Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Urban Economic Openness on Real Estate Prices: Evidence from Thirty-Five Cities in China

Over the past decade, China's major cities have experienced significant real estate price increase which has been fueled by the sustained growth of the economic fundamentals. It is well believed that deeper integration with the world market is one of the major reasons for such high speed macroeconomic growth. In this paper, we examined the linkage between urban economic openness, the ratio of trade volume as a percentage of GDP, and urban real estate prices basing on the quality of life theory as well as Balassa-Samuelson (B-S) effects. Using panel data of 35 large Chinese cities from the year 1998 to 2006, we empirically find that for every 1% increase in urban economic openness, urban real estate prices will increase significantly by 0.282%, after controlling for other traditional demand-supply factors. Urban economic openness alone accounted for about 15.90% appreciations of Chinese real estate prices during the sample period, which is not neglectable. This result implies that urban real estate price fluctuations are potentially affected by international economic factors. The economic distance to the international market could be deemed as productive and consumption amenity for a city as well. This study enriches the perception of quality of life factors, and furthermore provides a new perspective for understanding the real estate price dynamics in the globalized economic development today.
MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING AND RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

The aim of this paper is to report the results of a study on management accounting and risk management practices in financial institutions. The research method involved administering a questionnaire to 106 financial institutions listed on the Malaysian Central Bank’s website and the respondents were the chief financial officers (CFO) or the most senior positions in the finance department of the institutions. Based on the IFAC’s (1998) framework, it was found that the most widely practiced were the management accounting practices at Stage 1, followed by practices of Post 1995. This finding shows that despite the emergence of contemporary management accounting practices (Stage 4 onwards), traditional management accounting that focuses on financial performance and budgetary control is still widely practiced by financial institutions in Malaysia. As for the risk management practices, most of the firms have either implemented a complete or partial Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. The findings from the survey showed that management accounting practices related to financial statement and ratio analysis were perceived to contribute most towards risk management. Budgetary control, budgeting and strategic planning were also perceived to be important in managing operational risks.
Alleviating aluminum toxicity in an acid sulfate soil from Peninsular Malaysia by calcium silicate application

Abstract. In response to human population increase, the utilization of acid sulfate soils for rice cultivation is one option for increasing production. The main problems associated with such soils are their low pH values and their associated high content of exchangeable Al, which could be detrimental to crop growth. The application of soil amendments is one approach for mitigating this problem, and calcium silicate is an alternative soil amendment that could be used. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to ameliorate soil acidity in rice-cropped soil. The secondary objective was to study the effects of calcium silicate amendment on soil acidity, exchangeable Al, exchangeable Ca, and Si content. The soil was treated with 0, 1, 2, and 3 Mg ha−1 of calcium silicate under submerged conditions and the soil treatments were sampled every 30 days throughout an incubation period of 120 days. Application of calcium silicate induced a positive effect on soil pH and exchangeable Al; soil pH increased from 2.9 (initial) to 3.5, while exchangeable Al was reduced from 4.26 (initial) to 0.82 cmolc kg−1. Furthermore, the exchangeable Ca and Si contents increased from 1.68 (initial) to 4.94 cmolc kg−1 and from 21.21 (initial) to 81.71 mg kg−1, respectively. Therefore, it was noted that calcium silicate was effective at alleviating Al toxicity in acid sulfate, rice-cropped soil, yielding values below the critical level of 2 cmolc kg−1. In addition, application of calcium silicate showed an ameliorative effect as it increased soil pH and supplied substantial amounts of Ca and Si.
Protocol considerations for aquatic plant seed bank assessment

