Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT ELEMENT, OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN FOOD PRODUCTION SMEs

The system of improvement and quality management has a fairly rapid development to answer the needs of consumers in the future. TQM is a solution to improve quality in the SMEs food industry, which contributes greatly to the developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between TQM elements consisting of “Soft” and “Hard” aspects, for operational performance and their impact on the performance of SME organizations. Empirical data was taken from 136 SMEs in food production in the East Java Region of the Republic of Indonesia. This study uses Confirmatory Factor Analysis to test construct reliability and validity, while the relationship between variables is examined through Partial Least Square. This research proves that improving operational performance is influenced by the element “Soft” and “Hard” TQM and organizational performance achievement is influenced by operational performance. The fact that this research is based on the quality perspective of SME owners of food production and is expected to have an impact on future research on operational management in SMEs. To achieve benefits and obtain sustainable competitive advantages for companies at the SME level, “Hard” TQM and “Soft” TQM are not enough, a quality-oriented organizational culture is needed to solve them.
DEVELOPING A HARMONIOUS CULTURE-BASED SUSTAINABLE EVENT MODEL IN BALI TOURISM VILLAGE

Environmental measurement standards of various events that are easy to understand are currently still in a debate in various sustainable tourism studies. This study aims to develop an environmental measurement model based on community participation and harmonious culture in an event activity in a tourism village. This study uses two approaches, qualitative and quantitative. Event organizers are selected as the research informants to deeply explore the event implementation. The result of qualitative data processing is used as a base in questionnaire construction. Respondents are selected using stratified proportional random sampling and 82 event organizers has fulfilled the questionnaire correctly. The qualitative result indicates that belief system, cultural values, and community participation are new variables to measure green event. The quantitative result indicates that event organizers have good understanding on harmonious culture-integrated environmental measurement indicators. The trial result of the model on a case study of Cultic event finds that harmonization with God and Human dominate the event activities, whereas harmonization with environment is mostly immeasurable since the event is a traditional communityand cultural-based event. The research result contributes to the development sustainability theory, especially in environmental management. The model attributes can be developed further by adding several indicators, such as government, supplier, and the existing associations.
Near Optimum Error Correcting Coding and Decoding: TurboCodes

This paper presents a new family of convolutional codes, nicknamed turbo-codes, built from a particular concatenation of two recursive systematic codes, linked together by nonuniform interleaving. Decoding calls on iterative processing in which each component decoder takes advantage of the work of the other at the previous step, with the aid of the original concept of extrinsic information. For sufficiently large interleaving sizes, the correcting performance of turbo-codes, investigated by simulation, appears to be close to the theoretical limit predicted by Shannon.
Administrative perspectives of recreational therapy services in North Carolina

The purpose of this study was to survey key supervisory staff at North Carolina health care facilities to (a) identify the existence and competitive positions of recreational therapy (RT) services, and (b) understand the rationale driving health care facility decisions related to the provision of RT programs to their clients. The sample comprised 419 participants who were predominantly Caucasian, females, and administrators between the ages of 46-55. Relevant literature and the consensus of selected recreational therapy and non-recreational therapy professionals assisted with survey development. The survey included items to determine the existence of RT services, knowledge and perceptions of the RT profession, competitors, and cost-benefit rationales. The researcher designed facility demographic questions relating to primary facility type, primary level of care, age group served, bed size, facility funding sources, facility billing, and being CMS regulated. In addition, respondent demographic questions addressed job title, gender, age group, and race. Data collection procedures were influenced by principles outlined by Dillman (2000) to maximize the potential for an appropriate response rate. The web-based survey was implemented through an online surveying tool, SurveyMonkey. Mailed surveys were manually entered into the SurveyMonkey database. Data were exported from SurveyMonkey into Microsoft Excel files, which was transferred into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences© version 18.0 for data analysis. Five treatment services were evaluated in this study: activity services, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy and RT. In comparison to the other treatment services, RT received the lowest responses for service benefit, service familiarity, being a usual part of the interdisciplinary team and utilized service. All treatment services exhibited some level of competition toward RT with activity professionals identified as the largest competitors for LRTs. Respondents perceived activity professionals having the most overlap with LRTs and the least amount of difficulty to perform a LRTs job. Other barriers to having a LRT on staff were related to budget and a perceived lack of need for services at facility. Conclusions and implications of this study are included, as well as recommendations for future research and practice.
Impact of family characteristics on the gender publication gap: evidence for physicists in France

