Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ARE MALAYSIAN STILL TECHNOPHOBIA ABOUT E-FINANCE PRODUCT: A LITERATURE REVIEW (ADAKAH RAKYAT MALAYSIA MASIH TEKNOFOBIA TERHADAP PRODUK E-KEWANGAN MUDAH ALIH: SATU SOROTAN LITERATUR)

Previous studies have shown that there is an increased transaction of application without cash in the Malaysia via the medium of internet. The literature has also looked into the occurrences of the declining trend of users to continue to use the internet on the basis of models of technology applied in studies in Malaysia. This issue is related to Technophobia, to evaluate the negative (phobic) attitudes of consumers towards innovative products, which caused them to be less open to these products, experience discomfort when using them, and ignore the benefits offered by the technology with its use. Thus, the conceptual article discusses the potential development of an e-finance community with the existence of online financial management in the financial management strategies efficiently to tackle the increasing cost of living.
NATIONAL LIGHTNING DETECTION NETWORK : POST-UPGRADE STATUS

The U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDNTM) has been providing real-time, continental-scale information on cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning to research and operational users since 1989, and has been the lightning data source for the NOAA National Weather Service for more than a decade. This network has undergone regular improvements during its 15year lifetime. The intent of this paper is to provide research and operational users of NLDN data with a contemporary view of the strengths and limitations of this data resource.
Focus On Bisphosphonates and prevention of metastases: the AZURE study

Most patients present with disease that appears to be confined to the breast. However, a significant proportion of women will go on to develop metastatic breast cancer with bone being the most frequent site of distant relapse. The bone microenvironment provides a fertile soil for circulating metastatic cells as resorbing bone releases growth factors that are thought to attract circulating cancer cells to the bone surface and facilitate their growth and proliferation. These infiltrating tumour cells in turn produce bone cell-activating factors, which lead to increased bone resorption and further release of growth factors in a ‘vicious cycle’. The third-generation bisphosphonate zoledronic acid is a potent inhibitor of osteoclast-mediated bone resorption. It also has effects on numerous processes in the metastatic cascade, with in vitro and animal studies showing synergistic antitumour effects with a range of cytotoxic and endocrine treatments. The addition of zoledronic acid to adjuvant therapy could therefore be a therapeutic strategy of potential importance. To investigate this, the AZURE trial was designed to determine whether adjuvant zoledronic acid improves the disease-free and bone metastasis-free survival of women with stage II/III breast cancer. Recruitment of 3300 subjects was completed in January 2006. First efficacy data are expected in 2008. There is a potential for synergistic action with chemotherapy to manifest as enhanced toxicity. Reassuringly, initial safety data show that zoledronic acid is well tolerated and can be safely combined with adjuvant chemotherapy without any increase in myelotoxicity or effect on dose intensity.
WEIGHTING CUSTOMERS ’ DATA FOR MORE ACCURATE SHORT-TERM LOAD FORECAST

Disruption of the electricity supply service to the customers or the overload primary energy usage is often caused by load forecast fault. This fault, especially the short-term load forecast (STLF), occurs by unpredictable factors. One of these factors is weather effect in a load centre.The application of the load forecast model in the electrical system with the use of energy trend on the demand site, influenced by fluctuations of the weather, requires weather data from the affected electrical system areas. However, weather stations in Indonesia are limited and do not represent the electrical system areas. Although STLF research used many methods has been widely conducted in many countries, Indonesia, especially PLN (national electrical company, the only electricity provider in Indonesia) has not undertaken it. Moreover, the studies that clearly explain the coverage areas of the electrical system and how to obtain the weather data have not yet been conducted. This paper discusses a method in obtaining the weather data through weather observation sites represented the load centres in the coverage areas of electrical system. The result shows that the application of the method improved the forecasting performance.
Performance Evaluation of Preprocessing in Color Image Segmentation

In this article we address the problem of performance of preprocessing before color image-segmentation. The main goal of preprocessing is noise removal. Our interests are limited to nonlinear color filters working in the spatial domain. Most often comparing such filters is based on calculation of different quality factors (e.g. PSNR, NCD etc.). The main idea of this article is to use an evaluation function, coming from research on segmentation, to evaluate the performance of preprocessing. The experiments were realized using both original and noisy images corrupted by Gaussian and impulsive noise.
Working Paper No . E 2018 / 12 The Discount Rate Debate and Its Implications for Defined Benefit Pensions

