Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of hepatocellular carcinoma with multi-slice spiral CT by using double-arterial phase and portal venous phase enhanced scanning: Effect of iodine concentration of contrast material

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of iodine concentration of contrast material on detection of hepatocellular carcinoma with multi-slice spiral computed tomography (CT) by using double-arterial phase and portal venous phase enhanced scanning. Ninety-four (94) patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were examined by hepatic plain CT and contrast-enhanced CT including early arterial phase (EAP), late arterial phase (LAP) and portal venous phase (PVP) scanning. Patients were randomized into two groups to receive Iopamidol 370 mg /ml (47 patients) and 300 mg /ml (47 patients). The images were interpreted by two experienced radiologists together prospectively. The detection sensitivity for tumors of two size categories (2 or >2 cm) and iodine concentration groups were calculated and analyzed. A total of 318 lesions were detected with 86  2 cm in size and 232 >2 cm. For EAP and LAP, the sensitivity of Iopamidol 370 mg I/ml group was significantly higher than Iopamidol 300 mg I/ml group for tumors  2 cm and all tumors. For PVP, there were no significant differences between groups. We concluded that high-iodine-concentration contrast material could improve the detection of HCC for EAP and LAP, especially for tumor  2 cm.
Numerical evaluation of the operating room ventilation performance: ultra-clean ventilation (UCV) systems

The surgical site infection (SSI) is one of the most important infectious problems in hospitals which may be happened in 2.6% of all surgeries. According to the literature, the primary source of SSI is the flakes released from the exposed skin of surgical staffs or patients. It is well known that appropriate ventilation strategy is the most effective way to control bacteria-carrying airborne particles responsible for SSI. In this research, the effect of the most dominant design parameter, namely inlet air velocity, on the ultra-clean ventilation (UVC) systems performance is evaluated in detail using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results show an optimum value for the inlet air velocity which is mainly due to formation of a thermal plume over the wound tissue. This thermal plume protects the wound from contaminants deposition like a shield and may be disturbed at too high inlet air velocity. In addition, the effect of critical factors including the particle size the wound temperature, the operating lights boundary condition, and the existence of fixed and removable partitions on the optimum inlet air velocity is also investigated and discussed extensively.
Endurance swimming of European eel

A long-term swim trial was performed with five female silver eels Anguilla anguilla of 0.8-1.0 kg (c. 80cm total length, L T ) swimming at 0.5 body lengths (BL) s -1 , corresponding to the mean swimming speed during spawning migration. The design of the Blazka-type swim tunnel was significantly improved, and for the first time the flow pattern of a swim tunnel for fish was evaluated with the Laser-Doppler method. The velocity profile over three different cross-sections was determined. It was observed that 80% of the water velocity drop-off occurred over a boundary layer of 20mm. Therefore, swim velocity errors were negligible as the eels always swam outside this layer. The fish were able to swim continuously day and night during a period of 3 months in the swim tunnel through which fresh water at 19° C was passed. The oxygen consumption rates remained stable at 36.9±2.9mgO 2 kg -1 h -1 over the 3 months swimming period for all tested eels. The mean cost of transportation was 28.2mgO 2 kg -1 km -1 . From the total energy consumption the calculated decline in fat content was 30%. When extrapolating to 6000 km this would have been 60%, leaving only 40% of the total energy reserves for reproduction after arriving at the spawning site. Therefore low cost of transport combined with high fat content are crucial for the capacity of the eel to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reproduce.
Food consumption and immature growth of Adalia bipunctata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) on a natural prey and a factitious food

One factor limiting the adoption of aphidophagous coccinellids in augmentative biological control is cost-effective mass production. The use of factitious foods may lower production costs by reducing space and manpower requirements for mass rearing of the predator and its prey and by enhancing mechanization of rearing procedures. The objective of this study was to compare the efficiency of food conversion, consumption indices and growth rates of first to fourth instars of Adalia bipunctata when fed either a mixture of Ephestia kuehniella eggs and fresh bee pollen, or on the natural prey Myzus persicae. Larval survival did not differ among treatments, averaging 80 and 90% on the respective diets. Mean dry body weights of the coccinellid were significantly lower on M. persicae than on the factitious food only for second instars and the pre-pupal stage. Dry food consumption by the predator throughout larval development averaged 20.61 mg on factitious food and 14.82 mg (corresponding to an average of 284 third and fourth instars) on M. persicae. The efficiency of conversion of ingested food for total larval development averaged 25 and 30% on factitious food and aphids, respectively. The relative growth rate of the larval instars was higher on aphids, whereas the consumption index was higher on the mixture of E. kuehniella eggs and pollen. An additional experiment showed that rearing the previous instars on the factitious food had no substantial effect on aphid consumption in the fourth instar. The study suggests that this factitious diet may be an appropriate food source for mass rearing A. bipunctata.
Dynamic Consumer Heterogeneity in Electric Vehicle Adoption

