Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regional Rainfall Measurements Using the Passive Aquatic Listener During the SPURS Field Campaign

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Globalfocusing: From Domestic Conglomerates to Global Specialists

Globalization is changing the competitive terrain on which companies develop their corporate strategy. On the global stage, key competitive advantages are gained through internationally fungible resources. Consequently, diversified conglomerates are converting to global specialists in narrower niche markets and competing with a small number of multinational enterprises operating worldwide. Their internationalization and their reduction of product diversification are opposite sides of the same coin: globalfocusing. I extend Penrosian resource-based theory to analyse this change process, notably by distinguishing country and industry specificity of firms' core competences, and by integrating divestment as part of firm growth processes. Globalfocusing is driven by shifts in the relative importance of country-specific and industry-specific resources and capabilities due to changes in the internal and external environment, notably the globalization of markets and supply chains. The argument is developed using case studies of restructuring of two Danish manufacturing enterprises. On this basis, I analyse the forces driving globalfocusing processes and suggest propositions for empirical testing.
The Impact of Crisis and Macroeconomic Variables Towards Islamic Banking Deposits

Problem statement: The nature of Islamic banks is different from conv entional banks which may lead to a different deposit behavior of t heir depositors. This study aims to analyze the dynamic effects of interest and profit rate changes , production level, inflation and financial crisis towards the fluctuation of total deposits in Malays ian Islamic banks. Approach: Using monthly data from January 2000 to December 2010, cointegration test and vector error correction model were utilized to uncover the dynamic relationship betwee n macroeconomic variables and crisis with total deposit of Islamic banking. Results: The results show that changes in interest and prof it rate as well as production growth has no significant effects. Meanwhile, inflation has negative effect on total deposi ts of Islamic banks which reflects the changes on depo sitors' consumption pattern during the recession. Interestingly, financial crisis is positively affec ting total deposits in Islamic banks. Conclusion: This study provides evidence of general consumer sentiment and deposit behavior. It indicates that in general, due to the 1997/1998 financial crisis expe rience, bank depositors have trusted Islamic bankin g to be more resilient in facing financial crisis and hence, inflow of deposits to Islamic banks was happened during 2007/2008 financial crisis.
Differences in Labor Supply to Monopsonistic Firms and the Gender Pay Gap: An Empirical Analysis Using Linked Employer‐Employee Data from Germany

This article investigates women’s and men’s labor supply to the firm within a semistructural approach based on a dynamic model of new monopsony. Using methods of survival analysis and a large linked employer‐employee data set for Germany, we find that labor supply elasticities are small (1.9–3.7) and that women’s labor supply to the firm is less elastic than men’s (which is the reverse of gender differences in labor supply usually found at the level of the market). Our results imply that at least one‐third of the gender pay gap might be wage discrimination by profit‐maximizing monopsonistic employers.
Evaluation of the Shaping Characteristics of ProTaper Gold, ProTaper NEXT and ProTaper Universal Systems in Curved Canals and the Analysis of Torsional Profiles of New and Used Instruments

Shaping characteristics and torsional profiles of the ProTaper Gold system (PTG) were compared with that of ProTaper NEXT (PTN) and ProTaper Universal (PTU) systems. Twenty-four mandibular first molars with 2 separate mesial canals were matched anatomically by micro-CT and prepared with rotary systems (n =16) to F2 or X2 instruments, respectively. Co-registered images were evaluated for 2and 3-dimensional morphometric measurements. Maximum torque and angle of deflection were determined for 30 new or used PTG, PTN and PTU X2 or F2 instruments. Data was statistically compared using Kruskal-Wallis or Bonferroni/Dunn tests for post hoc and 1-way ANOVA tests (α=5%). PTG and PTN produced less transportation and % decrease in dentin thickness than PTU. PTN had less canal wall contact than PTG and PTU. PTN demonstrated the lowest maximum torque and angle of deflection at fracture and overall mean torque and angle of rotation at fracture decreased after use.
Response of different species of Brassica to water deficit