ABSTRACT The publication gender gap in science has been extensively studied. Although women have been found to be less productive than men, little is known about the reasons behind gender differences. Unique longitudinal data collected by surveying a large sample of French physicists gave us the opportunity to investigate the role of family characteristics over time. Using panel data econometrics, we confirm the existence of an average gender gap of about two-thirds of a journal article per year, and about one-third when taking into account several important control variables such as age and career characteristics. We find that female scientists suffer an average productivity loss of about one article when they have a young child, while male scientists suffer an insignificant loss. We also find that female scientists benefit from having large families, with a productivity gain of 0.63 articles per year per child.
A multi-theory approach towards the adoption, use and effects of IT services: The case channel choice in an e-Government setting

This paper discusses theories that help to understand the adoption and use of new technologies and services. We will also discuss the shortcomings of these theories as well as an alternative approach. The paper will conclude with an example of how this approach can be applied in empirical research. The specific case is that of channel and source choice of Dutch entrepreneurs seeking governmental information.
Ordered Core Based Trees

Abstract : This thesis presents a new protocol, the Ordered Core Based Tree (OCBT) protocol, which remedies several shortcomings of the Core Based Tree (CBT) multicast protocol. The CBT protocol can form loops during periods of routing instability, and it can fail to consistently build a connected multicast tree, even when the underlying routing is stable. The OCBT protocol provably eliminates these deficiencies and reduces the latency of tree repair following a link or core failure. OCBT also improves scalability by allowing exible placement of the cores that serve as points of connection to a multicast tree. Simulation results show that the amount of control traffic in OCBT is comparable to that in CBT.
Undertaking Urban Metabolism analysis in a data poor context: the metabolism of housing construction materials in Amdework - a small town in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Urban Metabolism, a tool used to map and quantify flows and stocks within and across urban boundaries, has become an important tool in recent urban studies. It shows the relative position of a town (its sub-system) on the sustainability continuum. However, the approach faces critical bottlenecks, particularly, in developing countries, because of lack of data and standardised methodologies. This research, by employing a bottom-up data generating technique that relies on lots of conversions and estimations, analyses the metabolism of materials used in the construction of residential housing in a small town in Ethiopia. The result indicates that the vast majority of inputs used in the construction are sourced locally. However, there are certain worrisome trends challenging sustainability in the sub-system. Furthermore, findings of the metabolic analyses have been extrapolated to the national-level to understand implications flows and sourcing of inputs have on the sustainability of low-income housing in the future.
Resource utilization and costs associated with off-label use of atypical antipsychotics in an adult population

RESOURCE UTILIZATION AND COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH OFF-LABEL USE OF ATYPICAL ANTIPSYCHOTICS IN AN ADULT POPULATION By Della Varghese, PharmD, MS, PhD A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2016 Advisor: Norman V. Carroll, PhD Professor, Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science Introduction: Atypical Antipsychotics (AAPs) are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. AAPs are commonly used off-label to treat depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia due to lack of alternative treatment options and treatment resistance. Concerns for off-label use arise since AAPs increase the risk of cardiovascular events and death. The objectives were 1) describe patterns of RU and costs among off-label AAPs users in a nationally representative population 2) identify prevalence of off-label use in the Medicare population 3) compare RU and costs between off-label AAPs users and non-users with mental health conditions in Medicare. Methods: For the first objective, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) datasets were used. AAPs users greater than 18 years were identified in this cross-sectional study. Generalized Linear Models (GLM) were used to estimate costs among users and non-users after controlling for age sex, gender, insurance type, marriage status, income and comorbidity index. For the second and third objective, Medicare datasets were used to identify prevalence, RU, and costs of off-label use in
The Third Dimension: a Sociocultural Theory Approach to the Design and Evaluation of 3D Virtual Worlds Tasks

This chapter describes a theoretical framework for the design and evaluation of pedagogical tasks for 3D virtual world environments. The proposed framework is informed by Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory (SCT) and Activity Theory, two related sociocultural approaches to second (L2) language learning which, I argue, offer a particularly suitable paradigm for the design, implementation, and evaluation of technology-mediated tasks. Firstly, I provide an overview of what characterises 3D virtual worlds (3D VWs) and of current research into the potential of this technological application in the service of second language learning and teaching, and the range of tasks that this research has thus far inspected. Secondly, I briefly review core SCT concepts underlying the proposed framework and point out how they apply to 3D VW tasks. I then identify pedagogical principles derived from this approach to L2 learning and discuss their relevance in the context of technology-mediated task-based language teaching (TBLT) with specific reference to the current state and capabilities of 3D VWs. I also outline a task example designed to capitalise on the potential of 3D VWs for L2 learning. I conclude with a proposal for the application of Activity Theory to the evaluation of 3D VWs tasks. At a theoretical level, my goal in the chapter is to bring key sociocultural perspectives to TBLT and show how SCT can inform theoretically sound pedagogical design in TBLT. At a practical level, I hope to offer a framework for practitioners to support the design and evaluation of technology-mediated tasks in general and 3D VWs tasks in particular.
Prenatal Incense Burning and Infant Health

