Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Growth curves for three strains of cattle

The objective of the present study was to compare growth curves for live weight (LW) and body size of three strains of female dairy cattle reared under common environments in Ireland. One strain (HP) was selected from a predominantly North-American/European Holstein-Friesian genetic pool selected for high milk production. The second strain (HD) represented a predominantly North-American/European Holstein-Friesian genetic pool selected for high milk production but with greater selection emphasis on functional non-production traits. The third strain (NZ) consisted of New Zealand Holstein-Friesian females of high genetic merit for profitability in New Zealand. The data consisted of 99 animals (33 animals in each strain) with records on LW, length, girth and height from birth to a minimum of 594 days of age. The von Bertalanffy growth function was fitted to each animal’s records separately and least-squares analyses were used to investigate the effect of strain on birth LW/body size, parameters of the growth function and average daily gains. Average mature live weight of the HD animals (591 kg) was significantly larger than that of the HP (566 kg) or NZ (543 kg) strain; the HD strain matured more slowly. The HD (134 cm) and HP (135 cm) strains were significantly taller than the NZ (128 cm) strain. Although the data set was relatively small there are indications that dairy females of North-American genetic origin were heavier at birth, grew faster, and were heavier and taller at maturity than dairy females of New Zealand origin.
Do birds of a feather flock together? Empirical evidence from the Generalized Approach to Tourist Ethnocentrism (GATE)

Beyond the scope of the home country’s economy, the present study investigates the effects of ethnocentrism on the cognitive, affective and conative image of a destination, in view of perceptions of cultural distance. Two datasets were collected in the city of Pretoria (South Africa) through structured surveys proposing either Japan (n=346) or Zimbabwe (n=302) as destinations. Psychometric properties as well as model-fit, robustness, and measurement invariance of the composite were confirmed. Ethnocentrism was found to negatively affect the image of less competitive destinations. Cognitive states mediated the positive effects with respect to Japan, whereas the negative effects towards Zimbabwe were explained by affective states. Japan maintained a positive image irrespective of ethnocentrism levels. No significant differences were found in the way ethnocentrism affects destination image across groups displaying different perceptions of cultural distance. This study is set to advance the current knowledge on tourist decision-making beyond marketing mix and socio-demographic variables.
'Neighbors as Competitors' or 'Neighbors as Partners': How Does Market Segmentation Affect Regional Energy Efficiency in China?

Existing studies have focused on the negative impact of inefficient resource allocation on energy performance in China’s factor market, but neglected to further explore the underlying reason for this phenomenon from the perspective of market segmentation. In this paper, the epsilon-based measure model, which combines the merits of radial and non-radial Data Envelopment Analysis, is employed to measure the energy efficiency, and price index method derived from Iceberg Transport Cost model is used to examine the degrees of market segmentation. On the basis, we use the Tobit model to empirically investigate the impact of market segmentation on China’s energy efficiency. The results show that although energy efficiency in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions, the energy efficiency gap is narrowing significantly between the eastern and central, but insignificantly between the western and eastern. Although efforts have been made towards a unified national market, the western provinces still have more segmented markets than the eastern still. Econometric analysis indicates that market segmentation is negative to China’s energy efficiency significantly. This finding remains robust even if the endogeneity is excluded and the dependent variable is re-measured by the slack-based measure model, but is of a regional heterogeneity. We also find that factor market distortion, enterprises’ R&D investment, and industrial agglomeration are three mediation mechanisms through which market segmentation affects energy efficiency. In-depth analysis indicates that there is a Race to the Top competition centering on market segmentation among Chinese local officials in geospatial and economic space, which triggers a long-term inhibition to energy efficiency.
NERU: Named Entity Recognition for German

In this paper 1, we present our Named Entity Recognition (NER) system for German – NERU (Named Entity Rules), which heavily relies on handcrafted rules as well as information gained from a cascade of existing external NER tools. The system combines large gazetteer lists, information obtained by comparison of different automatic translations and POS taggers. With NERU, we were able to achieve a score of 73.26% on the development set provided by the GermEval 2014 Named Entity Recognition Shared Task for German.
Politeness Strategies and Maxims in English for Islamic texts: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Quran