Development of drought-tolerant cultivars is hampered by a lack of effective selectioncriteria. In this research, response of 36 genotypes of rapeseed from seven species of Brassicaincluding B. napus, B. rapa, B. juncea, B. carinata, B. oleracea, B. nigra and B. fruticulosa wasassessed under three moisture levels (no stress, mild stress and intense stress) in the field during2011-2012. Five drought-tolerance indices were calculated: stress tolerance (TOL), stresssusceptibility index (SSI), mean productivity (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP) andstress tolerance index (STI). Increasing water stress levels caused significantly more reductionsin the seed yield of all species. Species B. napus had the highest yields in normal and intensestress conditions while B. carinata showed better performance in mild stress condition.Correlation coefficients revealed that among drought tolerance indices, GMP, STI and MP aresuperior criteria for selecting high-yield genotypes under stress and non-stress conditions.B. napus and B. carinata were the most drought tolerant while B. rapa and B. oleracea were themost susceptible species of Brassica based on yield potential. Application of principlecomponent analysis (PCA) for distinguishing drought and susceptible species are discussed.
A Retrospective Study on Type and Extent of Uterine Torsion in Buffaloes

Twenty five buffaloes suffering from uterine torsion were examined for stage of gestation, degree, site and direction of torsion. Results showed that uterine torsion in buffaloes occurred mostly in pluriparous buffaloes (56%) at full-term (72%), in clockwise direction (92%) and postcervical lo - cation (80%). It was mostly of 180° (48%) followed by 360° (32%) and >360° (20%). It is concluded that uterine torsion is mostly of 180 degree, clock-wise and post-cervical and it occurs mostly at term of pregnancy. Pluriparous buffaloes might be at greater risk of uterine torsion than primiparous.
Advances in Bioscience & Clinical Medicine

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and cancer are very common non-communicable diseases with a high rate of morbidity and mortality globally. Evidences from various studies suggests that Abstract Objective: The use of certain medications among diabetic patients put them at risk of developing bladder cancer. This study was done to examine the effects of metformin therapy on the bladder of diabetic patients and to assess the correlation between the effects of metformin and its duration of therapy. Methods: A total of 150 diabetic patients were sampled using a cross sectional study design. 10-15mls of random urine samples were collected into sterile containers over a period of five weeks. Smears were prepared, fixed and stained using Papanicolaou staining method and examined under the microscope for cytological studies. Results: The probability of developing bladder cancer among diabetic patients on metformin therapy is 0% among participants of all categories: 99 females and 51 males partook in this study. Peak age group (35.33%) were between the ages of 51 to 60 years, least age group (4.67%) were 80 years and above. Traders of food items and used clothes constituted the peak occupational group of 27.52%, with fishermen as least occupation group(0.67%), age group 61 to 70 had the highest duration of therapy of (15.8%), the least duration of (4.625%) was among age group 25 to 30 years, the group of 80years and above had a duration of (4.857%). No inflammatory, degenerative, benign or malignant cells were observed among urine samples from diabetic patients on metformin. Conclusion: This study equips us with knowledge that metformin therapy has no direct influence on the development of cancer of the bladder among diabetic patients as observed through urine cytology. This is the first time such study is done in West Africa region. The clinical implication is that Metformin, the commonest prescribed oral hypoglycemic is safe when considering the carcinogenic effects of anti-diabetic drugs, unlike insulin and some other drugs which have carcinogenic potential.
EFFECTS OF MINDFULNESS AND EXPERIENTIAL AVOIDANCE IN RESPONDING TO EMOTIONAL FILM CLIPS

OF THESIS EFFECTS OF MINDFULNESS AND EXPERIENTIAL AVOIDANCE IN RESPONDING TO EMOTIONAL FILM CLIPS This study examined if levels of self-reported mindfulness and experiential avoidance were associated with subjective and physiological outcomes following exposure to distressing film clips. Participants consisted of 108 college-aged young adults who completed self-report measures assessing levels of mindfulness, experiential avoidance, and negative affect. Several devices designed to monitor physiological activity, specifically sympathetic nervous activation, were also attached to participants. Participants were shown four brief film clips of neutral and unpleasant stimuli while these devices were attached. After each film, subjective distress ratings were gathered every 20 seconds for a period of two minutes to determine extent of emotional recovery. Results showed that, contrary to predictions, self-reported mindfulness was positively correlated with subjective distress following particular emotional film clips. Furthermore, self-reported mindfulness was largely unrelated to changes in physiological activity during the film clips, in addition to subjective and physiological recovery from the films. Although most findings were nonsignificant, this investigation contributes to the existing literature by being the first to include a measure of self-report mindfulness in combination with an array of subjective and physiological instruments to evaluate responses to aversive stimuli.
Creating Students Loyalty Model in Private Higher Education