Many procedures have been developed to assess seed bank characteristics, and most can be grouped into either of 2 categories: seedling emergence assays or seed separation from substrate. These procedures are particularly useful in predicting vegetation recurrence and determining need for restoration or control strategies through estimates of seed bank attributes (e.g., species composition, density, distribution, and viability). However, due to the lack of a standard protocol for seed bank investigations, researchers must select appropriate methods based on knowledge of different techniques and their potential to accomplish research goals. Here, we review a range of procedures for aquatic/wetland seed bank assessment with regard to difficulty in use, test reliability and accuracy, and laboratory resource (time, space, and labor) requirements. Information to improve sample collection and analysis is provided, and research to enhance seed/seedling identification and knowledge of germination requirements is advised.
Topology-guided sampling of nonhomogeneous random processes

Topological measurements are increasingly being accepted as an important tool for quantifying complex structures. In many applications, these structures can be expressed as nodal domains of real-valued functions and are obtained only through experimental observation or numerical simulations. In both cases, the data on which the topological measurements are based are derived via some form of finite sampling or discretization. In this paper, we present a probabilistic approach to quantifying the number of components of generalized nodal domains of nonhomogeneous random processes on the real line via finite discretizations, that is, we consider excursion sets of a random process relative to a nonconstant deterministic threshold function. Our results furnish explicit probabilistic a priori bounds for the suitability of certain discretization sizes and also provide information for the choice of location of the sampling points in order to minimize the error probability. We illustrate our results for a variety of random processes, demonstrate how they can be used to sample the classical nodal domains of deterministic functions perturbed by additive noise and discuss their relation to the density of zeros.
Diagnosis of PEMFC by using statistical analysis

Fault diagnosis, especially on-line fault diagnosis is an essential issue for practical application of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) system. This paper proposes a diagnosis approach for PEMFC to handle the flooding fault which is considered to be a common fault. In this procedure, both fault detection and fault isolation are considered. For fault detection, the statistical characters of cell voltages distribution of a 20-cell PEMFC stack are analyzed. Parameters for describing voltage distribution characters are extracted. After that, a subset of parameters is selected in the orientation that the definition of fault is as correct as possible. A popular clustering methodology named K-means clustering (KMC) is adopted to make definition of flooding fault zone. For fault isolation, Support vector machine (SVM) classifier is trained to handle the cell voltages constructed vectors. Two different causes of flooding: increasing air humidity and decreasing of stack temperature can be discriminated by the classifier with a high correctness.
TRANSFORMATIONAL AND TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP: A STUDY OF THEIR INFLUENCE IN SMALL COMPANIES

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo principal descubrir si existe o no influencia de los estilos de liderazgo sobre el desempeno en las pequenas empresas. Para este efecto se trabaja con la tipologia de liderazgo transformacional, liderazgo transaccional y el estilo laissez faire con una muestra de 96 gerentes de pequenas empresas del norte de Chile. Los resultados observados indican que el estilo de liderazgo transformacional se presenta en un bajo grado en las empresas en estudio, mientras que el estilo transaccional se presenta en un alto grado en las organizaciones estudiadas y el estilo laissez faire es muy poco frecuente. Asimismo, considerando los efectos del liderazgo sobre la eficacia de las pequenas empresas analizadas, se observa que el liderazgo transformacional tiene un impacto positivo sobre la eficacia, en tanto que el liderazgo transaccional y laissez faire tienen un impacto negativo.
Evaluation of Some Olive Genotypes Cultivated in Iraq using Molecular Markers