Combining psychographic and stated choice data to analyze individual choices and identify sources of heterogeneity has long been applied in demand modelling. In this paper, the authors develop a dynamic innovation diffusion framework to model adoption of alternative fuel vehicles (AFV). The authors combine this approach with a stated preference (SP) study to elicit individual preferences for conventional, hybrid and full electric vehicles and to explore preference heterogeneity across the consumer segments. In contrast to ex-post division of actual adopters in adopter segments proposed in Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DoI) (Rogers, 2000), the authors apply an ex-ante approach and identify 5 consumer segments consisting of prospective adopters and non-adopters. These are: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Traditionalists. The authors find that respondents in various consumer segments differ in their demographic and psychological profiles in conformity with the DoI theory. Discrete choice modeling based on SP data collected in the Netherlands in 2012, and using panel latent class approach within each segment allows pinpointing potential electric vehicle (EV) adopters among the representative sample of Dutch drivers at each stage of adoption. The findings show that potential AFV adopters from the mass market mind peer opinion about the alternative vehicles and are conscious about their pro-environmental behavior. High valuations of time associated with fast charging imply the necessity in improving charging infrastructure in facilitating large-scale AFV adoption. Besides, towing potential appears to be important to many potential EV adopters on the Dutch market.
Institutional quality and economic growth: Empirical evidence from the Sudanese economy

This study aims to explore the extent to which conventional methods used in the majority of relevant growth studies can successfully interpret the economic performance of a highly underdeveloped African country such as Sudan. Applying an ARDL boundstesting approach to cointegration proposed by Pesaran et al. (2001), we look into the short-run as well as long-run relationships between institutional and various other key economic variables and economic growth over the period 1972-2008. The empirical results obtained suggest that, for the Sudanese economy, the quality of the institutional environment is one of the most important factors in defining economic prosperity.
Is the Convergence of Accounting Standards Good for Stock Markets

This paper examines the impact of the convergence of Hong Kong Accounting Standard 40 (HKAS 40) with the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) on the stock prices of firms in the property industry. Using a sample of 22111 firm-day observations, we show that the new standard has a negative impact on the stock performance of these firms.
Learning Styles, Academic Achievement, and Gender in a Medical School Setting Tıp Fakültesinde Öğrenme Stilleri, Akademik Başarı ve Cinsiyet

1 Esin Kulac1, Mekin Sezık2, Halil Ascı3, Erol Gurpınar4 1Department of Medical Education, Kocaeli University Faculty of Medicine, Kocaeli, 2Department of Medical Education and Informatics, Suleyman Demirel University Faculty of Medicine, Isparta, 3Department of Pharmacology, Suleyman Demirel University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Education and Informatics, Isparta, 4Department of Medical Education, Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, Antalya, Turkey Tıp Fakültesinde Öğrenme Stilleri ve Akademik Başarı / Learning Styles and Academic Achievement in a Medical School Setting Learning Styles, Academic Achievement, and Gender in a Medical School Setting
The Effects of Librarians' Behavioral Performance on User Satisfaction in Chat Reference Services

The purpose of this study was to determine the effective behaviors of reference librarians during the chat reference interview, with particular emphasis given to whether the service users would feel more satisfied when librarians adopt the behaviors recommended in the revised “RUSA Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Services Providers. ” The data analyzed for this study consisted of 422 chat reference transaction transcripts and corresponding user surveys obtained from a public library system that participated in a nationwide chat reference consortium. In six of the ten behavioral types observed, the users perceived the service as more satisfying when librarians demonstrated the behaviors suggested in the revised guidelines than when they did not. Five of these behaviors—receptive and cordial listening, searching information sources with or for the patrons, providing information sources, asking patrons whether the question was answered completely, and asking patrons to return when they need further assistance—were revealed as strong predictors of user satisfaction. These findings demonstrated that the RUSA behaviors are effective in increasing user satisfaction, suggesting that the guidelines can continue to be used as an effective tool for both staff training and service assessment in chat reference services. This report concludes with recommendations for further improvement of the guidelines and agendas for future research.
THE YIELD AND FARMER’S ECONOMIC ADVANTAGE OF MAIZE-PIGEON PEA INTERCROP AS AFFECTED BY THE APPLICATION OF ORGANIC BASE FERTILIZER

