Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Host Fish Species for Glochidia of Anemina arcaeformis Revealed by Artificial Infection Experiment

In this study, host suitability for glochidia of the bivalve Anemina arcaeformis was tested in sh of 12 taxa in 4 families (Lethenteron sp. in Petromyzontidae; Carassius sp., Rhodeus ocellatus ocellatus, Opsariichthys platypus, Candidia sieboldii, Pseudorasbora parva, Gnathopogon elongatus elongatus, Biwia zezera, and Pseudogobio esocinus esocinus in Cyprinidae; Misgurnus anguillicaudatus and Cobitis spp. (C. biwae and C. minamorii tokaiensis) in Cobitidae, and Rhinogobius umineus in Gobiidae) by an arti cial infection experiment. Metamorphosed juveniles were obtained from 9 taxa. Juveniles could not be obtained from R. o. ocellatus, Carassius sp. , and M. anguillicaudatus. The highest metamorphosis rates from parasitized larvae to juveniles was 30.3% in C. sieboldii, 23.5% in R. umineus, 16.8% in Cobitis spp. , 13.6% in P. parva, 11.9% in O. platypus, 4.4% in Lethenteron sp. , 2.8% in B. zezera, 2.1% in G. e. elongatus and 0.7% in P. e. esocinus. Only Rhinogobius spp. were previously known to be hosts of A. arcaeformis, so these represent new host sh.
The Objective Function of Simulation Estimators Near the Boundary of the Unstable Region of the Parameter Space

The paper examines the role of stability constraints in estimation by dynamic simulation. In particular, it analyzes the behavior of the objective function on either side of the boundary of the stability region of the parameter space. The main finding is that stability constraints may be ignored because the simulation-based objective function contains a built-in penalty to enforce stability. A key caveat, however, is that the dynamic stability of the auxiliary model that defines the moment conditions must be checked and enforced. An attempt to fit via simulation to moments defined by a dynamically unstable auxiliary model can be expected to lead to an ill-behaved objective function.
Are Your Participants Multilingual? The Role of Self-assessment in SLA Research

Abstract This study addresses the issue of using self-assessments to evaluate the language proficiency of participants in SLA research. When conducting research in the field of SLA, it is important to analyze the linguistic background of potential participants; however, finding comparable assessment tests in multiple languages to satisfy the linguistically diverse backgrounds of the language learners as well as the difficulty in finding time to administer the tests to those with experience in multiple languages impedes the successful collection of this language background data. The results of this study support an alternate way of determining language learners’ linguistic background through the use of self-assessment, specifically with the use of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) can-do statements. The results of this study provide empirical support for the use of self-assessment in SLA research
A Community Conversation on Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting Services: Networks of Support, Gatekeepers to Care, and Non-Compulsory Fathering in a Black Urban Community

This study employed Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methods to document needs and capacity around adolescent pregnancy and parenting in one predominately Black, low-income urban community. Using an iterative focus group method, we engaged 60 participants in a two-day community conversation. Quantitative data from an enrollment questionnaire and qualitative transcripts of the discussions are analyzed. Our results indicate that the community’s greatest capacity lies in a network of women. Men tend to participate in parenting more holistically once formal paternity is established. Neighborhood women typically introduce adolescents to prenatal care, so delays in revealing the pregnancy to them serves as a barrier to accessing prenatal care. Overall, participants want health agencies to uphold their formal social contracts with the community, but to entrust informal services to community members who have the necessary insight and expertise to deliver support and information that is usable in their social context.
OPTIMIZATION AND MECHANISM DESIGN FOR RIDESHARING SERVICES A Dissertation by

Ridesharing services, whose aim is to gather travelers with similar itineraries and compatible schedules, are able to provide substantial environmental and social benefits through reducing the use of private vehicles. When the operations of a ridesharing system is optimized, it can also save travelers a significant amount of transportation cost. The economic benefits associated with ridesharing in turn attract more travelers to participate in ridesharing services and thereby improve the utilization of transportation infrastructure capacity. This study addresses two of the most challenging issues in designing an efficient and sustainable ridesharing service: ridesharing optimization and ridesharing market design. The first part of the dissertation formally defines the large-scale ridesharing optimization problem, characterizes its complexity and discusses its relation to classic relevant problems like the traveling salesman problem (TSP) and the vehicle routing problem (VRP). A mixed-integer program (MIP) model is developed to solve the ridesharing optimization problem. Since the ridesharing optimization problem is NP-hard, the MIP model is not able to solve larger instances within a reasonable time. An insertion-based heuristic is developed to get approximate solutions to the ridesharing optimization problem. Experiments showed that ridesharing can significantly reduce the system-wide travel cost and vehicle trips. Evaluation of the heuristic solution method showed that the heuristic approach can solve the problem very fast and provide nearly-optimal (98%) solutions, thus, confirming its efficiency and accuracy. From a societal perspective, the ridesharing optimization model proposed in this dissertation provided substantial system-wide travel cost saving (25%+) and vehicle-
Knowledge Exchange in Networked Organizations: Does Place Matter?

