Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative Histological and Ultrastructural Studies on the Rectal Caeca of Three Birds

Caeca are outpouches of the alimentary canal originating at the junction of the small and large intestine. The histology and ultrastructure of these caeca in birds reveal a considerable specific variation, which likely reflects functional differences among avian species. Each caecum divides into three regions or zones; proximal, middle and distal. In this work, a comparative study by light and transmission electron microscopy is carried out on the three different caecal regions of quail, duck and owl. The histological results show the presence of caecal tonsils in the beginning of the proximal region of quail caeca only. These tonsils are consisting of the aggregated masses of lymphocyte, forming a multiple nodules and encapsulated by muscle fibers. However the duck caeca were devoid of caecal tonsils and all caecal regions contained aggregation of lymphoid nodules while, in the owl caeca the lymphoid tissue found only in the proximal zone. The presence and shape of villi, plicae circulars and crypts were explained in detail. The ultra structure of the caecal regions of the each bird explained how the proximal perform its absorptive function more than the middle and distal regions through the presence of different organelles such as microvilli and mitochondria. Histology and ultra structure of the caeca in the three birds revealed some important facts which may be differ from that established in the past.
The Ontario Leadership Framework : A Tool for Equitable & Inclusive Schools

In December 2005, the Ontario Ministry of Education issued a mini discussion paper outlining a series of new supports for principals and vice-principals in Ontario publicly funded schools. One of the five goals outlined in the discussion paper was to better define the role, powers, responsibilities and obligations of principals and vice-principals to ensure coherent and consistent expectations. Following this, the Ministry of Education introduced The Ontario Leadership Strategy in 2006, which included the Ontario Leadership Framework. The Framework outlines the specific competencies and practices of school leaders.
Why Do Acquirers Under-Perform their Matching Firms: a Liquidity Story

Recent literature confirms that liquidity is an important source of price risk. Building from there, this paper examines whether liquidity explains a previously documented anomaly that the acquiring firms persistently underperform their size and book-to-market matching firms in the long run after the acquisitions. First, we document that an acquiring firm is persistently more liquid (up to five years following the acquisition) than its size and book-to-market matching firm. The acquisition improves an acquiring firm’s liquidity relative to its size and book-to-market matching firm. Second, we follow a new approach (the decomposed buy-and-hold calendar time approach) to examine the acquiring firms’ long-term performance. In particular, we calculate the acquiring firms’ decomposed buy-and-hold abnormal returns following Liu and Strong (2007), and adjust such returns using multifactor asset pricing models. This approach not only preserves the investors’ wealth experience reflected in the buy-and-hold returns, but also is robust to the typical measurement or statistical problems inherit in the buy-and-hold approach and the traditional calendar time approach. We find that the two factor model (market and liquidity) of Liu (2006) well explains the anomalies from both the Fama-French three factor model and a momentum augmented four factor Carhart model. In subsample tests, we further confirm that the underperformances of the glamour acquiring firms and the acquiring firms in stock dominated offers(relative to their size and book-tomarket matching firms) are not robust once we account for liquidity, using the two factor(market and liquidity) model. Finally, we match each acquiring firm by a nonevent firm that have similar liquidity exposure estimated over the three years after the acquisition. The buy-and-hold abnormal return of the acquiring firm is not statistically significantly from zero. Taken together, our results suggest that it is important to account for liquidity risk when examining the acquiring firm’s long-run performance. The matching firm approach based on size and book-to-market ratio fails to provide a proper control for such risk. JEL Classification: G12, G14, G34
Analysis of Selected Assemblages from Early LSA sites in Southern Africa

Not all assemblages that have been identified as Early Later Stone Age (LSA) or as MSA/LSA Transition have published quantitative assemblage data. However, a number do and in order to better define the character of the Early LSA and the nature of the transition from the MSA to the LSA, a select set of assemblages are re-analyzed here. The original technological and typological data were used but these are not always consistent between independent investigators. Furthermore, the employment of different analytical/typological schemes for the MSA and LSA further complicates our understanding of the transition from the MSA to the LSA. The problem is compounded because often the results for MSA occupations are published separately from LSA occupations at the same site, nevertheless these results do consistently demonstrate the nature of the transformations in terms of lithic artifacts.
**** Forthcoming in MESA book **** Access and Persistence of Students in Canadian Post-secondary Education: The Pre-MESA Project State of Knowledge

