Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DISMISSAL: IMPORTANT CRITERIA IN MANAGERIAL DECISION-MAKING

Knowledge about dismissal decision-making, particularly concerning the criteria used by managers in choosing who will be dismissed and why, is scarce. Considering the implications of such decisions for organizations and society, in this paper, we identify the seven most frequently used criteria in dismissal decisions and examine their importance for managers. We collected data through a survey among 385 managers and used the rational ranking and the multicriteria Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to analyze them. The results show that commitment, performance records, and trust have the greatest impact on the dismissal decision, whereas interpersonal relationship, growth potential, and professional experience are considered secondary criteria. These results contribute to extending our knowledge about dismissal decisions and showing the most relevant criteria in these choices and the relevance assigned to each of the criteria so that greater transparency can be achieved.
KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE REGARDING PRECONCEPTION CARE AMONG ANTENATAL MOTHERS

ABSTRACT Background: Despite recent acknowledgment of the importance of providing preconception care (PCC) to reproductive aged women, many women remain under-informed and underserved in this area. This research was conducted to assess the level of knowledge and practice regarding preconception care among antenatal mothers. Method: A descriptive cross- sectional study was conducted among the antenatal mothers attending the out-patient department of Bharatpur hospital, Chitwan. Sample of 100 antenatal mothers was selected by using purposive sampling method and data was collected by using semi structured interview schedule. Result: Out of 100 respondents, half (50%) of the respondents were of the age group 21-25 year with the mean age of 23.5, cent percent (100%) of the respondents were married and most of them were multipara. Regarding the knowledge of preconception care, more than half (51%) of the respondents had inadequate level of knowledge as followed by those having moderate (42%) level of knowledge and adequate (7%) knowledge. Regarding the level of practice, about half (49%) of respondents had poor level of practice followed by those having good (26%) and fair (25%) level of practice. Not any association was found between socio demographic characteristics and level of practice and level of knowledge. However, level of knowledge and practice was found to be significantly correlated with each other (r=0.000). Conclusion: The knowledge and practice of the antenatal mothers regarding preconception care is relatively poor so awareness programs related to preconception care should be conducted to enhance the knowledge of mother which consequently helps in increasing their standard practice as well.
OP-JBIO130009 463..472

Galectin-9 is a lectin, which has various biological functions such as T-cell differentiation and apoptosis. Multivalency of carbohydrate binding is required for galectin-9 to function. Although galectin-1 (a prototype galectin) forms an oligomer to obtain its multivalency, galectin-9 (a tandem-repeat-type one) has two carbohydrate recognition domains (CRD) in one polypeptide. However, a single CRD of galectin-9, especially the C-terminal one, exhibited pro-apoptotic activity suggesting oligomer formation capability. In this study, we monitored the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals of the backbone atoms of the galectin-9 C-terminal CRD (G9CCRD). Protein concentration dependence of the signals suggested that a region (F1 F4 strands) opposite to the ligand-binding site was involved in the self-association of G9CCRD. Site-directed mutagenesis in this region (Leu210, Trp277 and Leu279 to Thr; G9CCRD-3T) inhibited the self-association of G9CCRD, and improved the solubility, whereas it reduced its pro-apoptotic activity towards T cells. The high pro-apoptotic activity of G9CCRD seems to be due to the ability to form an oligomer. In addition, the same substitution in twoCRD-containing galectin-9 (G9Null-3T) also diminished the self-association and improved its solubility, although it hardly reduced the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities. G9CCRD contributes the self-association of full-length galectin-9 at high protein concentrations.
A Stage I-III B Stage IV Stage I-IIA Stage IIA-IIB Stage IIB-III Surgery

reprint reque ter, Women a idence, RI 029 Standardmanagement of early stage and advanced breast cancer has been improved over the past few years by knowledge gained about the biology of the disease, results from a number of eagerly anticipated clinical trials and the development of novel agents that offer our patients options for improved outcomes or reduced toxicity or both. This review highlights recentmajor developments affecting the systemic therapy of breast cancer, broken down by clinically relevant patient subgroups and disease stage, and briefly discusses some of the ongoing controversies in the treatment of breast cancer and promising therapies on the horizon. Semin Radiat Oncol 26:59-70 C 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
A New Procedure to Test for Fractional Integration