This research tackles two chapters from the Holy Quran, the sura of Prophet Yusuf, and the sura of the Cave (al-Kahf) to find out whether the theories of Leech (1983) and Brown and Levinson (1987) can be applied to find out the positive and negative politeness strategies and the politeness maxims. The Leech’s model (1983) consists of six maxims, and for Brown and Levinson (1987), consists of two major politeness strategies. It consists of two principles of politeness, where one of them is positive, and the other is negative politeness. This study aims at investigating politeness strategies, and politeness principle linguistically in two Suras from the Holy Quran, how politeness strategies and politeness maxims used within the Holy Quran. This study tries to investigate the image of the main characters in the most sacred book. A qualitative approach is employed to provide interpretations of selected verses. In this paper, we will discuss the politeness strategies, positive and negative politeness strategies, and politeness maxims. The study falls into two parts. It begins briefly to overview the theoretical framework underlying politeness, in particular discussing some definitions of politeness and politeness principle and its maxims, exploring the face theory and its strategies by Brown and Levinson, and how far these strategies affect polite style then, dealing with politeness maxims by Leech. The other part displays a practical application of what has presented theoretically. Also, the researcher examined the politeness strategies, and politeness maxims of two Suras (Yusuf and Al-Kahf). Moreover, the study observed that approximately the majority of negative politeness in two suras then positive politeness, and the last one is politeness maxims.
The Role of Empathy in Children’s Development

According to Hay (1994), empathy in children is defined as the ability to make interpretations of the beliefs, and motivations of others. Many researchers suggest that empathy is innate; even infants cry for longer durations if they hear another infant crying, suggesting possession of innate empathic abilities (Preyer, 1889). Research has also found that the presence of empathy promotes prosocial development in children. Children with prosocial tendencies (i.e., who are outgoing, empathetic, and sensitive towards others) tend to develop lower levels of aggression as they mature when compared to less prosocial children (Vivier, Pihl, Cote, & Tremblay, 2014). Moreover, children who are more empathetic have more social interactions, are better liked, and are set on a course that promotes psychological adjustment, in that they are more able to create, and maintain healthy social relationships (Vivier et al., 2014). Similarly, other studies have also documented instances in which prosocial behaviour—holding as true that prosocial tendencies reflect one’s empathic emotions—is linked with an easy-going temperament, increased sharing behaviours, higher agreeableness, increased cooperation with others, and higher competence in resolving interpersonal conflict (Hartup, Glazer, & Charlesworth, 1967; Jennings, 1975). However, at the same time, there appears to be a functional limit to empathy in children; research also demonstrates a link between empathy and dysfunctional outcomes such as mental distress, and mood dysfunction (Vivier et al., 2014). For instance, children with anxiety issues are more likely to use prosocial actions to appeal to others and avoid possible conflict. Similarly, other findings demonstrate that excessive empathic reactions and prosocial behaviours may be a warning sign of a troubled home life, especially if the child is put into a role that requires a demanding amount of responsibility, care, and concern (Hay, 1994). Further research confirms that empathy appears to be a normative trait: a characteristic that is distributed along a continuum, with the mean indicative of a normal level of healthy empathic expression (Hoffman, 2000). Building upon these propositions, I argue that an excess of empathy may be just as detrimental to development as having an empathy deficit. By focusing on the studies mentioned above, I argue that there is a normative level of empathy and that children who fall outside of this range are at higher risk of developing dysfunctional emotional capacities.
Consumer Acceptance and Adoption towards Payment-Type Fintech Services from Malaysian Perspective

Fintech is touted as a new paradigm in which information technology is driving thetransformation and innovation in the financial services industry. Fintech is evolving at a rapid speed, driven by favorable regulation, information technology and led by the consumer’s acceptance and adoption whose keen for cost reduction and improved quality of financial services. This paper conducted a descriptive analysis on consumer acceptancetowardspayment-type Fintech service by applying variables associated with Technology Acceptance Model and Diffusion of Technology. In addition, it analyzed the determinants of payment-type Fintech service adoption among Malaysian’s mobile user and the causal relationship between variables towards consumer decision in adopting payment-type Fintech service. Quantitative research and descriptive research are utilized.The outcome indicates all variable are significant except perceived ease of use and social influence.
The Impact of Transformational Leadership on Nurses’ Organizational Commitment: A Multiple Mediation Model

This study proposed that the transformational style of nursing staff supervisors inculcate commitment amongst nurses. Moreover, psychological empowerment and psychological well-being were posited as multiple meditators in the above-mentioned association, based on the tenant of conservation of resource (COR) theory. The authors have collected the survey data from the sample of (n = 299) hospital nurses working in Sargodha district of Pakistan. The bootstrap results have supported the direct, as well as indirect relationships. These findings imply that when the nursing staff perceives their leader as transformational, their psychological empowerment is enhanced, and they have higher well-being, which in turn increases their commitment to their hospitals. This study offers a better understanding of psychological states that mediate transformational leadership and organizational commitment linkage.
Uncertainty estimates and out-of-distribution detection with Sine Networks