In this study, a three years experiment was conducted to evaluate the yield and relative economic advantage of maize-pigeon pea intercrop as affected by mycorrhiza and organomineral fertilizer in the rainforest zones of Nigeria. The experimental design was a 2x2x3 factorial in a randomized complete block design using a split plot. The Land Equivalent Ratio (LER), Relative Value Total and Replacement Value of Intercrops were used to evaluate the yield data. Data collected were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) at p = 0.05. However, the application of organomineral fertilizer and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi has significantly (p<0.05) increased the growth and yield of both crops in sole and intercrop. Thus, the inoculation of mycorrhiza has increased the grain yield of maize and pigeon pea by 33% and 56 % respectively. Also, the application of organomineral fertilizer has increased the yield of maize and pigeon pea by 60 % and 52 % respectively. Similarly, the combined application of organomineral fertilizer with mycorrhiza has increased the yield of maize and pigeon pea by 86% and 56 % respectively. The practice of intercropping farming system had higher Land Equivalent Ratio, Relative Value Total and Replacement Value Intercrop. The study further revealed that the inoculation of mycorrhiza significantly (p < 0.05) increased the profit of farmers as its Replacement Value of Intercrops of the treatment with mycorrhiza was 3.27. Thus, mycorrhizal inoculation and these farming practice is recommended to enhance farmer’s economic return and grain production for tropical farmers. European Scientific Journal September 2014 edition vol.10, No.25 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 18577431 358
Cities and the Growth of Wages Among Young Workers: Evidence from the Nlsy

Human capital-based theories of cities suggest that large, economically diverse urban agglomerations increase worker productivity by increasing the rate at which individuals acquire skills. One largely unexplored implication of this theory is that workers in big cities should see faster growth in their earnings over time than comparable workers in smaller markets. This paper examines this implication using data on a sample of young male workers drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort. The results suggest that earnings growth does tend to be faster in large, economically diverse local labor markets - defined as counties and metropolitan areas - than in smaller, more specialized markets. Yet, when examined in greater detail, I also find that this association tends to be the product of faster wage growth due to job changes rather than faster wage growth experienced while on a particular job. This result is consistent with the idea that cities enhance worker productivity through a job search and matching process and, thus, that an important aspect of 'learning' in cities may involve individuals learning about what they do well.
Historical Cost and Conservatism Are Joint Adaptations That Help Identify Opportunity Cost

Abstract Braun (The ecological rationality of historical costs and conservatism. Accounting, Economics and Law: A Convivium, this issue) argues that the traditional accounting principles underlying the revenue-expense approach such as Historical Cost and Conservatism are ecologically rational in that they help organizations survive better in uncertain economic environments. More importantly, Braun argues that the revenue-expense approach generates new private information, which informs markets and makes them more effective (Hayek, 1945, The use of knowledge in society. The American Economic Review, 35(4), 519–530), as opposed to merely reflecting back market data under the asset-liability approach (e.g. Sunder, 2011, IFRS monopoly: The Pied Piper of financial reporting. Accounting and Business Research, 41(3), 291–306). We try to explicate the nature of the new private information generated jointly by Historical Cost and Conservatism, and how this information facilitates the survival of individual entrepreneurs and organizations in market competition.
The influence of socio-biological cues on saccadic orienting

Previous research has suggested that viewing of another’s averted eye gaze causes automatic orienting of attention and eye movements in observers due to the importance of eye gaze for effective social interaction. Other types of visual cues with no social or biological relevance, such as arrows, are claimed not to produce such a direct effect on orienting behaviour. The finding that processing of eye gaze is reduced in individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorders as well as following damage to the orbitofrontal cortex of the brain, suggests that gaze processing is indeed critical for effective social behaviour and therefore eye gaze may constitute a “special” directional cue. This thesis tested these ideas by examining the influence of socio-biological (eye gaze and finger pointing) and nonsocial cues (arrows and words) on eye movement responses in both healthy control participants and those with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain. It further investigated the relationship between orienting to gaze and arrow cues and autistic traits in a healthy population. Important differences between the effects of socio-biological and non-social cues were found on saccadic eye movements. Although in the pro-saccade tasks, arrow cues caused a similar facilitation of responses in the cued direction as eye gaze and pointing cues, in the anti-saccade tasks (in which participants have to respond away from the location of a peripheral onset), arrows had a greatly reduced effect on oculomotor programming relative to the biologically relevant cues. Importantly, although the sociobiological cues continued to influence saccadic responses, the facilitation was in the opposite direction to the cues. This finding suggests that the cues were being processed within the same "anti-response" task set (i.e. "go opposite") as the target stimulus. Word cues had almost no effects on saccadic orienting in either proor anti-saccade tasks.
Impact of Capital Structure on Firm's Financial Performance: Evidence from United Kingdom