Whether to attend a post-secondary education (PSE) institution, which one to attend, and how to complete its degree or diploma requirements are extraordinary complex decisions faced my millions of young Canadians. Factors such as financial considerations, family background, information constraints and inherent ability all interact to determine whether or not young Canadians will attend – and ultimately graduate from – any one of the variety of PSE institutions across the country. Until recently, the study of these decisions in Canada has been hindered by a general lack of policy interest as well as the lack of appropriate data to adequately tackle these complex questions. This paper reviews the state of knowledge regarding access to and persistence in PSE in Canada prior to the writing of each of the papers in this volume. I put emphasis on the experiences of students from low-income families, a group which has historically not benefited from publicly financed PSE as much as those from middleand highincome families, yet whose participation is seen as fundamental to Canada’s competitiveness in the global knowledge-based economy. This is an abbreviated version of a report prepared for the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation through the MESA project managed by the Educational Policy Institute. Bryce van Sluys provided outstanding research assistance on this earlier project and Theresa Qui and Anne Motte volunteered numerous useful comments. This longer report is entitled “Access and Persistence of Students from LowIncome Backgrounds in Canadian Post-Secondary Education: A Review of the Literature” and is available at the CMSF website at xxx.xxxx. xxxx.
Characterisation of bacteria isolated from the stingless bee, Heterotrigona itama, honey, bee bread and propolis

Bacteria are present in stingless bee nest products. However, detailed information on their characteristics is scarce. Thus, this study aims to investigate the characteristics of bacterial species isolated from Malaysian stingless bee, Heterotrigona itama, nest products. Honey, bee bread and propolis were collected aseptically from four geographical localities of Malaysia. Total plate count (TPC), bacterial identification, phenotypic profile and enzymatic and antibacterial activities were studied. The results indicated that the number of TPC varies from one location to another. A total of 41 different bacterial isolates from the phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were identified. Bacillus species were the major bacteria found. Therein, Bacillus cereus was the most frequently isolated species followed by Bacillus aryabhattai, Bacillus oleronius, Bacillus stratosphericus, Bacillus altitudinis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus nealsonii, Bacillus toyonensis, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus safensis, Bacillus pseudomycoides, Enterobacter asburiae, Enterobacter cloacae, Pantoea dispersa and Streptomyces kunmingensis. Phenotypic profile of 15 bacterial isolates using GEN III MicroPlate™ system revealed most of the isolates as capable to utilise carbohydrates as well as amino acids and carboxylic acids and derivatives. Proteolytic, lipolytic and cellulolytic activities as determined by enzymatic assays were detected in Bacillus stratosphericus PD6, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens PD9, Bacillus subtilis BD3 and Bacillus safensis BD9. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens PD9 showed broad-spectrum of antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in vitro. The multienzymes and antimicrobial activities exhibited by the bacterial isolates from H. itama nest products could provide potential sources of enzymes and antimicrobial compounds for biotechnological applications.
Effect of Flood on Rural Agricultural Wages in Indian States : An Empirical Analysis

The study examines the effect of floods on rural agricultural wages in 15 major Indian states covering periods from 1983 to 2011. Multiple factors are responsible for increasing rural agricultural wages in Indian states; flood impact is one of them. Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimates show that flood impact measured in terms of economic losses and area affected by flood have a positive impact on rural agricultural wages in the long-run. The long-run positive impact is caused by damage to physical and human capital stock and adverse impact on the agricultural labour market through a shortage of rural labour supply. The econometric result further show that pull factors such as employment opportunities in rural non-farm sectors has significantly increased real agricultural wages in the long-run as a result increased demand for labour in rural non-farm sectors and at the same time decline demand for labour in farm sectors. The study also analyzes push factors such as government expenditures on rural development and agricultural productivity. These factors can significantly increase rural agricultural wages through increased demand for labour in rural areas. For robust results, the study uses development indicators measured in terms of per capita income, road density and availability of banking facilities as explanatory variables in this analysis. The results indicate that per capita income, road density and availability of banking facilities cannot minimize flood impact on agricultural wages in long-run.
The real business effects of quarterly reporting

This paper examines whether a higher reporting frequency has real business effects. Specifically, we examine whether mandated quarterly reporting has an effect on myopic management in terms of managers’ willingness to use real activities manipulation (RAM). Recent studies discuss the cost and benefits of quarterly reporting. Advocates of a higher reporting frequency argue that it reduces information asymmetry and thereby increases capital market efficiency. However, reporting frequency might also have an effect on economic efficiency. We find that in years in which a firm just meets or beats past years' earnings or the zero earnings benchmark (suspect years), quarterly reporters exhibit higher RAM compared to semi-annual reporters. This effect is not only prevalent in suspect years, but also significantly depends upon the regulatory environment and both, firm as well as industry characteristics. We provide evidence that the effect is stronger in countries with a higher importance of equity markets and with a noisier financial reporting environment. In addition, firms with more short-term oriented investors, a lower level of monitoring by analysts and firms operating in higher competition industries exhibit higher real effects. We interpret these findings as evidence for managerial myopia as a consequence of higher mandated reporting frequency. Our findings are in line with the theoretical models and anecdotal and survey evidence presented in previous literature and contribute to the literature on the real effects of disclosure regulation.
The SIGMORPHON 2019 Shared Task: Morphological Analysis in Context and Cross-Lingual Transfer for Inflection