While the Universities Superannuation Scheme recently reported the biggest deficit of any British pension fund, the union’s actuary finds no funding crisis for the scheme. The huge contrast can be explained by the current debate on whether low gilt yields imply low future returns on other asset classes. This article argues that falling interest rates since 1980s are essentially the result of successful monetary policies to control inflation, thereby the economy benefited and firms made good profits, giving rise to healthy funding level for the scheme. Since index-linked gilt yields are found to explain up to 99% variation of its past liabilities, the scheme is likely to be in surplus if a correct discount rate is used in the valuation. The implications are that many past closures of defined benefit schemes were unwarranted, expensive disputes could have been avoided and firms’ spending on such schemes are unnecessarily high. JEL: G1, G22, G23, G3
Transverse compensation of first molars in different sagittal and vertical classifications : a retrospective study using cone-beam computed tomography

The aim of this study was to examine the buccolingual inclination and intermolar arch width of first molars related to sagittal and vertical discrepancies in the Chinese population. Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) data and medical records of 236 patients were analyzed with respect to gender, developmental stage, sagittal classification, and vertical growth pattern. Independent samples t-test, analysis of variance with post-hoc test, and regression analysis were performed. The study showed (1) no statistical significance among various developmental stages. (2) males’ intermolar distances were wider than females’ in both arches, while no gender difference was found in the angular measurements. (3) maxillary first molars were the most buccally inclined (P < 0.000) in skeletal Class III subjects, while the mandibular ones were the most buccally compensated (P < 0.001) in skeletal Class II subjects. The skeletal Class III showed the widest intermolar distances with significant difference. (4) varying compensations among the different growth patterns, which showed the most buccal inclinations in the maxilla (P < 0.002) and the most lingual inclinations in the mandible (P < 0.000) for subjects in the high angle group. This study demonstrated that (1) sagittal skeletal discrepancy can affect both the buccolingual inclination and the intermolar width of the first molars and (2) vertical skeletal discrepancy can affect buccolingual inclination of the first molars. These should be taken into consideration to avoid clinical complications when planning and treating different skeletal malocclusions.
Effect of Cryotherapy on Pain Intensity among Adult Patients Receiving Intramuscular Injections

Background: Intramuscular injection (IMI) ismost frequently used but causing painful experience for many individuals. Chronic patients are experiencingrepeated injection which let them escape, sometimes faint, to keep away from visiting the doctor, or even refuse essential treatments. Cryotherapy is generallynamed as cold application which is a simple and cheap therapy,and has been accepted for decades as an effective nonpharmacologic intervention for pain management. Aim of the current study wasto evaluate the effect of cryotherapy on pain intensity among adult patients receiving IMI. Subject and Methods: Quasi–experimental time-series design was carried out in this study. The study was conducted in medical departments at MansouraUniversity Hospital. Total number of (100) participants were recruited for the purpose of the current study, using power analysis that correspond inclusion criteria. Structured interview questionnaire was used to collectdata. (1) The socio-demographic and health data, (2) Universal pain assessment tool and (3) ObservationChecklist of nonverbal pain indicator (OCNPI). Results showed significant positive relation of pain scores before and after the intervention. The study concluded thatthere wasa significant positive effect of cryotherapy on reducingIMI pain. The hypothesis of the present study was accepted whereaspatients who gotcryotherapy communicated lower pain intensity incontrast with patients who did not getcryotherapy during IMI insertion.It wasrecommended thatmedical departments can apply cryotherapy technique toreduce needle puncture pain for IMI in routine care. Keyword: Intramuscular Injection, Cryotherapy, Pain
IMST: A Revisited Turkish Dependency Treebank

In this paper, we present a critical analysis of the dependency annotation framework used in the METU-Sabancı Treebank (MST), and propose new annotation schemes that would alleviate the issues we have identified. Later, we describe our attempt at reannotating the treebank from the ground up using the proposed schemes, and then compare the consistencies of the two versions via cross-validation using a dependency parser. According to our experiments, the reannotated version of the original treebank, which we call the ITU-METU-Sabancı Treebank (IMST), demonstrates a labeled attachment score of 75.3% and an unlabeled attachment score of 83.7%, surpassing the corresponding scores of 65.9% and 76.0% for MST by a very large margin.
Intrathecal administration of dexmedetomidine attenuates the development of morphine tolerance via suppression of HMGB 1-mediated neuro-inflammation in the spinal cord

