Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of ethanol on different organs and on FCR in quails (Coturnlx japonica).

A study was planned to investigate the effects of different doses of ethanol on body organs of Japanese quails. A total of 120 quails were randomly divided into five groups, A, B, C, D and E. Quails of groups A, B, C and D were given ethanol at concentrations of 2, 4, 8 and 16%, respectively in drinking water for four weeks, while birds of group E served as untreated control. The results at the end of 4 th week revealed a significant effect on relative weight of heart, kidney and lungs in most treated groups. The increase in heart and lung weight was significant (P<0.05) in quail given 4% and higher ethanol, of kidney given 2 to 8% ethanol, while statistically no effect was observed on relative weight of liver. The relative weight of the proventriculus and the intestine at 4 th week also showed statistically no difference compared to control group. However, the weight of the gizzard at 4 th week increased significantly (P0.05) in groups given 8 to 16% ethanol and the increase was 42% in these groups compared with control group. The lymphoid organs at the end of 4 th week revealed significant difference in weight of the bursa of Fabricius in quails given 16% ethanol and of the thymus in quails given 4 to 16% ethanol. Statistically, no difference was observed in spleen weight of treated groups compared to control group. The gross and light microscopic examination failed to reveal significant changes in these organs with routine methods of examination. Ethanol showed a significant effect on feed conversion ratio which was poor in ethanol treated groups; at the end of 4 th week, it varied from 232 to 442% in groups given 8 and 16% ethanol, respectively. These data suggest that ethanol has significant effects on relative weight of heart, kidney, lungs, thymus, and on feed conversion ratio in the Japanese quails.
Strategic Product Pre-Announcements in Markets with Network Effects

It is a widely adopted practice for firms to announce new products well in advance of actual market availability. The incentives for pre-announcements are stronger in markets with network effects because they can be used to induce the delay of consumers' purchases and forestall the build-up of rival products' installed bases. However, such announcements often are not fulfilled, raising antitrust concerns. We analyze the effects of product pre-announcements in the presence of network effects when firms are allowed to strategically make false announcements. We also discuss their implications for consumer welfare and anti-trust policy.
Young Adults Failure to Thrive Syndrome

Many young working age adults in developed countries are failing to thrive in economic, demographic and social terms. Their failure to thrive is a relatively new phenomenon that has not been widely recognized, but it affects young adults in virtually all the more developed countries for which we have relevant data. Young adults nowadays are more often in poverty. They are leaving their parental homes at ever later ages and in some countries the frequency of psychological problems increased. The seriousness of failure to thrive syndrome is reflected in the relationship between relative economic conditions and increased suicide rates. The syndrome is important because young adults are at the prime ages for finding employment, establishing long-run career paths and building an economic basis for founding a family. Developing strategies to arrest the spread of failure to thrive syndrome among young adults, in order to keep them vibrant contributors to our societies, should be a priority for policy makers.
Empirical Study of the Affecting Statistical Education on Customer Relationship Management and Customer Value in Hi-tech Industry

Customer resources is getting important when global economic competitiveness becomes serious as well as foreign advanced technology and talents flow more rapidly and become the development mainstream of Customer Relationship Management. Successful statistics education could integrate customer resources and Customer Relationship Management as well as enhance customer acquisition and create profits for higher return on investment. Besides, providing correct product information for suitable customers at proper time could reinforce customer relationship. Aiming at supervisors and employees in high-tech manufacturers in Hsinchu Science Park, total 500 copies of questionnaire are randomly distributed, and 388 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 78%. The research results conclude significant correlations between 1.statistics education and Customer Relationship Management, 2.Customer Relationship Management and customer value, and 3.statistics education and customer value. According to the results, suggestions are proposed, expecting to have domestic high-tech manufacturers keep long-term relationship with customers through Customer Relationship Management to further enhance customer value and create the market competitiveness.
Optimization of a prognostic biosphere model for terrestrial biomass and atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> variability

Abstract. This study investigates the capacity of a prognostic biosphere model to simulate global variability in atmospheric CO2 concentrations and vegetation carbon dynamics under current environmental conditions. Global data sets of atmospheric CO2 concentrations, above-ground biomass (AGB), and net primary productivity (NPP) in terrestrial vegetation were assimilated into the biosphere model using an inverse modeling method combined with an atmospheric transport model. In this process, the optimal physiological parameters of the biosphere model were estimated by minimizing the misfit between observed and modeled values, and parameters were generated to characterize various biome types. Results obtained using the model with the optimized parameters correspond to the observed seasonal variations in CO2 concentration and their annual amplitudes in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In simulating the mean annual AGB and NPP, the model shows improvements in estimating the mean magnitudes and probability distributions for each biome, as compared with results obtained using prior simulation parameters. However, the model is less efficient in its simulation of AGB for forest type biomes. This misfit suggests that more accurate values of input parameters, specifically, grid mean AGB values and seasonal variabilities in physiological parameters, are required to improve the performance of the simulation model.
Population Genetics of Greater Sage-Grouse in Strawberry Valley, Utah