Incense burning for rituals or religious purposes is an important tradition in many countries. However, incense smoke contains particulate matter and gas products such as carbon monoxide, sulfur and nitrogen dioxide, which are potentially harmful to health. We analyzed the relationship between prenatal incense burning and birth weight and head circumference at birth using the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study. We performed multivariate regression analysis on a sample of 15,773 Taiwanese babies born in 2005 and controlled extensively for factors that may be correlated with incense burning and birth outcomes. Prenatal incense burning environment was associated with lower birth weight and smaller head circumference at birth, especially for boys and especially for the lower quantiles of the distributions of birth outcomes.
Job Mobility and Sorting

Abstract Motivated by the canonical (random) on-the-job search model, I measure a person’s ability to sort into higher ranked jobs by the risk ratio of job-to-job transitions to transitions into unemployment. I show that this measure possesses various desirable features. Making use of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), I study the relation between human capital and the risk ratio of job-to-job transitions to transitions into unemployment. Formal education tends to be positively associated with this risk ratio. General experience and occupational tenure have a pronounced negative correlation with both job-to-job transitions and transitions into unemployment, leaving the risk ratio, however, mostly unaffected. In contrast, the estimates suggest that human-capital concepts that take into account the multidimensionality of skills, e.g. versatility, play a prominent role.
Setting up an exercise physiology clinic in youth mental health: staff and student perspectives

ABSTRACT Objective: Decreased engagement in physical activity has multiple, cumulative effects on the wellbeing of people with mental illness. The aim of this pilot study was to understand how staff and exercise physiology students experienced the first year of an exercise physiology program (known as ‘Bod Squad’) at a youth mental health service. Method: This study was undertaken using a phenomenological approach, purposively sampling four staff and five exercise physiology students. Verbatim transcripts of individual semi-structured interviews were subjected to thematic analysis. Trustworthiness was assured through triangulation, detailed description, multiple independent coding, peer review and audit trail. Results: Three overarching themes were identified from the interviews – Bod Squad as a service, Pilot resourcing and sustainability, and Building into the future. Staff emphasised the link between physical and mental health, and also the timing of this pilot program. Students emphasised individual goal setting and making plans with clients. Discussion: The first year of this program was broadly positive, but there were also significant challenges that impacted upon the clinic’s ongoing viability. Preliminary outcomes suggest persevering and overcoming these challenges is worthwhile for clients, and all mental health clinicians have a role to play in advocating for and developing exercise physiology in this setting.
Posttraumatic Growth in Breast Cancer Survivors: Sources of Support in Rural and Non-Rural Areas

The aim of this literature review is to summarize the relationship between breast cancer survival and posttraumatic growth (PTG). Because of the many inconsistencies found in the literature related to variables that foster PTG in breast cancer survivors, the relationship needed to be clarified. Breast cancer is often viewed as a traumatic experience, and although 1 might expect only negative effects, studies show that breast cancer survivors often experience PTG, which can manifest in many forms and is influenced by a variety of factors. One such variable, social support, is malleable and differs widely in scope and measure. To better understand the effectiveness of types of support, the social, psychological, and spiritual encouragement that breast cancer survivors may be provided have been highlighted in this manuscript. Geographical location (i.e., rural vs. nonrural) has not yet been considered when researching PTG. It is plausible that levels of PTG in breast cancer survivors living in rural areas differ significantly from those living in nonrural areas because they may have fewer resources and a reduced likelihood of available peer support groups. Implications and suggestions for further research of PTG, breast cancer, and types of support are discussed.
PERii electronic journals: Assessing access and use by postgraduate students in the School of Education at the University of Dar es Salaam

This paper is based on the findings of a study that assessed the awareness of Programme for Enhancement of Resources Initiative (PERii) electronic journals, their use and challenges encountered by postgraduate students. The study was carried out at the University of Dar es Salaam and involved postgraduate students in the School of Education. A combination of questionnaire for postgraduate students and interviews for Reference Librarians was used to collect data. Findings revealed that the majority of the respondents became aware of PERii electronic journals through various sources. The resources are widely used, including for the exploration of ongoing scientific debates through peer reviewed papers. The challenges encountered are largely infrastructural, including inability to access resources from home, together with limited information and computer literacy. Recommendations for improving access and use of PERii electronic journals are given. Keywords : E-resources, Postgraduate students, User studies, Tanzania
The Effects of Peer Teaching of Infant Massage on General Self-Efficacy and Mother Infant Attachment Among Mothers in a Residential Rehabilitation Facility for Drug Addiction and Substance Abuse