Morphine loses analgesic potency after repetitive administration. Inflammation in the spinal cord has been highlighted as an important contributor to morphine tolerance. Dexmedetomidine, a α2-adrenoceptor agonist widely used as a sedative in clinical settings, has been demonstrated to possess anti-inflammation properties in various experimental models. Thus, it was speculated that intrathecal administration of dexmedetomidine would attenuate the development of morphine tolerance via suppression of neuroinflammation in the spinal cord. The present study found that intrathecal administration of dexmedetomidine (1.5 μg daily for consecutive seven days) maintained the anti-nociceptive effects of morphine, as assessed by the tail flick test. It also reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine (IL-1β and TNF-α) expression and suppressed microglia activation, as indicated by decreases of Iba-1 (a microglia marker) protein expression and Iba-1-positive cell densities in the spinal cords of morphine-tolerant rats. In addition, repetitive morphine injections resulted in a marked increase of cytosolic HMGB1 expression in the spinal cord, attenuated by dexmedetomidine administration. However, the intrathecal co-administration of rHMGB1 (0.5 μg daily) with dexmedetomidine blocked the negative effects of dexmedetomidine on IL-1β and TNF-α expression and microglial activation in the spinal cord. Moreover, behavioral tests showed that intrathecal rHMGB1 abrogated the effects of dexmedetomidine on maintaining the anti-nociceptive effects of morphine. In conclusion, intrathecal administration of dexmedetomidine is an effective approach for the prevention of tolerance to morphine analgesia. These effects may be related to the inhibitory action of dexmedetomidine on HMGB1-mediated neuroinflammation in the spinal cord.
Higher Education Assessing the Students ' Evaluations of Educational Quality ( SEEQ ) questionnaire in Greek higher education

The aim of the current study was to provide a valid and reliable instrument for the evaluation of the teaching effectiveness in the Greek higher education system. Other objectives of the study were: (a) the examination of the dimensionality and the higher-order structure of the Greek version of Students’ Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) questionnaire, and (b) the investigation of the effects of several background variables on Students’ Evaluations of Teaching (SET) scores provided by the Greek version of SEEQ. 1264 students participated by filling in the questionnaires administered to them. The participants were selected from social science departments that belonged to eight universities of Greece. The results showed solid evidence of the applicability of the Greek version of SEEQ, by confirming the factor structure of the instrument and reassuring the multidimensionality of the teaching effectiveness construct. Additionally, the effects of several background variables on teaching effectiveness further supported the validity of SET scores. abstract Click here to download abstract: EvaluatingSEEQinGreekHigherEducation_Abstract. docx
Kinematics of Self-Centering Steel Plate Shear Walls with NewZ-BREAKSS Post-Tensioned Rocking Connection

This paper presents information on the combined contribution of post-tensioning and beam-to-column joint rocking connections in selfcentering steel plate shear walls (SC-SPSWs) with the NewZ-BREAKSS connection (i.e., NZ-SC-SPSW). Detailed free-body diagrams developed and presented in this paper provide insights on the basic, fundamental kinematic behavior of this lateral force-resisting system. The fundamental equations presented provide information on the behavior of SC-SPSWs and are suitable to facilitate design. These are needed for the implementation and understanding of these types of self-centering steel frame systems.
ECONOMIC POLICY INCENTIVES ENCOURAGING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION : A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LITHUANIAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR 2007-2013 AND 2014-2020

The new European Union’s financial perspective for rural development policy started in 2014 bringing the need to assess the results of past policies and to design future rural development in line with new strategic objectives. While the Rural Development programme for Lithuania for 2014-2020 being still under development it is important to implement ex-ante evaluation of economic incentives being created (maintained) under these programmes in order to detect relative changes in economic policy incentives encouraging agricultural production in the future. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to define relative changes in economic policy incentives encouraging agricultural production being created by the structural support for agriculture under the Rural Development programme for Lithuania for 2014-2020. For that purpose measures aimed at support for business entities (producers) under the Rural Development programmes for 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 are compared. The results of the comparative analysis reveal that total support and its intensity is decreasing in the period 2014-2020 compared to that in the period 2007-2013. The decrease of support can induce lagging in structural changes or advancement in productivity as an option to overcome structural deficiencies.
Remarks on amplitude equation and Rayleigh quotient for free vibration of structures with cubic non-linearity

In the paper, several aspects concerning the formulation and solution of amplitude equations for free vibration of systems with cubic non-linearity is discussed in details. The well-known concept of the Rayleigh quotient is extended to a non-linear case of interest. Moreover, the introduced Rayleigh quotient is used to develop a new and efficient method to solve amplitude equations. The accuracy of solutions obtained by means of some widely used methods of analysis of free vibration problems is also analysed. It was found that the Galerkin method gives us most accurate results.
Spatial distributions of major phytoplankton community components in Narragansett Bay at the peak of the winter-spring bloom