The olive tree belonged to family Oleaceae is an ancient woody crop with more than 46,000 years of cultural history, and is mainly distributed around the Mediterranean area. Molecular markers have become increasingly important in plant molecular biology in its relationship to plant breeding, plant systematic and plant evolution. Eight olive cultivars grown in Iraq with 18 RAPD and 8 SSR markers have been developed during current study. The number of amplification fragments differed from cultivar to the other one with RAPD markers. The highest number was recorded to cultivar Manzenllo by 157 fragments followed by cultivars Qaysi and Labeeb by the same number 138 fragments. Also, cultivar Qaysi and Nepali showed the same amplification fragments (132 fragments) followed by cultivars Khdier and Sorani by 126 and 129 fragments, in respect. The lowest cultivar was Shami by 114 fragments. The data indicated that from 1068 amplification fragments there were 28 unique fragments were recorded to cultivars Labeeb (7 unique fragments), Shami and Manzenllo (5), Shami (3 unique fragments), Sorani and Nepali (2 unique fragments) and finally Dahkan (1 unique fragments). While for the eight microsatellites (SSR) a total of 136 specific amplification fragments were detected among the cultivars, 71 fragments were polymorphic and 65 were monomorphic. Form the previous data we can concluded that based on the RAPD and SSR markers it could be helpful for calculate the genetic diversity between the eight-olive growing in Iraq.
Extending the diagnostic value of capnography in ventilated patients

Background: Capnographymay provide useful non-invasive bedside information concerning heterogeneity in lung ventilation, ventilation–perfusion mismatching and metabolic status. Although the capnogram may be recorded by mainstream and sidestream techniques, the capnogram indices furnished by these approaches have not previously been compared systematically. Methods: Simultaneous mainstream and sidestream time and volumetric capnography was performed in anaesthetized, mechanically ventilated patients undergoing elective heart surgery. Time capnography was used to assess the phase II (SII,T) and III slopes (SIII,T). The volumetric method was applied to estimate phase II (SII,V) and III slopes (SIII,V), together with the dead space values according to the Fowler (VDF), Bohr (VDB), and Enghoff (VDE) methods and the volume of CO2 eliminated per breath (VCO2). The partial pressure of end-tidal CO2 (PETCO2 ) was registered. Results: Excellent correlation and good agreement were observed in SIII,T measured by the mainstream and sidestream techniques [ratio=1.05 ( 0.16), R=0.92, P<0.0001]. Although the sidestream technique significantly underestimated VCO2 and overestimated SIII,V [1.32 (0.28), R =0.93, P<0.0001], VDF, VDB, and VDE, the agreement between the mainstream and sidestream techniques in the difference between VDE and VDB, reflecting the intrapulmonary shunt, was excellent [0.97 (0.004), R =0.92, P<0.0001]. The PETCO2 exhibited good correlation and mild differences between the mainstream and sidestream approaches [0.025 (0.005) kPa]. Conclusions: Sidestream capnography provides adequate quantitative bedside information about uneven alveolar emptying and ventilation–perfusion mismatching, because it allows reliable assessments of the phase III slope, PETCO2 and intrapulmonary shunt. Reliable measurement of volumetric parameters (phase II slope, dead spaces, and eliminated CO2 volumes) requires the application of a mainstream device.
An Aggregate IRT Procedure for Exploratory Factor Analysis

An aggregation strategy is proposed to potentially address practical limitation related to computing resources for two-level multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) models with large data sets. The aggregate model is derived by integration of the normal ogive model, and an adaptation of the stochastic approximation expectation maximization algorithm is used for estimation. This methodology is used to conduct an exploratory factor analysis of the 2007 mathematics data from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) fourth grade to illustrate potential uses. A comparison to flexMIRT and two brief simulations indicate the aggregate model provides accurate estimates of Level 2 parameters despite loss of information ensuing from key assumption.
Differences in female labor force participation in East and West Germany: Socialist legacy and pre-socialist tradition

This paper investigates the sources of the significantly higher labor force participation of East Ger-man women as compared to their peers in West Germany. The previous literature attributes this to a legacy of socialist labor market policies. This study challenges this hypothesis and demonstrates that the share of women in the labor market across regions that were exposed to the socialist regime was already higher before German division and the introduction of socialist labor market policies. Furthermore, pre-socialist differences and regional conditions play a more important role than socialist legacy in explaining current regional differences in labor force participation of women and in shaping social acceptance of working women. The results suggest that labor market conditions and employment opportunities for women have been more or less not similar before German division. Furthermore, regional differences in current female labor force participation rates seem to be not predominantly shaped by socialist legacy.
American cities, global networks: mapping the multiple geographies of globalization in the Americas

