boosted if the fiscal strategy also involves a tax reform that shifts the tax burden away from labour income towards the final goods consumption. However, important short-run costs arise, notably output, consumption and welfare losses. Finally, we assess the effect of alternative fiscal consolidation paths in terms of the degree of front loading, the speed of its completion and the interaction with risk premium.
Cash Acquirers: Free Cash Flow, Shareholder Monitoring, and Shareholder Returns

Although Jensen (1988) argues that high levels of free cash flow and unused borrowing capacity are likely to encourage low-value mergers, the “pecking order” theory offers a different perspective, where managers conserve cash flow to undertake positive NPV investments. We argue that the stronger position of shareholders, as opposed to firm managers, in the UK compared to the US makes the Free Cash Flow (FCF) hypothesis less likely to be relevant in the UK. In support of this, by analysing both announcement period and long term returns, we show that for a comprehensive sample of UK cash acquirers there is little support for the Free Cash Flow (FCF) hypothesis. Instead, our evidence is consistent with greater shareholder monitoring mitigating any agency problem associated with high FCF. Our results are also consistent with low FCF firms having a greater likelihood of being financially distressed.
Exploring Resources and Performance Relationships in Commercial Enterprises: An Empirical Perspective

Despite a growing body of literature on firm performance, explaining why firms in the same industry and markets differ in their performance remains a fundamental question within strategic management field. Researchers have attributed differences in firm performance to resources owned by a firm but the results remain fragmented and no consensus has yet emerged.Therefore, the debate is still open and this study sought to contribute to the debate and address extant gaps. This study investigated the influence of organizational resources on performance of insurance companies in Kenya. The study was based on a survey of 46 insurance companies in Kenya. The study reports that both tangible and intangible resources have a statistically significant influence on non-financial performance of insurance companies in Kenya. However, there were mixed findings as regards the individual influence of resources on various firm performance indicators. Intangible resources evidenced statistically not significant results individually but when combined, they had a statistically significant influence on non-financial performance.The reverse was true for tangible resources. Based on the findings, implications of the study and suggestions for further study are presented.
Financialisation, income distribution and aggregate demand in the USA

This paper investigates the effects of financialisation and functional income distribution on aggregate demand in the USA by estimating the effects of the increase in rentier income (dividends and interest payments) and housing and financial wealth on consumption and investment. The redistribution of income in favour of profits suppresses consumption, whereas the increase in the rentier income and wealth has positive effects. A higher rentier income decreases investment. Without the wealth effects, the overall effect of the changes in distribution on aggregate demand would have been negative. Thus a pro-capital income distribution leads to a slightly negative effect on growth, i.e. the USA economy is moderately wage-led.
HORTICULTURAL PERFORMANCE OF IMPORTED CULTIVARS AND ROOTSTOCKS IN THE NORTH-EASTERN TRANSVAAL

The performance of Hass on five imported rootstocks, viz: Thomas, D9, Barr Duke, Duke 7 & G755, was reported on. In their first year of bearing. Hass on Thomas had the best yield. D9 and Barr Duke showed the poorest yield and poorest internal fruit quality. Even at this early stage the vigour of Hass on G755 was evident. Evaluation of 14 imported cultivars was then discussed. Gwen & T142 showed the most potential and these were discussed. Imported rootstock and cultivar material was evaluated on Westfalia Estate in the northeastern Transvaal for their horticultural performance.
The Optimal Tax Rule in the Presence of Time Use

Using Mexican data on household time use and consumption, we find significant substitution between goods and time in home production and different elasticities of substitution for different household commodities. Adding these findings to the Ramsey optimal tax problem, we show it is optimal to impose higher taxes on market goods used in the production of commodities with a lower elasticity of substitution between goods and time. The reason is that government wants to minimize the distortionary substitution from market purchases toward untaxed time use in home production. This is an analog of the classical Corlett and Hague (1953-1954) result, differing in that we allow for the possibility of substitution between goods and time in the production of commodities. Leaving aside distributional considerations, we conclude that higher taxes should be imposed on market goods used in the production of `Eating` and lower taxes imposed on market goods used in the production of `Recreation`.
European summer surface ozone 1990–2100