Population Genetics of Greater Sage-Grouse in Strawberry Valley, Utah Paula Suzanne Dunken Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, BYU Master of Science This study examined population genetics of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Strawberry Valley, Utah located in the north-central part of the state. The Strawberry Valley population of sage-grouse experienced a severe population decline with estimates of abundance in 1998 less than 5% (~150 individuals) of similar estimates from the 1930s (>3,000 individuals). Given the population decline and reduced genetic diversity, recovery team partners translocated sage-grouse from four different populations into Strawberry Valley over 6 years (2003-2008). Translocations have been used as a strategy to increase both population size and genetic diversity in wildlife populations. We assessed whether genetic diversity increased following the translocation of sage-grouse into Strawberry Valley by looking at both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA indices. We observed an overall increase of 16 microsatellite alleles across the 15 loci studied (x̅ =1.04 alleles per locus increase, SE ± 0.25). Haplotype diversity increased from 4 to 5. Levels of genetic diversity increased for both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA (16% and 25% increases for allelic richness and haplotype diversity, respectively). These results show that translocations of greater sage grouse into a wild population can be an effective tool to increase not only population size but also genetic diversity. Second, we studied fitness-related traits and related them to genetic diversity indices in a population of greater sage-grouse in Strawberry Valley, Utah from 2005 to 2013. We captured 93 sage-grouse in Strawberry Valley and fitted them with a radio collar and drew and preserved blood. We monitored sage-grouse weekly, throughout each year. From blood, we extracted and amplified DNA with 15 microsatellite loci. We determined genetic diversity as multilocus heterozygosity and mean d. To determine if there was a relationship between genetic diversity and survival, we used known-fate models in Program MARK. We also determined if there was a relationship between genetic diversity measures and nest initiation, nest success, clutch size, and number of eggs hatched using generalized linear models where reproductive measures were modeled as a function of genetic diversity. We found no significant relationship between mean d and microsatellite heterozygosity with measures of survival or reproductive fitness. Overall, these results suggest that the often-reported strong heterozygosity-fitness correlations detected in small, inbred populations do not reflect a general phenomenon of increasing individual survival and reproductive fitness with increasing heterozygosity.
Development of fibre optic ingress/egress methods for smart composite structures

The fibre optic ingress/egress is one of the important issues for the application of fibre optic sensors to real structures because the optical fibre is so fragile at the ingress/egress point. Little attention has been paid to methods of practically accessing embedded optical fibres in the literature of sensor activities. In this paper, we propose the novel out-of-plane ingress/egress method to improve the limit of the existing in-plane ingress/egress method. For the safety of the embedded optical fibre, we developed a component to protect the optical fibre at the ingress/egress point and a preservation method for an optical fibre against the composite curing environment of high temperature and pressure. We also developed an optical connection fixture to integrate the connection part and a composite structure. Some tests were performed to confirm the safety and survivability of the embedded optical fibre using the devised ingress/egress method.
Evaluating the Employment of Technical Indicators in Predicting Stock Price Index Variations Using Artificial Neural Networks (Case Study: Tehran Stock Exchange)

Stock price index is the initial significant factor influencing on investors' financial decision making. That's why predicting the exact movements of stock price index is considerably regarded. This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of using technical indicators, such as Moving Average, RSI, CCI, MACD, etc in predicting movements of Tehran Exchange Price Index (TEPIX). An artificial neural network is employed for stock price index forecasting. The existing data are achieved from Tehran Stock Exchange. To capture the relationship between the technical indicators and the levels of the index in the market for the period under investigation, a back propagation neural network is used. The statistical and financial performance of this technique is evaluated and empirical results revealed that artificial neural networks are dominant tools for financial market predicting.
IS WAGNER’S THEORY RELEVANT IN EXPLAINING HEALTH EXPENDITURE DYNAMICS IN BOTSWANA?