Choosing a college is not as easy as choosing a product because the decision must consider the value of the future. However, there are some similarities in selecting universities, especially private universities. The purposes of this study to observe the factors that create student loyalty models and the loyalty of students at private colleges, so that the marketing managers of private universities are able to improve and maintain the students' effectiveness. The research is conducted on 5 private roommate colleges are selected randomly from the 27 private universities in Bandung, Indonesia. There are 250 respondents. The sampling technique is conducted by quota sampling on each of the private universities. The Data are analyzed by using structural equation modeling (SEM) and a data processing using AMOS program. Descriptively, the confidence of students in PHE relatively high, while loyalty, satisfaction and image of the PHE are very low. Results of student's loyalty building model from the three models offered, second model is the best model that can be used to explain the loyalty of students at PHE.
Attraction of Douglas-fir beetle, spruce beetle and a bark beetle predator (Coleoptera: Scolytidae and Cleridae) to enantiomers of frontalin

In three separate experiments, Douglas-fir beetles, Dendroctonus pseudotsugae Hopkins, preferred traps baited with either (S)-(-)- or racemic (R,S)-(±)-frontalin over those baited with the (R)-(+)-enantiomer. Spruce beetles, D. rufipennis (Kirby), appeared to be attracted equally to both the (S)-(-)- and (R)-(+)-enantiomers, but low catches and high variance made interpretation of the data tenuous. For both species racemic frontalin was as attractive as the preferred enantiomer alone. The bark beetle predator, Thanasimus undatulus (Say), was attracted preferentially to (S)-(-)-frontalin over (R)-(+)- or (R,S)-(±)-frontalin in a Douglas-fir stand, while both enantiomers were equally attractive in a spruce stand. Additional keywords: Dendroctonus pseudotsugae , Dendroctonus rufipennis , semiochemical, kairomones, Thanasimus undatulus , predator, trapping
BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM POLICY IN MASS TOURISM DESTINATIONS

The focus of this paper is on identifying the barriers to successful implementation of sustainable tourism policy. The research used exploratory and descriptive approaches to identify barriers from the literature as well as field research to determine perceived barriers from key respondents in two specific locations in the Mediterranean- Malta and Calvia. The research found that although respondents were aware of sustainable tourism, the individual advantage from exploiting shared pooled or shared resources is often perceived as being greater than the potential long-term shared losses that result from the deterioration of such resources, which means that there is little motivation for individual actors (whether governments, elected officials, or individual operators), to invest or engage in protection or conservation for more sustainable tourism.
Challenging poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion in Nicaragua: some considerations for poverty reduction strategies

Nicaragua is at present generally regarded to be the second poorest country in the hemisphere after Haiti. While for some the economic collapse in the 1980s, associated with the Sandinista Revolution, US blockade and Contra War, is at the base of these high poverty levels (Gobierno de Nicaragua, 2000a), others also consider that the neo-liberal policies to promote economic growth implemented in the 1980s and 1990s have had an important role to play. The impact of these Structural Adjustment Policies (SAP’s) (see Dijkstra, 1996 for some impacts of SAP’s in Nicaragua), imposed in many poor countries by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) along with ‘globalisation’ processes (Sassen, 1991), rather than bringing the promised economic returns, in many cases have increased people’s poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion. As a result, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in poverty and poverty reduction strategies, at least at the international level.
The Real Impact of Eliminating Affirmative Action in American Law Schools: An Empirical Critique of Richard Sander's Study

In an article in Stanford Law Review, Richard Sander argues that the practice of American law schools of taking race into account in admissions to law school perversely leads to fewer black lawyers entering the bar each year than would be the case without affirmative action. Sander's claim is that, while ending affirmative action would reduce somewhat the number of black students admitted to any law school, there would in the end be more black lawyers because those black students who do attend law school would no longer attend schools where they are over their heads academically and would graduate and pass the bar at much higher rates than they do today. To reach his conclusions he relies on projections based on an analysis of several datasets including the Bar Passage Study of the Law School Admissions Council. The article that follows is a response to Sander, also to be published in the Stanford Law. Resting on a reanalysis of the same datasets on which Sander relies, it concludes that ending affirmative action for black applicants to law school, far from leading to a net increase in the numbers of black attorneys, would probably lead to a decline of new lawyers in the range of 30 to 40 percent each year. A companion paper can be found at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=886382 (Affirmative Action in American Law Schools: A Critical Response to Richard Sander's "A Reply to Critics").
Accelerating a movie recommender system using VirtualCL on a heterogeneous GPU cluster:big data analysis using distributed accelerators