The horizontal distribution of phytoplankton in western Narragansett Bay at the height of the 1978 winter-spring bloom was characterized using data from an airborne fluorosensor to extend in situ point measurements of chlorophyll a and phytoplankton population composition to linear or area coverage. At the same time, the performance of the remote fluorosensor was evaluated by a comparison of remote and in situ measurements of total chlorophyll a and phytoplankton population composition at coincident sample points. Three types of phytoplankton patchiness were observed; the winter-spring diatom bloom and two types of smaller features superimposed upon it. Distributions of the two major components of the phytoplankton, the diatoms and the flagellates, indicated a unique pattern of patchiness for each component. These patterns reflected differences in the effects of winds, tides, salinity, light and distribution of nutrients on the two components. Correlation between remote and water column measurements of the same or similar parameters was generally excellent, although remote measurements can presently only grossly characterize phytoplankton population composition. The combination of the remote fluorescence and selected in situ measurements was found to be a promising approach to the study of phytoplankton patchiness in estuarine and coastal shelf waters.
Machine learning in design exploration: An investigation of the sensitivities of ANN-based daylight predictions

The use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) promises greater efficiency in the assessment of daylight situations than simulations. With the daylight factor under scrutiny and the recent adaptation of climate-based daylight metrics in British and European buildings standards, ANNs provide a possibility for instantaneous feedback on otherwise time-consuming performance metrices. This study demonstrates the application of ANNs as prediction systems in design exploration. A specific focus of the research is the flexibility of ANNs, their reliability and sensitivity to changes.
Diagnostic Usefulness of 18 F-FDG PET / CT in Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Patients with Elevated Serum Thyroglobulin or Thyroglobulin Antibody Levels

Objective: To evaluate diagnostic accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT in detection of recurrence or metastases in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients with elevated stimulated thyroglobulin (sTg) or thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) levels but negative 131I whole body scan (131I WBS). Material and Method: Between January 2007 and December 2014, 38 18F-FDG PET/CT examinations in 38 DTC patients with elevated sTg levels (10 ng/ml or greater, n = 33) or elevated TgAb levels (40.0 IU/ml or greater, n = 5) but negative post-therapeutic 131I WBS or diagnostic 131I WBS were included. All patients underwent total thyroidectomy and radioiodine ablation. The 18F-FDG PET/CT findings were compared with histologic (n = 16) or clinical follow-up results based on serum Tg/TgAb levels or other imaging modalities. Duration of follow-up ranged from six months to seven years (median duration = 30 months). Results: Thirty-two studies showed true positive lesions of local recurrence (n = 23, 60.5%), distant metastases (n = 2, 5.3%) and both local recurrence and distant metastases (n = 7, 18.4%). One study (2.6%) was considered as false positive lesions at cervical nodes, which was confirmed by histological result. Four studies (10.5%) were confirmed true negative results. A patient with no abnormal 18F-FDG avidity in subcentimeter cervical lymph nodes was clarified as false negative, as subsequent follow-up results showed slow rising of Tg levels with suggestion of cervical node metastases demonstrated by neck ultrasonography. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT in the present study were 96.9%, 80%, and 94.7%, respectively. Additional information of previously undiagnosed lesions was found in seven patients i.e., meningioma and metastatic lesions in brain, bone, liver, muscle, and soft tissue. Conclusion: The 18F-FDG PET/CT is useful for detection and localization of recurrence or metastases in DTC patients with negative 131I WBS but elevated sTg or TgAb levels. This technique also provides useful additional findings for appropriate management of these patients.
Forecasting in Macroeconomics ( in preparation for the Handbook of Research Methods and Applications on Empirical Macroeconomics ) Ra ¤

This chapter reviews forecasting methodologies that are useful for macroeconomists. The goal is to provide guidance to macroeconomists regarding which methods to use when facing a particular forecasting problem at hand. The chapter is divided in two parts. The rst part is an overview of econometric methods available for forecast evaluation, including both traditional methods as well as new methodologies that are robust to instabilities. The second part addresses speci c issues of importance in practice, including forecasting output growth and ination as well as the use of real-time data and structural models for forecasting.
THE EFFECT OF INTERNAL MARKETING TOWARDS CUSTOMER-ORIENTED BEHAVIOR ( CASE STUDY : IRANIAN BANKING INDUSTRY ) *

This study seeks to investigate the effect of internal marketing towards customer-oriented behavior in Tejarat bank in Ahvaz. For this purpose this study employed a structural questionnaire to collect information from 270 staffs in Tejarat bank using random sampling and stratified sampling methods. For analyzing the research hypothesis, this study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structure equation modeling (SEM) using Amos 20. The results show the significant effect of job satisfaction as a most effective factor on the customer-oriented behavior, following by authorized autonomy and value of needs on the customer-oriented behavior. Moreover attitude, emotional labor and authorized autonomy significantly and positively influence on job satisfaction. Adjusted R-square was 0.70 and 0.71 for job satisfaction and customer-oriented behavior respectively which are more than 0.50. This finding will be useful for financial institutions and managers for applying marketing strategies towards customer-oriented behavior. In addition, this result can use for further research and it will help researcher in this area.