This study tests the relevance of the Wagner’s theory in explaining the health expenditure in Botswana. There is no consensus yet when it comes to the causality relationship between health expenditure and economy. At the moment, there are four dominant schools of thought explaining the causality relationship between health expenditure and economy. The first school of thought is that health expenditure spurs the economy whilst the second school of thought says that the economy drives health expenditure. The third school of thought maintains that there is a feedback effect between health expenditure and the economy whilst the fourth mentions that there is no causality at all between the two variables. However, this study found out that there is no causality relationship between health expenditure and GDP in Botswana thereby dismissing the relevance of the Wagner’s theory.
Examining the determinants of information systems utilization in the public sector of developing countries

There is plenty of research about information systems adoption and utilization in the extant literature; however, most of it is focused on the context of developed countries. Less attention has been paid for studying the utilization determinants on the context of public organizations in the least developed countries. This paper tries to shed some light on IS utilization determinants in a 3rd world country with special economic and cultural characteristics, Yemen. The study amended the well-known technology acceptance model (TAM) by adding the factors: Organizational culture, Individual factors, Gender, and Perceived Personal Benefit to the original version. Data was collected quantitatively from 139 employees of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour (MoSAL) - Yemen, whom their jobs involve using IT. Using SmartPLS software, PLS-SEM method was used to check the reliability of measurement model, and to assess the structural model. The results provided a statistical evidence of the proposed hypotheses, as organizational culture was influential in deciding perceived usefulness and perceived personal benefit for the respondents, which is consistent with previous research. The results also demonstrated the role of gender in moderating both hypothesized relationships; this emphasized the importance of gender in the context of the study and similar contexts, which was rarely focused on in the previous research. Finally, the model showed a good predictive power since 65% of the focal factor, behavioral intention, was explained by its relationships with the other factors.
Mixed Carbonate–Siliciclastic Sedimentation Along the Great Barrier Reef Upper Slope: A Challenge To the Reciprocal Sedimentation Model

Abstract Results of studies involving numerous cores and ODP holes along the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) margin and adjacent Queensland Trough and Queensland Plateau have challenged the use of a reciprocal sedimentation model to describe the sedimentary response of slope and basin settings to glacioeustatic sea-level fluctuations. Upper-slope sedimentation results from the relationships between sea-level fluctuations, antecedent topography, and regional climate that play an important role in the type and amount of sediment deposited on the upper slope during glacial, deglacial, and interglacial times. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, > 20 ka ago) upper-slope sediments generally lacked siliciclastic material and are characterized by very low accumulation rates, whereas early deglacial-time (Termination I, TI) deposits are dominated by a siliciclastic and neritic carbonate pulse. Siliciclastic sedimentation was significantly reduced in the Holocene, while carbonate sedimentation remains elevated. A new borehole, IODP Expedition 325 Hole M0058A (Hole 58A), recovered 82% of a 40.4 m hole on the upper slope east of Noggin Passage on the central GBR margin near Cairns, Australia. Hole 58A provides a detailed sedimentary record during Termination II (TII), Marine Isotope Stage 6/5e (MIS-6/5e), deglacial transition, and through most of interglacial MIS-5. This hole, along with two others (ODP Leg 133 Holes 820A and 819A from the upper slope east of Grafton Passage), show carbonate–siliciclastic cyclicity as the result of glacioeustatic change with the GBR shelf. Sedimentation at Hole 58A is consistent with that of previous studies along the GBR margin (focusing on the LGM to present), and extends the upper-slope sedimentary record back to TII and interglacial MIS-5. A siliciclastic pulse similar to the one during TI occurred during the penultimate deglaciation, TII; however, the maximum neritic aragonite export to the upper slope occurred not during peak MIS-5e highstand when sea level was a few meters above modern position, but subsequently during a time (MIS-5d to 5a) when lowered sea level fluctuated between 30 and 50 m below present sea level. Siliciclastic sediments were reworked and exported to the upper slope when the lowstand fluvial plain was re-flooded, whereas neritic carbonate export to the slope reached a maximum when sea level fell and much of the mid to outer shelf re-entered the photic zone, subsequent to a drowning interval. Thus, this analysis refines the mixed-sedimentation models of upper-slope sedimentation along the central GBR margin during the penultimate deglacial transgression and subsequent interglacial early and late highstand. This study provides further evidence that mixed carbonate–siliciclastic margins do not always behave in a predictable manner and that mixed margins both modern and ancient would benefit from detailed study of sediment transport in the context of sea-level rise and fall.
A Stochastic Model On The Time To Recruitment For A Single Grade Manpower System With Two Types Of Attrition Using Univariate Policy Of Recruitment