It is now widely recognized that the statistical property of long memory may be due to reasons other than the data generating process being fractionally integrated. We propose a new procedure aimed at distinguishing between a null hypothesis of unifractal fractionally integrated processes and an alternative hypothesis of other processes which display the long memory property. The procedure is based on a pair of empirical, but consistently defined, statistics namely the number of breaks reported by Atheoretical Regression Trees (ART) and the range of the Empirical Fluctuation Process (EFP) in the CUSUM test. The new procedure establishes through simulation the bivariate distribution of the number of breaks reported by ART with the CUSUM range for simulated fractionally integrated series. This bivariate distribution is then used to empirically construct a test which rejects the null hypothesis for a candidate series if its pair of statistics lies on the periphery of the bivariate distribution determined from simulation under the null. We apply these methods to the realized volatility series of 16 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and show that the rejection rate of the null is higher than if either statistic was used as a univariate test.
Hedonic Analysis of Sustainable Food Products

This study aims to determine price premiums of sustainable attributes for fresh eggs by using hedonic analysis. The sustainable attributes defined include welfare-managed egg production and recyclable packaging attributes. Welfare-managed eggs have a price premium equal to 3.57 cents per egg; while the sustainable packaging variable was not found to be significant. The strategies for egg manufactures and retailers include offering organic or welfare-managed eggs independently until consumers perceive these attributes as being different, and using sustainable packaging for each specific region of the U.S. since each state has different laws and opportunities to recycle paper, plastic and Styrofoam products.
Statistical and machine learning approaches for the minimization of trigger errors in parametric earthquake catastrophe bonds

Catastrophe bonds are financial instruments designed to transfer risk of monetary losses arising from earthquakes, hurricanes, or floods to the capital markets. The insurance and reinsurance industry, governments, and private entities employ them frequently to obtain coverage. Parametric catastrophe bonds base their payments on physical features. For instance, given parameters such as magnitude of the earthquake and the location of its epicentre, the bond may pay a fixed amount or not pay at all. This paper reviews statistical and machine learning techniques for designing trigger mechanisms and includes a computational experiment. Several lines of future research are discussed.
Cenozoic epeirogeny of the Indian peninsula

Peninsular India is a cratonic region with asymmetric relief manifest by eastward tilting from the 1.5 km high Western Ghats escarpment toward the floodplains of eastward‐draining rivers. Oceanic residual depth measurements on either side of India show that this west‐east asymmetry is broader scale, occurring over distances of > 2000 km. Admittance analysis of free‐air gravity and topography shows that the elastic thickness is 10 ± 3 km, suggesting that regional uplift is not solely caused by flexural loading. To investigate how Indian physiography is generated, we have jointly inverted 530 river profiles to determine rock uplift rate as a function of space and time. Key erosional parameters are calibrated using independent geologic constraints (e.g., emergent marine deposits, elevated paleosurfaces, uplifted lignite deposits). Our results suggest that regional tilt grew at rates of up to 0.1 mm a−1 between 25 Ma and the present day. Neogene uplift initiated in the south and propagated northward along the western margin. This calculated history is corroborated by low‐temperature thermochronologic observations, by sedimentary flux of clastic deposits into the Krishna‐Godavari delta, and by sequence stratigraphic architecture along adjacent rifted margins. Onset of regional uplift predates intensification of the Indian monsoon at 8 Ma, suggesting that rock uplift rather than climatic change is responsible for modern‐day relief. A positive correlation between residual depth measurements and shear wave velocities beneath the lithosphere suggests that regional uplift is generated and maintained by temperature anomalies of ±100 °C within a 200 ± 25 km thick asthenospheric channel.
Larvae, Lophophores and Chimeras in Classification

I challenge the widely held assumption, reflected in current classifications, that larvae and corresponding adults evolved from common ancestors and that animals with lophophores evolved from an ancestral lophophorate. Types of animal development are defined, and their origins are discussed in relation to the common ancestor hypothesis and hybridogenesis, the proposal that new life forms have been generated by hybridization. Echinoderms are commonly classified by their larval characteristics as bilateral enterocoelous deuterostomes. However, some echinoderms without larvae develop as radial schizocoelous protostomes, which would place them in a different superphylum from those with larvae. Current classifications also place some hemichordates in a different superphylum from other hemichordates. A genetic study concludes that lophophorates are not descended from a common ancestor, thus invalidating the clade Lophotrochozoa. I propose that lophophorates and barnacles are chimeras, with components from different phyla. The evidence consistently supports the view that both larvae and lophophores were later additions to life histories. F M Balfour (1851-1882) recognized that larvae were later additions to life histories, and there were no echinoderm larvae until after the establishment of the classes of that phylum. He has been ignored, and, as a result, animal taxonomy has been on the wrong road since the late 19th century.
Drought impacts on vegetation in the pre- and post-fire events over Iberian Peninsula