Present day market offers a large number of movies which overwhelm people with choices. In order to quickly navigate through all the possible movies and find the interesting ones, the user can take advantage of recommender systems for movies. This thesis studies a movie recommender system which uses image processing and computer vision algorithms. The amount of time taken to analyze movies using these computation intensive algorithms is in the order of years. However, exploiting parallel nature of these algorithms using GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) can help reduce the time many-folds.The primary goal of the thesis is to build a heterogeneous GPU cluster and use it to accelerate the algorithms of the recommender system. The guidelines and steps to build a heterogeneous GPU cluster given in the thesis can be used by other organizations and researchers. Results indicate that the heterogeneous GPU cluster platform can accelerate algorithms of a movie recommender system up to 5 times. The secondary goal of this thesis is to investigate the benefits of using VirtualCL framework which enables remote access to the GPUs of the cluster. Remote access to the GPUs provides energy efficiency and ease of cluster management. Results show that VirtualCL framework provides remote GPU capability at the cost of degradation in performance. Therefore, VCL framework should be used just for application areas where performance can be traded off for physical portability and ease of management.
The chosen indicators of women ' s physical condition on the verge of starting a family Wybrane wskaźniki kondycji fizycznej kobiet u progu założenia rodziny

Aim: Many female university students in Bydgoszcz starts a family at the end of studying or in a short time after graduation. It is very important for them to understand the significance of health and good physical condition for being a mother. It is probable, that in future students will promote the fitness habits acquired at university in their families. Therefore the aim of this work is the attempt of assessment of young women’s condition. Material and methods: The investigations of fitness and physical efficiency of students in Bydgoszcz were conducted in years 2002-2010. There measurements were taken for women training different sports and for inactive students. The Eurofit tests, the aerobic and anaerobic efficiency tests and posture control tests were done. Results and conclusions. It was shown that active students obtain better results in the conducted tests. Physical activity can give ability of better functioning in society and also minimizes the risk of many illnesses in future. The measurements show the necessity of increasing participation of students in physical activities, especially shortly before starting a family.
Agricultural production trends and cropping pattern in Uttar Pradesh: an overview.

Agriculture is the major livelihood activity of majority of rural population in Uttar Pradesh. Sustained growth in agricultural production and productivity is essential for over all sustainability of the state econo my. It is, therefore necessary to study the status of agriculture in Uttar Pradesh. This paper deals with cropping pattern and production trends of agriculture in Uttar Pradesh in seven sections:-I- Introduction, II- growth Rate in Plan Periods, III- Land Use, IV-Cropping Pattern/Coverage, V- Production of different crops in Uttar Pradesh and All India, VI - Productivity of Different Crops and lastly concluded in section VII.
Case study: human capital and environmental engagement of SMEs in Pakistan – a comparative analysis of the leather industry

Objectives: To examine how human capital influences the environmental engagement of SMEs in Pakistan’s leather industry. Another objective is to explore the different motivations of SME owners and managers for adopting the pro-environmental behaviour in this industry sector. Prior Work: The research is informed by literature on SMEs and environmental responsibility. Previous research has identified a number of internal and external drivers of, and barriers to, the environmental engagement of SMEs, but much of this research has focused on developed economies. Moreover, research looking specifically at the resources, capabilities and internal processes remains limited. Developing economy-focused research can complement and counterpoint the developed economy orientation of existing work. A focus on environmental practices of SMEs in less familiar cultural settings can also provide new insights. Approach: The research study adopts a qualitative approach and uses multiple case study research design. Guided by the evidence collected in a preliminary literature review, purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select a suitable sample of SMEs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcript evidence was combined with observational and documentary sources, and the cases were refined using thematic analysis technique. Results: Contrary to prior research, which regards regulatory compliance as the leading motivation for environmental engagement among SMEs in developed economies such as the EU, this study suggests that, in Pakistan, a primary factor is the presence of, and commercial pressure from, environmentally-conscious customers. The variation in findings can be attributed in part to context-specific factors. Drawing on the human capital literature, this study found that owner managers with higher educational attainment, tended to be more aware of both the challenges and the opportunities in adopting new environmental practices. However, some of the educated owner-managers had a lower level of environmental awareness, which hindered the environmental engagement of their businesses. It also appears that the owner-managers in this study would be more likely to invest in such initiatives through economic incentives, rather than as a consequence of adopting a sustainability agenda or acknowledging a wider responsibility for the natural environment. Value: The findings of the study are important in policy terms, given their focus on the enabling features of human capital in promoting environmental practices in developing economies. There is considerable scope for national governments and international donor agencies to launch environmental awareness programmes for SMEs, which should not simply educate entrepreneurs and employees, but also inspire them to pursue environmental opportunities.