In this paper, the problem of time to recruitment is studied for a single grade manpower system with attrition, generated by a geometric process of inter-policy decision times, using a univariate policy of recruitment based on shock model approach. An alternate probabilistic analysis is used to derive the analytical result for variance of the time to recruitment for different cases on the distribution of the threshold for the cumulative loss of manpower in the organization
Effects of Experimental Parameters on the Extraction of Silica and Carbonation of Blast Furnace Slag at Atmospheric Pressure in Low-Concentration Acetic Acid

Blast furnace slag (BFS), a calcium-rich industrial byproduct, has been utilized since 2005 as a mineral carbonation feedstock for CO2 sequestration, producing calcium carbonate precipitates. In this study, the conditions for the dissolution of Ca and Si in acetic acid, and subsequent carbonation, were elaborated. For this purpose, the retardation of the polymerization of silicon was attempted by varying the concentration of acetic acid, temperature, and leaching time. An inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis revealed that both the Ca and Si dissolved completely within 30 min in 5% acetic acid at room temperature. This high dissolution value can be attributed to the fact that Ca was bound to O rather than to Si, as determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The use of CO2-absorbed monoethanolamine enabled the complete carbonation of BFS at ambient conditions without the need for a pH swing. The presence of dissolved silica was found to affect the polymorphs of the precipitated CaCO3. We believe that this process offers a simple method for manipulating the composites of products obtained by mineral carbonation diminishing the leaching residues.
ACADEMIC WRITING TASKS

A study explored academic writing from the students' side of the desk, examining how different tasks and writing situations influenced students' approaches. The study used interviews and process logs to examine how 13 college freshmen interpreted writing assignments in a variety of courses (sociology, engineering, and literature) and how these interpretations differed from their instructors' intentions. Results indicated that: (1) students' responses to assignments depended upon what they were actually rewarded for producing; and (2) in some situations, students relied on short cuts to produce papers and failed to engage in the kinds of learning activities that assignments were designed to promote. Findings suggest that students draw from a range of individual and situational resources in their efforts to define and complete assignments and that these factors can interact in complex ways to shape students' approaches. (Thirty-nine references and guidelines for a paper for a sociology course are attached.) (RS) **************************************X******************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******. ****************************************************************
Surgical treatment of lumbar disc herniation in Aceh, Indonesia: description in 28 patients

Introduction: Several studies have reported the incidence of herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP) in some hospitals. Surgery is one of the options in HNP management. HNP surgery results in Aceh have not been reported yet. Therefore, this study reported the HNP surgery in Zainoel Abidin General Hospital, Banda Aceh period 2010-2012. Methods: This was a descriptive retrospective survey conducted in Zainoel Abidin General Hospital Banda Aceh at August-September 2012. Results: The incidence of HNP who underwent surgery was 28 patients. There was no HNP case in the age group I (0-18 years), seven patients (25%) were age group II (19-40 years), and 21 patients (75%) were age group III (over 40 years). Based on HNP location, no HNP located in the L1-L2 and L3-L4, one patient (3.57%) was L2-L3, 20 patients (71.42%) were L4-L5, three patients (10.71%) were L5-S1, and there were four HNP patients in multiple lumbar (14.28%). Laminectomy was the most common type of surgery performed (27 patients or 96.42%), followed by laminotomy (one patients or 3.57%). Conclusion: There was significant association between the incidence of HNP with age, but not with gender. In summary, the most common lumbar disc herniation was in L4-L5. Laminectomy was the most common procedure performed in HNP patient in Aceh.
SHARE PRICING OF SOUTH AFRICAN BANKING GROUPS - IMPORTANCE OF EFFICIENCY AND EARNINGS PER SHARE

Previous research findings indicate that the relevant performance of firms is one way or another, reflected in the market prices of shares. Such research is focussed on different performance components of firm individual risk (FIR), but none of the research segregates systematic and unsystematic risk of the shares to levels where the relative FIR components that were researched could be quantified in proportion to FIR level share price determinants. This brings about the objective of this research to segregate the pricing of shares in terms of market and firm specific factors with the intention to quantify the association of relative bank efficiency and earnings performance with the pricing of South African bank shares. The study draws a parallel between the actual significance of measured efficiency and earnings per share (EPS) with share pricing and quantified FIR. Within this context the comparative significance of measured efficiency and EPS are explored to investigate the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) prevalence. An analysis of efficiency and share price relationships at different financial year time points shows a semi-strong form of the EMH in both the pre-Global Financial Crises (GFC) and GFC periods. This indicates that the application of an active investment strategy by investors based on efficiency measures may be beneficial. The impact of EPS as contributing determinant of share prices increased during the GFC period compared to the pre-GFC period, but reflects a strong form of the EMH.