Abstract. The impact of climate change and changes in ozone precursor emission on summer surface ozone in Europe was studied using a regional CTM over the period 1990 to 2100. Two different climate simulations under the SRES A1B scenario together with ozone precursor emission changes from the RCP4.5 scenario were used as model input. In southern Europe regional climate change leads to increasing surface ozone concentrations during April–September, but projected emission reductions in Europe have a stronger effect, resulting in net reductions of surface ozone concentrations. In northern Europe regional climate change decreases surface O 3 and reduced European emissions acts to further strengthen this trend also when including increasing hemispheric background concentrations. The European O 3 precursor emission reductions in RCP4.5 are substantial and it remains to be seen if these reductions can be achieved. There is substantial decadal variability in the simulations forced by climate variability which is important to consider when looking at changes in surface O 3 concentrations, especially until the first half of the 21st century. In order to account for changes in background O 3 future regional model studies should couple global (hemispheric) and regional CTMs forced by a consistent set of meteorological and precursor emission data.
Inhibitory Potencies of Bromophenols from Rhodomelaceae algae against α-Glucosidase Activity

Inhibitory potencies against ƒ¿-glucosidase activities were compared among bromophenols ob tained from extracts of three Rhodomelaceae red algae, Symphyocladia latiuscula, Odonthalia corym bifera, and Polysiphonia morrowii. The bromophenols from these species are characterized by a num ber of Br atoms per benzene ring: S. latiuscula, three Br atoms (1 and 2); O. corymbifera, two Br atoms (3-7); and P. morrowii, one Br atom (8 and 9). The bromophenols exhibited mixed inhibition against yeast ƒ¿-glucosidase reaction. In particular, symmetric dibenzyl ethers, bis(2,3,6-tribromo-4,5-dihydrox ybenzyl) ether (2) and bis(2,3-dibromo-4,5-dihydroxybenzyl) ether (5), exhibited about 103 fold smaller Ki values than the other bromophenols. Their inhibition modes are disclosed to be mixed inhibition closed to competitive inhibition. Inhibitory potencies of the bromophenols increased with the increas ing degree of bromo-substitution per benzene ring and the decreasing degree of methyl-substitution. In contrast to the strong inhibitory activity against yeast ƒ¿-glucosidase activity, the bromophenols moder ately inhibited rat-intestinal sucrase and maltase activity. The inhibitory potencies were all comparative among the bromophenols examined.
Temporal and spatial variability of extreme snowfall indices over northern Xinjiang from 1959/1960 to 2008/2009

Abstract. Plentiful snowfall is an important resource in northern Xinjiang. However, extreme snowfall events can lead to destructive avalanches, traffic interruptions or even the collapse of buildings. The daily winter precipitation data from 18 stations in northern Xinjiang during 1959/1960–2008/2009 were selected for purpose of analyzing long-term variability of extreme snowfall events. Five extreme snowfall indices, Maximum 1 day snowfall amount (SX1day), Maximum 1-weather process snowfall amount (SX1process), Blizzard days (DSb), Consecutive snow days (DSc) and Blizzard weather processes (PSb), were defined and utilized to quantitatively describe the intensity and frequency of extreme snowfall events. Temporal trends of the five indices were analyzed by Mann–Kendall test and simple linear regression, and their trends were interpolated using universal kriging interpolation. Temporally, we found that most stations have upward trends in the five indices of extreme snowfall events, and over entire northern Xinjiang, they were all increasing at the 0.01 significance level (MK test), with the linear tendency rates of 0.49 mm (10 a)−1 (SX1day), 0.89 mm (10 a)−1 (SX1process), 0.024 days (10 a)−1 (DSb), 0.14 days (10 a)−1 (DSc), and 0.069 times (10 a)−1 (PSb) respectively. Meanwhile, obvious decadal fluctuations besides long-term increasing trends are identified. Trends in the intensity and frequency of extreme snowfall events show a~distinct difference spatially. In general, trends of five indices were found shifting from decreasing to increasing from the northeast to the southwest and from the north to the south of northern Xinjiang. Furthermore, the regions covered by increasing or decreasing extreme snowfall events were identified, implying the hot or cold spots for extreme snowfall events changes. These results may be helpful for northern Xinjiang on the regional and local resource and emergency planning.
Forecasting interest rate swap spreads using domestic and international risk factors: Evidence from linear and non-linear models

This paper explores the ability of factor models to predict the dynamics of US and UK interest rate swap spreads within a linear and a non-linear framework. We reject linearity for the US and UK swap spreads in favour of a regime-switching smooth transition vector autoregressive (STVAR) model, where the switching between regimes is controlled by the slope of the US term structure of interest rates. We compare the ability of the STVAR model to predict swap spreads with that of a non-linear nearest-neighbours model as well as that of linear AR and VAR models.We find some evidence that the non-linear models predict better than the linear ones. At short horizons, the nearest-neighbours (NN) model predicts better than the STVAR model US swap spreads in periods of increasing risk conditions and UK swap spreads in periods of decreasing risk conditions. At long horizons, the STVAR model increases its forecasting ability over the linear models, whereas the NN model does not outperform the rest of the models.