When a network makes predictions, how can we assess the (un)certainty of those predictions? How can we know when the network does not know? A simple approach uses ensembles of networks which give a set of predictions instead of only one. However, we find that different networks often produce similar outputs even for test inputs which have nothing to do with the training inputs. A surprising remedy is replacing the usual ReLU (or sigmoid) activation functions by sin(x) and adjusting the initialization. While this has little effect inside the training distribution, it greatly enhances the ability to detect model uncertainty outside of the training distribution.
Can Enterprise Architecture Be Based on the Business Strategy?

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a set of documents describing various aspects of an organization from an integrated business and IT perspective. EA facilitates information systems planning and helps improve business and IT alignment. Traditionally, the concept of EA was closely coupled with the business strategy and mainstream EA methodologies recommend starting the EA effort from documenting the business strategy and then using it as the basis for defining the required structure of information systems. This conceptual paper discusses in detail four practical problems with the business strategy that question its value as the basis for EA initiatives. The presence of these problems challenges one of the most cherished beliefs or even axioms of the EA discipline: that EA should be based on the business strategy. This paper raises a number of questions regarding the information inputs necessary for the EA effort and calls for further research in respective directions.
A Conceptual Framework for Comparison

This article addresses the need to establish a comprehensive conceptual framework for analysing healthcare systems and their transformations. It begins by offering an overview of the current state of the art in the field, pointing to the literature’s absence of conceptual robustness in the definition of system types. By exploring the dimensions ‘financing’, ‘provision’ and ‘regulation’ of healthcare, the article then proceeds deductively in line with the ‘Weberian method of ideal-types’ to establish a taxonomy of 27 healthcare systems, of which three can be identified as ‘ideal-types’. When applying this concept, not only can differences between healthcare systems be analysed, but also changes over time. The article concludes by identifying three forms of healthcare system transformation.
Sustainability Assessment and Benchmarking in Higher Education Institutions—A Critical Reflection

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in implementing practices for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This implementation should be done in different dimensions according to a holistic and whole-school approach. Different tools have been adapted and developed to assess this integrated approach. The aim of this research is to critically reflect the existing tools to assess and benchmark ESD implementation and to discuss their applicability in two case studies. Two public Universities in Southern Europe, with headquarters in the capitals of Portugal and Spain were selected to assess and compare the integration of ESD according to a whole-school approach—Universidade Aberta in Portugal and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain. After a critical analysis of the existing tools based on literature review and a list of criteria classified by experts, two tools were selected to be applied in the case studies. The online Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System Reporting Tool was used in Universidade Aberta and Green Metrics tool was used in Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. The tools were complemented with focus group with key-actors in both universities. The results obtained allowed to identify the need to define a common objective of the assessment tools and limitations they still have. The tools need improvements on their development namely to integrate the external impact of Higher Education Institutions on sustainability, to integrate participatory processes and to assess non-traditional aspects of sustainability. This research hopes to contribute to the continuous research about the usefulness of these assessment and benchmarking tools as drivers to HEIs improve their sustainability performance and their role as agents of changes.
Addendum 2 to RIDL: Rogue In-ﬂight Data Load

—On Jan 27, 2020, we (VUSec) disclose two “new” RIDL/MDS variants at the end of another (third) embargo. We do not think either of these variants is particularly novel or interesting and they are simply “more RIDL” (focusing on ways to get data into microarchitectural buffers RIDL can leak from).
Factors affecting the adoption of an accounting information system based on UTAUT2 and its implementation in a tourism corporation

The study aimed to examine the factors affecting the adoption of accounting information system in a Jordanian context. Based on the UTAUT model our current study focused on the UTAUT2 model. This model analyses past theories and focuses on the mechanism and extension of theories. Additional factors i.e. perspectives on communication and perceived technology fit were used to extend the UTAUT2 model. The study provided a total of eight hypotheses. For testing the hypotheses the data was collected through a close ended questionnaire. The data was collected from 210 companies in Jordan. Variance based structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. Smart PLS 3 was employed to analyze the data. The results found all the factors to be significant. Hence all hypotheses were found to be supported. The findings of the study were discussed with reference to the previous studies. Moreover the limitations of the study were also highlighted.
Molten Metal Infiltration Methods to Process Metal Matrix Syntactic Foams