While many studies of knowledge exchange have been undertaken in private and service organizations, government and R&D enterprises, few have studied scientific inter-organizational collaborations. Furthermore, in the literature on international networks there has been a tendency to assume that knowledge exchange will be inevitably enhanced by global dispersion. Two linked dynamics deserving further study are the role of geographic proximity and the role of information and communication technologies in facilitating knowledge flow across international networks. Studies of intra- and inter-firm knowledge transfer, managerial work values and cultural norms all point to China as being a fascinating counterpoint for the way knowledge exchange might occur in Europe. So in this study of the ATLAS collaboration, a ‘big science’ global network of 3,500 physicists, we explore the perceptions of two subgroups: UK physicists working in Europe and Chinese scientists based in Beijing and HeFei. Findings from 24 interviews and non-participant observation reveal that face-to-face working at European Organization for Nuclear Research (Geneva) is not without its difficulties, but for a variety of sociocultural reasons, it is primarily the Chinese scientists who perceive themselves to be inhibited from full participation in effective knowledge exchange.
The Anomalous Rainfall over the United States during July 1993: Sensitivity to Land Surface Parameterization and Soil Moisture Anomalies

Abstract This paper discusses the sensitivity of short- and medium-range precipitation forecasts for the central United States to land surface parametrization and soil moisture anomalies. Two forecast systems with different land surface and boundary layer schemes were running in parallel during the extreme rainfall events of July 1993. One forecast system produces much better precipitation forecasts due to a more realistic thermodynamic structure resulting from improved evaporation in an area that is about 1 day upstream from the area of heaviest rain. The paper also discusses two ensembles of 30-day integrations for July 1993. In the first ensemble, soil moisture is initialized at field capacity (100% availability); in the second ensemble it is at 25% of soil moisture availability. It is shown that the moist integrations produce a much more realistic precipitation pattern than the dry integrations. These results suggest that there may be some predictive skill in the monthly range related to the time-scal.
EXAMINATION OF HYBRIDIZATION RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SCHOENOPLECTUS HALLII AND S. SAXIMONTANUS (CYPERACEAE) USING ISSR MARKERS

Schoenoplectus hallii , commonly known as Hall’s bulrush, is an annual species rest ricted to wetland habitats that experience fluctuating water levels. This rare annual has suffered significant population losses over the last 25 years and the survival and conservation of the taxon is a concern wherever it has been reported. Although habitat loss has been the main reason for the decline of S. hallii , hybridization appears to be a new threat to the survival of the species. Putative hybridization has been reported between S. hallii and S. saximontanus where the two species co-occur in some sites in Oklahoma. We examined individuals from both species and putative hybrids from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and adjacent areas on the Fort Sill Military Reservation in Oklahoma using three ISSR primers. We identified six species-spec ific markers in S. saximontanus and nine in S. hallii , all of which were present in the putative hybrids plants. Our results support previous studies suggesting that the two species are hybridizing in Oklahoma and that hybridization could occur in other areas where populations overlap.
Determination of Safety Operating Regimes Based on the Analysis of Characteristic Equation of State-Space Model

Determining safe regions of operation is important at the design, control and optimization of process systems. Process alarms and safety systems should be designed based on such knowledge. In classical control systems these regions are represented as independent constraints on process variables. In case of a highly exothermic reaction takes place in any kind of reactor there is a high risk to develop reactor runaway if the produced heat can’t be removed. Reactor runaway phenomena is a serious problem in many chemical industrial processes, hence the most of reactions are exothermic. Reactor runaway means a sudden and considerable change in process variables such as reactor temperature. To detect and forecast the development of runaway a model based criteria is introduced in this manuscript. The criteria is based on indirect Ljapunov’s stability analysis of a process model. The aim of this work is to compare methods for calculation of eigenvalues. Eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix were calculated with a numerical method and there were also computed analytically. Stability of two-phases fed-batch reactor with highly exothermic reactions are analyzed with the investigated stability analysis methods. Analytical solution is more sensitive and of course it is more accurate than the numerical one still the algorithm based on the analytical solution is a lot more faster.
Hebbian and Coincident Learning Dynamics at Proximal and Distal Dendrites in A Hippocampal Neuron

In hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons, ac- tion potentials are backpropagated into the dendrite, which affects the induction of synaptic plasticity. Recent stud- ies report that these dendritic backpropagating action po- tentials are dichotomy and regulated depending on the dis- tance from the soma. According to these studies, we as- sume that the dynamics of synaptic modification in a hip- pocampal CA1 pyramidal neuron has a difference between proximal dendrite (PD) and distal dendrite (DD): a rule of synaptic modification in PD depends on pre- and postsy- naptic neuron's spike timing ("Hebbian learning rule"), and in DD depends on the coincidence between presynaptic neurons' spikes("coincident learning rule"). In computer simulations, we investigate characteristics of synaptic plas- ticity on these dynamics. The results showed that the only synapses on PD which receive synchronous spikes were strengthened. But on DD, not only synapses which receive synchronous spikes but also other synapses which receive asynchronous spikes are strengthened, in spite of low fre- quency. These results suggest that spatial information of higher frequency are mainly coded by the Hebbian rule on PD and temporal information of spike patterns are mainly coded by the coincident rule on DD.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ADIPOKINE RESISTIN IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ANTHROPOMETRICAL MARKERS IN TYPE II DIABETES PATIENTS

A growing body of evidence supports of systemic inflammation in obesity and diabetes. In this study, the relation of fasting serum resistin as an inflammatory adipokine with anthropometrical markers in twenty eight sedentary males aged 40 ± 4 year and body mass index 32 ± 2 kg/m2 with type II diabetes were determined. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used to determine the correlations between resistin and anthropometrical markers. No significant correlation was found in serum resistin with all anthropometrical markers in studied patients. Based on these finding, it is concluded that the markers of obesity determinatives can not affect serum resistin in diabetic patients.
A study of Malaysian accounting education in higher-learning institutions: Is Malaysia preparing undergraduates for a tsunami of fraud?

The current syllabus lack sufficiency of fraud education in areas of auditing, fraud examination and forensic accounting in the current accounting curriculum. This paper seeks to analyze the relationship between final year accouting students’ perceived coverage of fraud education and the overall sufficiency of the three areas in higher-learning institutions. Learning objectives were used to determine the sufficiency of fraud education in current accounting curriculum and a brief comparison between different higher learning institutions in Malaysia, students with and without internship experience, and test of ethical conduct was performed. Findings include insufficient coverage in the areas of fraud examination and forensic accounting but not auditing and that the students’ perceived coverage of fraud education depends on the sufficiency of fraud examination and forensic accounting areas. The paper only tested the perception aspect of students and results may differ depending on student’s aptitude in learning. This study provides valuable input to redesigning the current accounting curriculum to expose students to fraud-based learning environment and also incorporating forensic accounting courses. It seeks to regain society’s confidence in the accounting profession through improved fraud detection. The research will add value to the accounting education offered to undergraduates as very little prior research has been done to provide insights in students’ (end-user) perception of fraud education.
Conceptualizing Franchisee-based Brand Equity - A Framework of the Sources and Outcomes of the Brand’s Added Value for Franchisees

Alongside business practices, the franchisor’s brand is one of the two basic constituents of the franchise package that the franchisees buy into, and one of the major resources that franchisees seek when engaging in a franchise agreement. This paper addresses the value added by the brand to the franchise package from the franchisees’ perspective by considering (a) the sources of this added value and (b) its impact on franchisees’ intentions and behaviors. Based on previous literature on how brands generate value for consumers and firms, we first extend the concept of brand equity to franchising and propose a theoretical framework of the sources and outcomes of franchisee-based brand equity. We then explore franchisees’ perspective on the brand’s added value by conducting sixteen interviews with franchisees in France. The interviews combined with previous literature reveal that franchisees consider that the brand adds value directly by offering them functional, symbolic, experiential, economic and relational benefits, as well as indirectly by driving positive responses from consumers, employees and financial partners toward the branded franchised unit. Surprisingly, the symbolic benefits emerge as the strongest direct benefits. In turn, this added value attracts franchisees to enter the network, motivates their intention to continue in the franchise relationship and acts as a palliative for organizational problems encountered by franchisees. These findings indicate that franchisors should strongly integrate the brand in their value proposition in order to drive positive responses from their potential and current franchisees.
GENDER-ROLE IDENTITY AMONG JORDANIAN MALE NURSING STUDENTS: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

The objectives of the study were to describe the reasons for choosing nursing to study, gender role classification, and gender-role characteristics according to Bem sex-role inventory among male Jordanian nursing students recruited from two nursing schools in Jordan. A cross-sectional descriptive quantitative study was conducted using a self-administrated questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of demographic information and Bem-sex role inventory. The data was analyzed with descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations. Results revealed that the highest reported reason for choosing nursing to study was “I like the profession” (36.9 %) and the lowest reported reason was “The only specialty I got approval at the University” 3.3%. Results revealed that 43.44% of students were found to be masculine, 45.08% androgyny, 9.02% undifferentiated, and 2.46% were feminine. Results revealed also that nursing students’ masculine subscale had the higher average score (5.58) out of 7, followed that of the neutral subscale (5.25) and the feminine subscale (4.73). The study suggests that modification of the policies for recruitment of nursing students at the nursing schools in Jordan is needed to meet the gender- role requirements of the nursing profession to enhance male nurses’ retention and promotion in nursing.
An Assessment of Record Management System in Establishment Division of Two Universities in Nigeria