The mapping of advanced producer and financial service firms across global cities began to increase understanding of the role of cities in global governance, the presence and influence of cities in the shifting architecture of global political economy, and the role of globalization in shaping the landscape of local and regional governance. The literature that emerged from such studies has also emphasized 1) increasing levels of inequality in global cities and 2) attendant contests over local outcomes of globalization while seeking other ways of measuring and articulating the emergence of globalizing cities. Analyzing location strategies in other sectors can speak to these issues. This paper extends methodology common to the global cities literature to map non-governmental organization (NGO) and energy corporation offices in the Americas, focusing on the convergence and divergence of these networks with those of advanced producer and financial services firms. Mapping all three sectors might reveal multiple geographies of globalization in the Americas. Because globalizing cities have become the centers of integrated world capital, radical poverty, and environmental injustice, studies of poverty in the Americas must take seriously the urban centers that increasingly have become the hub of economic and ideological flows. The urban location strategies of advanced producer and financial services, global NGOs, and global energy corporations must be understood in order to grapple more fully with issues of inequality in American cities.
Pre-Employment Screening for Security Risk: An Exploratory Study

This study explores the relationship that one’s personality, work ethic, computer self-efficacy, Internet anxiety, computer anxiety, as well as various demographic variables have with the strength of passwords users use with various sites that they frequently visit. Many organizations use various measurement tools to indicate the employability of potential hires. By identifying relevant measures as it relates to password complexity, and by extension, security posture, organizations could more quickly identify potential hires who require more or less security training. Results and implications are discussed.
UprEgUlAtiON Of β-CAtENiN AND CADhEriN ExprESSiON iN hEArtS Of MiCE iN ACUtE AND ChrONiC phASE Of ExpEriMENtAl Trypanosoma cruzi iNfECtiON

Adherens junctions proteins have also been envolved in pathological mechanism of chagasic myocardiopathy. Aimed to determine the nature of these alterations, ten Swiss Webster male mice, 25 days-old were infected with a type iii strain of Trypanosoma cruzi through intraperitoneal (IP) route with 1.0 x 104 trypomastigotes/mouse. five infected mice were killed at 14th day (parasitemia peak) of infection (group A). Another five infected mice (group C), were killed three months after inoculation, representing the chronic phase of the infection. ten mice were injected through ip route with sterile 0.9% sodium chloride solution and were maintained under the same general conditions of the other groups. five mice were killed either on day 14 (group CA) and five were killed at the end of the third month (group CC), and served as uninfected controls. Adherens junctions were analyzed by total lysate of the hearts that were immunoblotted for pan-cadherin and β-catenin. Western blot analysis revealed increases of cadherins in both acute (2.1-fold ± 0.89, p= 0.048) and chronic (2.1-fold ± 0.92, p= 0.05) phase versus its respective controls. In relation to β-catenin the results showed the same pattern characterized by increases in its levels also in acute (6.8-fold ± 4.65, p= 0.047) and chronic (3.65-fold ± 1.93, p= 0.033) phase in relation to controls. thus, these results point to the evolvement of adherens junction proteins with pathological events in hearts of mice infected with T. cruzi infection. KEY WOrDS: Adherens junctions, Chagas disease, myocarditis, western blotting.
Lower Devonian lithofacies and palaeoenvironments in the southwestern margin of the East European Platform (Ukraine, Moldova and Romania)