Abstract. The present work aims to study the combined effect of drought and large wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula relying on remotely sensed data of vegetation dynamics and leaf moisture content, in particular monthly NDVI, NDWI and NDDI time series from 1999–2009, derived from VEGETATION dataset. The impact of the exceptional 2004/2005 drought on vegetation was assessed for vegetation recovering from the extraordinary fire season of 2003 and on the conditions that contributed to the onsetting of the fire season of 2005. Drought severity was estimated by the cumulative negative effect on photosynthetic activity (NDVI) and vegetation dryness (NDDI), with about 2/3 of Iberian Peninsula presenting vegetative stress and low water availability conditions, in spring and early summer of 2005. Furthermore, NDDI has shown to be very useful to assess drought, since it combines information on vegetation and water conditions. Moreover, we show that besides looking at the inter-annual variability of NDVI and NDDI, it is useful to evaluate intra-annual changes (δNDVI and δNDDI), as indicators of change in vegetation greenness, allowing a detailed picture of the ability of the different land-cover types to resist to short-term dry conditions. In order to assess drought impact on post-fire regeneration, recovery times were evaluated by a mono-parametric model based on NDVI data and values corresponding to drought months were set to no value. Drought has shown to delay recovery times for several months in all the selected scars from 2003. The analysis of vegetation dynamics and fire selectivity in 2005 suggests that fires tended to occur in pixels presenting lower vegetative and water stress conditions during spring and early summer months. Additionally, pre-fire vegetation dynamics, in particular vegetation density and water availability during spring and early summer, has shown to influence significantly the levels of fire damage. These results stress the role of fuel availability in fire occurrence and impact on the Iberian Peninsula.
Numerical simulation of bar and island morphodynamics in anabranching megarivers

Bar and island morphodynamics in the world's largest anabranching rivers are investigated using a new numerical model of hydrodynamics, sediment transport, bank erosion, and floodplain development, operating over periods of several hundred years. Simulated channel morphology is compared to that of natural rivers and shown to be realistic, both in terms of the statistical characteristics of channel width, depth, and bar shape distributions, and mechanisms of unit bar, compound bar, and island evolution. Results demonstrate that bar and island stability may be sensitive to hydrologic regime, because greater variability in flood magnitude encourages the formation of emergent bars that can be stabilized by vegetation colonization. Simulations illustrate a range of mechanisms of unit bar generation that are linked to local bed or bank instabilities. This link may explain the reduced frequency of unit bars observed in some large anabranching rivers that are characterized by stable vegetated islands and slow rates of channel change. Model results suggest that the degree to which sand‐sized bed material is carried in suspension likely represents an important control on bar morphodynamics and channel network evolution, because of its influence on sand transport direction. Consequently, differences in the partitioning of the total sand load between bed load and suspension may provide a partial explanation for contrasting styles of anabranching in the world's largest sand‐bed rivers. These results highlight a need for spatially‐distributed flow and sediment transport data sets from large rivers, in order to support improved parameterizations of sand transport mechanics in morphodynamic models.
Co-determination and Merger Incentives from Transfers of Wealth: Firm Owners vs. Workers

When workers can capture rents from their influence on corporate decisions, mergers can become a device to generate transfers of wealth. This paper examines the merger incentives from these transfers of wealth. It is found that worker influence increases merger profitability, in line with the owners’ incentive to use mergers to reduce the rents captured by workers. In contrast, the workers’ merger incentives are shown to be decreasing in their own degree of influence on the merger decision, in line with the view according to which workers can be used by incumbent managers as a defensive instrument in acquisitions.
CRIMINALISTICS April

DNA profiles have been obtained from fingerprints, but there is limited knowledge regarding DNA analysis from archived latent fingerprints—touch DNA “sandwiched” between adhesive and paper. Thus, this study sought to comparatively analyze a variety of collection and analytical methods in an effort to seek an optimized workflow for this specific sample type. Untreated and treated archived latent fingerprints were utilized to compare different biological sampling techniques, swab diluents, DNA extraction systems, DNA concentration practices, and post-amplification purification methods. Archived latent fingerprints disassembled and sampled via direct cutting, followed by DNA extracted using the QIAamp DNA Investigator Kit, and concentration with Centri-Sep columns increased the odds of obtaining an STR profile. Using the recommended DNA workflow, 9 of the 10 samples provided STR profiles, which included 7–100% of the expected STR alleles and two full profiles. Thus, with carefully selected procedures, archived latent fingerprints can be a viable DNA source for criminal investigations including cold/postconviction cases.
Cardiac Surgery on Tr The Effect of Intraoperative 6 % Balanced Hydroxyethyl Starch ( 130 / 0 . 4 ) During ansfusion Requirements