The SIGMORPHON 2019 shared task on cross-lingual transfer and contextual analysis in morphology examined transfer learning of inflection between 100 language pairs, as well as contextual lemmatization and morphosyntactic description in 66 languages. The first task evolves past years’ inflection tasks by examining transfer of morphological inflection knowledge from a high-resource language to a low-resource language. This year also presents a new second challenge on lemmatization and morphological feature analysis in context. All submissions featured a neural component and built on either this year’s strong baselines or highly ranked systems from previous years’ shared tasks. Every participating team improved in accuracy over the baselines for the inflection task (though not Levenshtein distance), and every team in the contextual analysis task improved on both state-of-the-art neural and non-neural baselines.
PART I: COMPARISON OF BOUNDS

We consider three known bounds for the quadratic assignment problem (QAP): an eigenvalue, a convex quadratic programming (CQP), and a semidefinite programming (SDP) bound. Since the last two bounds were not compared directly before, we prove that the SDP bound is stronger than the CQP bound. We then apply these to improve known bounds on a discrete energy minimization problem, reformulated as a QAP, which aims to minimize the energy between repulsive particles on a toric grid. Thus we are able to prove optimality for several configurations of particles and grid sizes, complementing earlier results by Bouman, Draisma and Van Leeuwaarden [ SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 27(3):1295–1312, 2013].
CREI Working Paper no. 4/2016 POLICY EVALUATION IN PRESENCE OF INTERFERENCES: A SPATIAL MULTILEVEL DID APPROACH By

During the last decades SUTVA has represented the "gold standard" for the identification and evaluation of causal effects. However, the presence of interferences in causal analysis requires a substantial review of the SUTVA hypothesis. This paper proposes a framework for causal inference in presence of spatial interactions within a new spatial hierarchical Differencein-Differences model (SH-DID). The novel approach decomposes the ATE (Average Treatment Effect), allowing the identification of direct (ADTE) and indirect treatment effects. In addition, our approach permits the identification of different indirect causal impact both on treated (AITET) and on controls (AITENT). The performance of the SH-DID are evaluated by a Montecarlo Simulation. The results confirm how omitting the presence of interferences produces biased parameters of direct and indirect effects, even though the estimates of the ATE in the traditional model are correct. Conversely, the SH-DID provides unbiased estimates of both total, direct and indirect effects. In addition, this model is the more efficient compared both to the traditional and a Spatial modified Difference-in-Differences estimator.
An object-oriented architecture for transmission simulation of image and video with multiple description coding over high-speed optical fibre channels

This dissertation addresses the problem of providing a tool with an object-oriented architecture in order to allow the possibility of simulate the transmission of images and/or videos coded with Multiple Description over high-speed optical fibre channels. In order to solve the problem proposed the choice was a simulator, once the advantage of this solution when compared to a real experiment as several advantages. The solution presented on this dissertation presents several advantages when compared with the solutions already analysed that only allows to analyse some physical phenomena that occur on optical fibre, not filling the requirements pretended to simulate. The proposed solution was developed using an object-oriented architecture, providing the possibility of increment the number of scenarios possible to simulate. On this dissertation all of the development process is described, since the structure of the proposed solution, to the classes developed as long as the Graphical User Interface implemented. The simulation results presented were obtained using a Multiple Description Coding algorithm.
Biological activity of phosphate dissolving bacteria and their effect on some genotypes of barley production 1