Lower Devonian palaeoshelf deposits extend along the western margin of the East European Platform from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. These deposits have been studied on the territory of Ukraine (Volyn-Podillyan Plate, Dobrogean Foredeep) and correlated with coeval deposits in Moldova and Romania (Moldovian Platform). The investigation of the Lower Devonian deposits, their thickness, petrographic and lithological characteristics allowed reconstruction of two types of lithofacies and distinguishing two different depositional environments. The first lithofacies belonging to the Lochkovian stage, consists of clayey-carbonate rocks and represents a continuation of the Upper Silurian marine strata. The other lithofacies encompassing the Pragian–Emsian comprises terrigenous reddish-brown rocks, which are roughly equivalent to the Old Red Sandstone, completes the Lower Devonian section. Establishing the occurrence and thickness distribution of the terrigenous lithofacies across the study area is important, because it forms potential reservoir rocks for both conventional and unconventional (tight gas) hydrocarbons. Gas accumulation in these reservoir rocks has been discovered at the Lokachi field.
Evaluation of corrosion behavior of bioceramics coated commercially pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V alloy

Background: This study report the corrosion behavior of commercially pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V alloy samples without coating and with hydroxyapatite, partial stabilized zirconia and mixture of partial stabilized zirconia and hydroxyapatite coating and comparison between them through electrochemical polarization tests in 37 0 C Hank's solution. Materials and methods: Electrophoretic deposition technique (EPD) was used to achieve the coating from each one of three types of the coating materials (HAP, PSZ and mixture of 50% HAP and 50%PSZ) on Cp Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy samples. The electrochemical corrosion test was performed when samples were exposed to Hank's solution prepared in the laboratory and the polarization potential, corrosion rate and the open circuit potential of the samples were measured. Results: The results indicated that the corrosion rate is significantly higher for Ti-6Al-4V than for Cp Ti . The three types of coating significantly reduced the corrosion rate for Cp Ti while did not for Ti-6Al-4V alloy . After coating the corrosion rate for Ti-6Al-4V remained significantly higher than the coated Cp Ti samples . The open circuit potential (OCP) for both Cp Ti and Ti-6Al-4V samples was in the following sequence PSZ > HAP> mixture of HAP and PSZ >uncoated. Conclusions: Cp Ti showed less corrosion rate than Ti-6Al-4V alloy with and without coating . Coating significantly decreased the corrosion rate of Cp Ti but did not for Ti-6Al-4V alloy.
Effect of warming and grazing on litter mass loss and temperature sensitivity of litter and dung mass loss on the Tibetan plateau

Knowledge about the role of litter and dung decomposition in nutrient cycling and response to climate change and grazing in alpine ecosystems is still rudimentary. We conducted two separate studies to assess the relative role of warming and grazing on litter mass loss and on the temperature sensitivity of litter and dung mass loss. Experiments were conducted for 1–2 years under a controlled warming–grazing system and along an elevation gradient from 3200 to 3800 m. A free‐air temperature enhancement system (FATE) using infrared heaters and grazing significantly increased soil temperatures (average 0.5–1.6 °C) from 0 to 40 cm depth, but neither warming nor grazing affected soil moisture except early in the growing seasons at 30 cm soil depth. Heaters caused greater soil warming at night‐time compared with daytime, but grazing resulted in greater soil warming during daytime compared with night‐time. Annual average values of the soil temperature at 5 cm were 3.2, 2.4 and 0.3 °C at 3200, 3600 and 3800 m, respectively. Neither warming nor grazing caused changes of litter quality for the first year of the controlled warming–grazing experiment. The effects of warming and grazing on litter mass losses were additive, increasing litter mass losses by about 19.3% and 8.3%, respectively, for the 2‐year decomposition periods. The temperature sensitivity of litter mass losses was approximately 11% °C−1 based on the controlled warming–grazing experiment. The annual cumulative litter mass loss was approximately 2.5 times that of dung along the elevation gradient. However, the temperature sensitivity (about 18% °C−1) of the dung mass loss was about three times that of the litter mass loss. These results suggest greater warming at night‐time compared with daytime may accelerate litter mass loss, and grazing will enhance carbon loss to atmosphere in the region through a decrease of litter biomass and an increase of dung production with an increase of stocking rate in future warmer conditions.