The major purpose of this study was to assess record management of the Federal University of Technology, Minna Nigeria and Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai, Nigeria. In carrying out this study, four (4) research questions were posed. The study sample population comprised of 88 staff (46 staff from the establishment division of the Federal University of Technology, Minna and 42 staff from the establishment division of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai. The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire. The research questions were answered using frequency and percentages. The major findings of the study revealed: ineffectiveness in record management practices, incompetent personnel, inadequate infrastructural facilities, constant power failure. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made. Effort should be made for provision of standby generator as an alternative to power supply, training of staff to handle the universities’ record, provision of adequate fund and enough infrastructural facilities.
Factors Influencing Physical Activity among Women with Osteoarthritis of the Knee

Abstract: This cross-sectional study examined the factors influencing physical activity among women with osteoarthritis of the knee. The Interaction Model of Client Health Behaviors was used as a theoretical framework to guide the study. The sample consisted of 242 female participants with osteoarthritis of the knee attending the outpatient department of a university hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. Data were collected using Personal Data Questionnaire, Modified Thai version of Western Ontario and McMaster Universities’ Osteoarthritis Index, Thai version of Catastrophizing Subscale of the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, Thai version of Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire about Physical Activity modified for osteoarthritis of the knee, Revised Thai Multi-dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Short Form of International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistical regression. The findings revealed that the mean age of the participants was 65.1 years and 60% had low physical activity. Body mass index and pain-related fear significantly influenced physical activity. However, age, knee pain, functional limitation, pain catastrophizing, and social support did not significantly influence physical activity. The implication for nursing practice from this finding is that nurses need to assess body mass index and identify barriers to performing physical activity among women with osteoarthritis. Any intervention program should include the benefit of weight reduction as well as strategies to reduce pain-related fear to increase their physical activity level.
Franchise contracts with ex post limited liability

This paper examines the contracting relationship between a manufacturer and a retailer when the retailer has ex ante private information, and is subject to limited liability. The contract takes place over two periods. In the first period, the retailer can make a report of private information, or take an action, either of which influences the manufacturer's beliefs about the distribution of demand states for a final good in the second period. In the second period, the retailer sells the manufacturers intermediate good into a final output market according to a variable fee schedule. The interaction of the limited liability constraints with incentive compatibility in the second stage gives rise to an expected surplus to the retailer, which the manufacturer can extract with a franchise fee. The franchise fee can also be used as a screening device or a means of eliciting the efficient first stage action from the retailer.
Meat Quality and Composition of Longissimus thoracis from Arabian Camel (Camelus dromedaries) and Omani Beef: A Comparative Study

The aim of the study was to compare meat quality and composition between Omani camel and beef meats at similar age range. Samples of left longissimus thoracis muscle (10 th -13 th ribs) were collected from 15 (2-4 years old) Arabian camels (Camelus dromedaries), and 20 Omani beef cattle (2-3 year-old). Moisture, protein, fat and ash were determined on freeze-dried ground muscle samples. Macro- and micro-mineral contents were determined using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometer (ICP). Meat quality including ultimate muscle pH, Warner-Bratzler shear force, sarcomere length, myofibrillar fragmentation index, expressed juice, cooking loss percent, and colour L*, a*, b* were measured using standard methods. The camel longissimus muscle had slightly lower moisture (70.8% vs. 72.3%), protein (21.6% vs. 22.2%), ash (1.3 vs. 1.5) but significantly (P<0.01) lower fat (2.8 vs. 7.8%) than beef muscle. The calcium contents of camel and beef longissimus thoracis muscle were 23.9 vs. 19.4, magnesium 51.0 vs. 66.1, potassium 762 vs. 1326 (P<0.01), sodium 181 vs. 166 and phosphorus 417 vs. 522 mg/100g, respectively. Camel muscles had similar Warner Bratzler-shear force value (6.98 vs. 6.45 kg) and sarcomere length (1.89 vs. 1.83 µm) to beef muscles. However, expressed juice was significantly (P<0.05) lower for camel (21.3 cm²/g) than for beef (34.8 cm²/g) muscles. Camel meat had slightly darker colour than beef based on L* (31.5 vs. 33.7), less red a* (16.3 vs.18.4) and b* (7.6 vs. 6.6). These results indicated that meat quality and composition of Arabian camel longissimus thoracis muscle is comparable to that of Omani beef muscle, when slaughtered at similar age range.