Field experiment was carried out during two seasons 2009/10 and 2010/11 in Agricultural Experimental Stations of Desert Research Center (DRC) in Ras Sudr (south Sinai Governorate) to evaluate variation, mean performance and genetic stability of five barley genotypes under inoculation of phosphate solubilizing bacterial strains namely: Bacillus megaterium ,Bacillus subtilis ,Azotobacter chroococcum and Micrococcus luteus . The test of homogeneity of error variance made using error mean squares of the two seasons revealed that error mean squares are homogeneous for all the studied traits except plant height and biological yield/plant. Significant differences were detected among all genotypes for all traits recorded under different phosphate dissolving bacterial treatments. The new bred line Su12303 recorded the highest means for grain yield/plant in both seasons and combined which had values 6.97, 7.32 and 7.15 g, respectively under M.luteus bacterial treatment. This superiority in yielding ability attributed to number of spikes/plant and number of grains/spike and biological yield. The molecular weights of protein sub-units in seeds of barley genotypes ranged between ranged between 17 and 104 kDa. The more intensive bands were presented at molecular weights 21 and 41 kDa. The homologous bands are 83, 74, 51, 35 and 21 kDa. Bands of molecular weights 43 and 17kDa are presented in Su 12303 genotype under two of bacterial treatments M.luteus and B. subtilis as well as Giza 2000 cultivar at molecular weight 43 kDa. The increase in band intensity was at molecular weights 43, 48 and 17 kDa for Su 12303 genotype under the two M.luteus and B. subtilis bacterial treatments.The solubilization mechanism in soil , pH and alkaline phosphatase activity in the rhizosphere region of barley plants were detected. While no change in the pH was recorded among different genotypes or bacterial treatments ,microbial inoculation especially M.luteus and B. megaterium have appositive effect on phosphatase activity of all genotypes tested . In vitro, the concentration of soluble phosphorus in the growth media was associated with a drop in the pH , secretion of phosphatase enzymes and release of different organic acids . HPLC analysis of the 4 strains revealed that all strains secrete different types of organic acids namely: formic acid, oxalic acid, lactic acid, shikimic acid, acetic acid and tartaric acid with variable quantities. A positive relation between phosphate activity and phosphate solubilization in the media was also detected. These indicate that phosphate solubilization in soil is mainly due to secretion of phosphatase but in vitro solubilization is associated with secretion of phosphatase enzymes and different organic acids.
Open Peer Review Recent Advances in Understanding Epstein-barr Virus [version 1; Referees: 4 Approved]

F1000 Faculty Reviews are commissioned from members of the prestigious F1000. In order to make these reviews as Faculty comprehensive and accessible as possible, peer review takes place before publication; the referees are listed below, but their reports are not formally published. Abstract Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a common human herpes virus known to infect the majority of the world population. Infection with EBV is often asymptomatic but can manifest in a range of pathologies from infectious mononucleosis to severe cancers of epithelial and lymphocytic origin. Indeed, in the past decade, EBV has been linked to nearly 10% of all gastric cancers. Furthermore, recent advances in high-throughput next-generation sequencing and the development of humanized mice, which effectively model EBV pathogenesis, have led to a wealth of knowledge pertaining to strain variation and host-pathogen interaction. This review highlights some recent advances in our understanding of EBV biology, focusing on new findings on the early events of infection, the role EBV plays in gastric cancer, new strain variation, and humanized mouse models of EBV infection. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
isk and profitability of Islamic banks : A religious deception or an lternative solution ?

The aim of this paper is to examine whether Islamic finance could be an alternative to the traditional financial system and could guarantee stability in times of crisis. To this end, 78 Islamic banks in 12 countries have been studied over the 2004–2013 period. A series of bank-specific and other countryspecific indicators are combined to explain the soundness of Islamic banking in terms of profitability as measured by ROA and ROE, and risk divided into credit risk measured by IMLGL and EQL, and insolvency risk measured by Z-SCORE. The aim is to estimate five regressions using dynamic panel data econometrics (GMM system). The results indicate that bank size and capital are the main factors responsible for increasing profitability and stability of Islamic banks and reducing their credit risk. However, the ratios
Machine learning phases in statistical physics

Conventionally, the study of phases in statistical mechanics is performed with the help of random sampling tools. Among the most powerful are Monte Carlo simulations consisting of a stochastic importance sampling over state space and evaluation of estimators for physical quantities. The ability of modern machine learning techniques to classify, identify, or interpret massive data sets provides a complementary paradigm to the above approach to analyze the exponentially large number of states in statistical physics. In this report, it is demonstrated by application on Ising-type models that deep learning has potential wide applications in solving many-body statistical physics problems. In application of supervised learning, we showed that the feed-forward neural network can identify phases and phase transitions in the ferromagnetic Ising model and the convolutional neural network (CNN) is extremely powerful in classifying T = 0 and T =∞ phases in the Ising gauge model; In application of unsupervised learning, we illustrated that a deep auto-encoder constructed by stacked restricted Boltzmann machines (RBM)
Neural Machine Translation for English–Kazakh with Morphological Segmentation and Synthetic Data

This paper presents the systems submitted by the University of Groningen to the English– Kazakh language pair (both translation directions) for the WMT 2019 news translation task. We explore the potential benefits of (i) morphological segmentation (both unsupervised and rule-based), given the agglutinative nature of Kazakh, (ii) data from two additional languages (Turkish and Russian), given the scarcity of English–Kazakh data and (iii) synthetic data, both for the source and for the target language. Our best submissions ranked second for Kazakh→English and third for English→Kazakh in terms of the BLEU automatic evaluation metric.