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the impact of capital structure on financial performance of United Kingdom (UK) firms' during the period from 2006 to 2015. The investigation is performed using data of 739 UK very large and large listed companies on London Stock Exchange. The study uses four performance measures, including return on equity - ROE, return on assets - ROA, Tobin's Q and earnings per share EPS as dependent variables. The two capital structure ratios, namely long-term liabilities and short-term liabilities as well as growth rate of total assets are applied as independent variables. Size is a control variable. The results indicate that firms' financial performance, which is measured by ROA, ROE and Tobin's Q have negative relationship with long-term liabilities in most of studied sectors, whereas short-term debts has no significant impact on these ratios. The performance which is measured by EPS also has no relationship with firm's leverage. These findings are consistent for ROA, ROE and EPS when we consider all firms, not distinguish their line of business. The only change belongs to Tobin's Q when we observe a positive relationship. Besides that, size and growth factor also bring benefit for firms' performance, except Tobin's Q. Finally, the global financial crisis seem does not affect much on the relationship between leverage and profitability indicators.
TAZ oncogene as a prognostic factor in breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in females and one of the main causes of cancer related deaths. Breast cancer in the metastatic stage is related with poor prognosis. Metastasis is the process whereby cancer cells travel to and colonize distant sites through the lymphatic system or bloodstream, which usually indicates a poor prognosis. The metastatic cascade involves several molecular and cellular interactions and different signaling pathaways. Recently the Hippo signaling has emerged as an important regulatory pathway in cancer. The Hippo target protein TAZ has been reported as a novel oncogene that may have important role in the development of breast cancer. Its overexpression promotes cancer stem cell formation and epithelial–mesenchymal transition in many human cancers. In breast TAZ seems to play a critical developmental role and in breast cancer is one of the factors involved in therapeutic resistance and clinical relapse. Herein, we review the biological functions of TAZ and summarize the current knowledge and opportunities for therapeutic intervention in this field.
Measuring and modelling overwash hydrodynamics on a barrier island

Overwash hydrodynamics datasets are mixed in quality and scope, being hard to obtain due to fieldwork experimental difficulties. Aiming to overcome such limitations, this work presents accurate fieldwork data on overwash hydrodynamics, further exploring it to model overwash on a low-lying barrier island. Fieldwork was performed on Barreta Island (Portugal), in December 2013, during neap to spring-tides, when significant wave height reached 2.64 m. During approximately 4 hours, more than 120 shallow overwash events were measured with a video-camera (at 10 Hz), a pressure transducer (at 4 Hz) and a current-meter (at 4 Hz). This high-frequency fieldwork dataset includes runup, overwash number, depth and velocity. Fieldwork data along with information from literature were used to setup XBeach model in non-hydrostatic mode. The baseline model had variable skills over the duration of the overwash each 30 minutes. The baseline model was forced to simulate overwash with different nearshore morphology, grain-size and lagoon water level. An average decrease of about 30% overwash was obtained due to changes in the nearshore episode, performing better during the rising tide than during the falling tide. Model average number of events RMSE (root-mean-square-error) was 7 events morphology, mostly a small vertical growth of the submerged bar. The coarser and finer grain-sizes tests produced an 11% change in overwash, with less overwash on the coarser barrier. Changing lagoon water levels had a reduced effect on overwash hydraulics.
Persistent Product Innovation and Market-Oriented Behavior: The Impact on Firms' Performance

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the impact of innovation on firms' economic performance pinpointing complementarities between product and marketing innovation during the period 1998-2008. Firms' profitability and productivity are simultaneously estimated, thus allowing for consistent and robust estimates of the relationship being tested. The conceptual framework in which we have developed the analysis bridges the gap between the management (organization) approach, from which we grasp the notion of a firm's market orientation to innovation, and the economics of innovation perspective. The results show that being a persistent product-innovating and market- oriented firm significantly affects profitability, although the estimated impact is relatively mild. The gain in productivity determined by investing in R&D is relatively small and in line with the corresponding gain attributable to investing in marketing and organizational innovations. Conversely, capital deepeningNas measured by the capital-labor ratio-exerts a larger impact on productivity, thus underlining how knowledge capital plays a less relevant role. This result emphasizes a crucial weakness of Italian manufacturing firms, because knowledge in- vestment is the key to future economic growth. The estimates we have presented cover a sufficiently long time interval, thus enabling us to perform different robustness tests.
Effect of Liquid Biofertilizer on the Growth Parameters of Zea mays, Vigna mungo and Vigna radiata

A b s t r a c t K e y w o r d s Effect of prepared liquid biofertilizers- Azospirillum, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and vescicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) was tested in three different crop plants viz., maize, black gram and green gram. Plant growth parameters such as plant height, root length and plant weight was recorded. Plant height and weight of maize treated with PGPR significantly increased i.e., 20 cm and 1.72 g respectively compared with the control. Root length was increased maximum in the plant treated with VAM compared with the control i.e., 18.5 cm. The study shows that the liquid biofertilizers are capable of promoting plant growth.