Objectives: To compare transfusion requirements in adult cardiac surgery patients when balanced hydroxyethyl starches (HES) (130/0.4) or balanced crystalloids is used for pump prime and intraoperative fluid therapy. Design: Data were obtained retrospectively from medical records and perfusion charts. Matching based on propensity scores was used to adjust for potential confounders. Setting: A university hospital. Participants: Adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery with the use of cardiopulmonary bypass. Interventions: Allocation to one of the study groups according to whether balanced HES or balanced crystalloids was used for pump prime and intraoperative fluid therapy. Measurements and Main Results: 240 propensitymatched patients were retained for final analyses. Forty-
Effect of an extratropical mesoscale convective system on water vapor transport in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere: A modeling study

[1] North American Model (NAM) analysis data and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Advanced Research WRF (ARW) model version 2.2 are used to investigate the effect of a mesoscale convective system (MCS) in extratropical regions on the transport of water vapor in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). In addition, physical mechanisms contributing most to the water vapor distribution in the UTLS and the amount of water vapor transported during the most active period of the convective system are examined. In an MCS occurring over the Midwest, the primary focus of the present study, simulated by WRF on 13–14 July 2006, hourly water vapor amount averaged near the system in the UTLS increased substantially during the time that convective system activity developed, and reached maximum values at the same time that the strongest convection and heaviest precipitation occurred at the surface. In the upper troposphere, large positive hourly water vapor tendencies were mainly due to vertical advection with highest rates at the time of highest rain rates. Water vapor tendencies due to microphysical processes tended to oppose the moistening due to advection. Near the tropopause and in the lower stratosphere, however, positive hourly water vapor tendencies were primarily due to microphysics and mixing within the MCS. Horizontal advection also transported some moisture in regions downstream from the MCS at most times, with the largest impacts later in the MCS lifetime. Around the tropopause, microphysical processes related to the presence of convectively injected ice appeared to be the largest contributor to moistening for this case. The results were not found to be sensitive to model microphysical schemes.
Prevalence and associated factors of stress among undergraduate students in Ambo University: Implication for Intervention

The study aims to assess the prevalence and associated factors of stress among Ambo University students. Institute based cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 343 undergraduate students at Ambo University. Data were collected using the Student-life Stress Inventory. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson correlation coefficient were utilized to analyze the collected data using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20. The general life time prevalence of stress was 24.5%. More specifically, fear of academic failure, fear of family disappointment, lack of motivation and interpersonal relationship problem were highly reported symptom of stress students. Likewise, academic overload, projects or assignments timings, political situation of country, financial strain, high family expectations, study skill problem, being alone, procrastination, living away from home, difficulty reading materials, language barrier, acculturation, relationship with opposite sex, lack of entertainment in the University, lack of family support, inability to socialize with peers, adjustment with roommate, family problems, time management problem, and lack of personal interest in their department were frequently reported causes of stress in the University respectively. In this study, the independent t-test result shows that there was a statistically significant mean difference in experiencing stress across students’ sex and residential area. Besides, ANOVA result revealed that year of study, students’ perceived social support and perceived parenting style of the respondents had a significant effect on stress. However, statistical significant mean differences were not observed in experiencing stress across respondents’ monthly family income. Also, a statistically significant negative and moderate relationship was reported between stress and academic achievement. Nearly one fourth of students were suffering from measureable stress. Therefore, Ambo University management shall strengthen the academic counseling and preventive mental health services for the students so as to provide a conducive learning environment. Key words: Stress, undergraduate, students, Ambo University.
Challenges of Adopting Open Educational Resources (OER) in Kenyan Secondary Schools: The Case of Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT)

Kenya, like many African countries, has faced enormous challenges in the production of and access to quality relevant teaching and learning materials and resources in her primary and secondary school classrooms. This has been occasioned by a plethora of factors which include, but are not limited to a lack of finances, tradition, competence, and experience to develop such resources. Such a situation has persisted despite the existence and availability of many Open Educational Resources (OERs) that have been developed by many education stakeholders at enormous costs. Such freely available resources could potentially improve the quality of existing resources or help to develop new courses. Yet, their uptake and reuse in secondary and primary schools in Kenya continues to be very low. This paper reports the findings of a study in which Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT) developed by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Canada, were piloted in sampled fifty (50) Kenyan secondary schools. The study applied the Model 1 – Distance and Dependence (Zhao et al 2002) model to investigate the challenges that hinder instructors to adopt and use ORELT materials. The study reported that poor infrastructure, negative attitudes, lack of ICT competencies, and other skill gaps among teachers and lack of administrative support are some of the implementation challenges that have continued to dog the implementation, adoption and use of OERs in Kenyan schools. The findings of the present study will go a long way in providing useful insights to the developers of OERs and Kenyan education stakeholders in devising strategies of maximum utilisation of OERs in the Kenyan school system.