OF THE DISSERTATION THE EFFECTS OF PEER TEACHING OF INFANT MASSAGE ON GENERAL SELFEFFICACY AND MOTHER INFANT ATTACHMENT AMONG MOTHERS IN A RESIDENTIAL REHABILITATION FACILITY FOR DRUG ADDICTION AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE. By Vivian Bango-Sanchez Florida International University, 2010 Miami, Florida Professor Tonette S. Rocco, Major Professor Approximately 200 million people, 5% aged 15-64 worldwide are illicit drug or substance abusers (World Drug Report, 2006). Between 2002 and 2005, an average of 8.2% of 12 year olds and older in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale metropolitan areas used illicit drugs (SAMHSA, 2007). Eight percent of pregnant women, aged 15 to 25, were more likely to have used illicit drugs during pregnancy than pregnant women aged 26 to 44. Alcohol use was 9.8% and cigarette use was 18% for pregnant women aged 15 to 44 (SAMHSA, 2005). Approximately a quarter of annual birth defects are attributed to the exposure of drugs or substance abuse in utero (General Accounting Office, 1991). Physical, psychological and emotional challenges may be present for the illicit drug/substance abuse (ID/SA) mother and infant placing them at a disadvantage early in their relationship (Shonkoff & Marshall, 1990). Mothers with low self efficacy have insecurely
British Silent Cinema

Trying to establish even a very basic summary of key facts and events in the history of silent cinema in Britain, one is confronted with historiographical controversies and ambiguities at every turn. It was at one time an orthodox stance to claim that the first truly viable moving image camera and projector was invented in Britain by William Friese Greene (e.g. Allister 1948); a monument erected at his grave in Highgate Cemetery calls him ‘The Inventor of Kinematography’, and The Magic Box, an expensive feature‐length Technicolor biopic celebrating Friese‐Greene’s ‘achievements’, was produced for the Festival of Britain in 1951 (Figure 1.1). Following a comprehensive critique of the merits and practical feasibility of Friese Greene’s patents (Coe 1969a, b, c) this presumption has now come to seem ridiculous, but chronicling the introduction of cinematography in Britain is still not straightforward. It has become canonical practice to date the birth of cinema in Britain to 20 or 21 February 1896, which were the dates of the first public performances of the Lumière Cinématographe at the Polytechnic in London’s Upper Regent Street for – respectively – an invited group of journalists and then the first paying audience. The compilers of reference works do not appear to have noticed an essay published in 1996 to coincide with the official centenary of cinema in Britain, which convincingly argued that a successful demonstration by Birt Acres of his own projector to the Lyonsdown Photographic Club on 10 January 1896 should be recognised as Britain’s first public film screening (Brown 1996). There is no small matter of controversy involved in choosing to celebrate the first instances of film projection as the birth of the cinema. Before the publication of Gordon Hendricks’s ground‐breaking work on Thomas Edison (1961), most British Silent Cinema
Caring for Patients from Different Cultures

Healthcare providers in the American medical system may find that patients from different cultures bring unfamiliar expectations, anxieties, and needs into the examination room. To provide optimal care for all patients, it is important to see differences from the patient's perspective and to work with patients from a range of demographics. Caring for Patients from Different Cultures has been a vital resource for nurses and physicians for more than twenty years, offering hundreds of case studies that illustrate crosscultural conflicts or misunderstandings as well as examples of culturally competent health care. Now in its fifth edition, Caring for Patients from Different Cultures covers a wide range of topics, including birth, end of life, communication, traditional medicine, mental health, pain, religion, and multicultural staff challenges. This edition includes more than sixty new cases with an expanded appendix, introduces a new chapter on improving adherence, and updates the concluding chapter with examples of changes various hospitals have made to accommodate cultural differences. Grounded in concepts from the fields of cultural diversity and medical anthropology, Caring for Patients from Different Cultures provides healthcare workers with a frame of reference for understanding cultural differences and sound alternatives for providing the best possible care to multicultural communities.
Short-term memory in vision

Experiments are performed that demonstrate some of the functional properties of short-term storage in the visual system, its decay, readout and erasure. Results indicate that the visual process involves a buffer storage which includes an erasure mechanism that is local in character and tends to erase stored information when new information is put in. Storage time appears to be of the order of one-quarter second; storage capacity is more difficult to assess.