Metal matrix syntactic foams (MMSF) are foam composites obtained by filling hollow and/or porous particles into a metal matrix. MMSF are promising materials in defense, aerospace, automotive, marine and engineering applications. Mechanical and physical properties of MMSF can be tailored to reach better structural and/or functional behaviors by fitting processing and tailoring parameters. Some of these parameters are: reinforcement size, volume fraction, distribution of reinforcements and chemical composition. Three techniques are available to manufacture MMSF: Stir casting/vortex method (SC), powder metallurgy (P/M) and infiltration routes. Infiltration process is by far the main employed for making MMSF, it allows a large range of reinforcement (30 vol % to 78 vol %) and offers great advantages compared to other techniques. This paper reviews infiltration routes used to date, their advantages and drawbacks, the main processing parameters of each route, and a relation of representative studies developed to date on the synthesizing of MMSF by molten infiltration processes.
Effect of Maternal Iron Deficiency Anemia on Fetal Cerebral Hemo- dynamic Response by Doppler and APGAR Score

Objective: To show the effect of maternal iron deficiency anemia on fetal outcome and whether correction of anemia would improve the fetal condition or not. Study Design: 150 pregnant women were divided into 3 equal groups as follows: Group (A), (B) and (C) with Hb levels 9-10.9, 7.1-8.9 and <-7gm/dl respectively. At first visit (20-26 weeks gestation) maternal complete blood picture, serum ferritin, fetal biometry, umbilical, uterine and middle cerebral Doppler studies were done. After 10 days of treatment then at the time of delivery the same investigations were repeated to show the impact of treatment. Results: Hb level increased in the 3 groups with treatment but the difference was statistically non significant. Improvement in the umbilical, uterine and cerebral/umbilical ratio RI occurred with treatment and was more evident in group (C). IUGR and PTL were highest in group (C). Neonatal birth weight was highest in group (A). Conclusion: Treatment of iron deficiency anemia in pregnant women improves fetal outcome.
Network centrality and individual creativity: A mediated moderation of knowledge integration with network cost

This study examined peers’ perceived central network position with supervisors’ rated individual creativity. Employing three sources of data collection technique consist of 286 employees, subordinate-colleague dyads, and their respective 40 supervisors. We collected data from the employees working at controlling offices of a private commercial bank and analyzed proposed hypothesis with hierarchical analysis technique using random coefficient regression with Mplus 7.0. Employees of our sample were working in groups of 6-9 members per workgroup. Overall employees of these work groups represent higher hierarchical level employees of the bank. We examined that, network centrality is related with individual creativity directly and via mediation of knowledge integration; network cost moderated the relationship between network centrality and individual creativity and knowledge integration, however, knowledge integration mediated the relationship between the interaction of network centrality and network cost and individual creativity. Our results revealed that knowledge integration is a consequence of central network positions while network cost negatively affect creativity of centrally positioned employee. Centrally positioned employee can attenuate the negative effects of network cost by integrating knowledge available to him/her due to privileged central network position. We contributed to literature by introducing knowledge integration as a novel predictor of network centrality, network position can have both benefits and costs attached at the same time, and network position holders can enjoy knowledge benefits only when he/she has less network cost.
CMAR_A_172421 743..758

Departmento de Gastroenterología, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Institut d’ Investigacions Biomediques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain Abstract: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a highly lethal disease, mostly incurable when detected. Thus, despite advances in PC treatments, only around 7% of patients survive 5-years after diagnosis. This morbid outcome is secondary to multifactorial reasons, such as late-stage diagnosis, rapid progression and minimal response to chemotherapy. Based on these factors, it is of special relevance to identify PC high-risk individuals in order to establish preventive and early detection measures. Although most PC are sporadic, approximately 10% cases have a familial basis. No main causative gene of PC has been identified but several known germline pathogenic mutations are related with an increased risk of this tumor. These inherited cancer syndromes represent 3% of all PC. On the other hand, in 7% of cases of PC, there is a strong family history without a causative germline mutation, a situation known as familial pancreatic cancer (FPC). In recent years, there is increasing evidence supporting the benefit of genetic germline analysis in PC patients, and periodic pancreatic screening in PC high-risk patients (mainly those with a lifetime risk greater than 5%), although there is no general agreement in the group of patients and individuals to study and screen. In the present review, we expose an update in the field of hereditary and FPC, with the aim of describing the current strategies and implications in genetic counseling, surveillance and therapeutic interventions.