Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
National travel profiles part B: trips, trends and travel predictions

Using data held within the New Zealand Household Travel Survey (NZHTS), this research examined changes in travel behaviour between 2003 and 2010 and sought to determine whether travel behaviours such as journey times, mode choice, trip complexity and trip generation rates differed by area type and region. A key aim of the research was to unlock further value from the data for the benefit of transport planners and engineers. The research explored the extent to which NZHTS data could be used in a predictive context and examined a method to extract and arrange the NZHTS data into a form that would allow practitioners to quickly undertake a range of enquiries based on user-specified variables such as car ownership and household compositions to reveal area-specific travel behaviours. The research provided an additional reference source for policy makers by allowing them to view changes in travel behaviours over time that might be attributed, in part, to past and present transport policy. The research findings offer an addition to multi-modal trip generation resources for the benefit of traffic engineers and can also assist travel planning coordinators to achieve the most effective use of existing transport resources.
Summative Assessment on Student Outcomes for Tourism Program from 2013 to 2017

: This study aims to have a summative assessment of the student outcomes for the tourism program during the academic year from 2013 to 2017. This study explored the effectiveness of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) through assessing the student outcomes. With this, the researcher would like to investigate the student academic performance through their final grades on all the subjects they have taken. A Quantitative method was used for the total sample of 33 students (25 percent of total population). Among the student outcome for the tourism program, it was revealed that majority of the student is on high standing in terms of Manifesting professionalism and self-confidence in the performance of duties and responsibilities. With all the findings, the researcher proposed to upgrade the Amadeus training plan, have Micros Opera Training to other faculty members and revisit their teaching strategies for enhancement. Furthermore, it is recommended for the College of International Tourism and Hospitality Management, they may revisit their course syllabi and focus on the performance task of the student rather than focusing on the theories and knowledge-based tasks and For the Tourism Faculty to be innovative and creative in their teaching strategies to ensure higher learning capability for the students.
Relationship between Working Capital Management and Profitability of Listed Companies in the Athens Stock Exchange

In this paper we investigate the relationship of corporate profitability and working capital management. We used a sample of 131 companies listed in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) for the period of 2001-2004. The purpose of this paper is to establish a relationship that is statistically significant between profitability, the cash conversion cycle and its components for listed firms in the ASE. The results of our research showed that there is statistical significance between profitability, measured through gross operating profit, and the cash conversion cycle. Moreover managers can create profits for their companies by handling correctly the cash conversion cycle and keeping each different component (accounts receivables, accounts payables, inventory) to an optimum level.
An analytical approximation method for pricing barrier options under the double Heston model

Abstract The purpose of the paper is to provide an efficient pricing method for single barrier options under the double Heston model. By rewriting the model as a singular and regular perturbed BS model, the double Heston model can separately mimic a fast time-scale and a slow time-scale. With the singular and regular perturbation techniques, we analytically derive the first-order asymptotic expansion of the solution to a barrier option pricing partial differential equation. The convergence and efficiency of the approximate method is verified by Monte Carlo simulation. Numerical results show that the presented asymptotic pricing method is fast and accurate.
An Evaluation on the Culture Adaptation and Attitude Towards Work Environment Aboard the Ship

– The study evaluated the culture adaptation and attitude of Filipino seafarers. Specifically, determined the cultural adaptation and attitude towards work environment to test the significant relationship between the cultural adaptation and attitude towards work environment. The researcher employed the descriptive correlation method of research. This was utilized since descriptive research provides a snapshot of the affairs which directly impact the attitude and motivation of Filipino seafarers aboard international vessel. This study covered 289 respondents working in the hotel department of international cruise vessels of Magsaysay Maritime Corporation and United Philippine Lines. This includes cruise ships from Star Cruises, P&O Pacific Explorer, Star Cruises, Holand Ame.Line, M/V Turama, NSC Cruises, Costa Cruises, Carnival, Star Cruises, Celebrity Cruies, Princess Cruises, and Carnival Cruises. The researcher randomly selected 289 seafarers among international vessels. The researchers found out that the training of the employees to practice their English language and improve their communication skills and encouragement of employees to socialize in the multicultural environment onboard ship as well as ashore are of prime importance. The seafarers are provided safe and healthy working environment in terms of physical setting, whereas for emotional setting, they have decreased fear and inferiority complex. On one hand, building up language and communication skills is what seafarers need in terms of social setting. Age group of 40 years old is revealed to have significant difference in the responses in terms of work motivation-reward system. Likewise, a monthly income of P50,000 to P99,000 has also significant difference in terms of physical setting and emotional setting under work environment. It is recommended for the ship owners or cruise line companies to develop programs as measures leading to inclusive work environment towards the success for the seafarers and the company as well
What Does European Institutional Integration Tell Us About Trade Integration?

The start of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has spurred a new interest in the debate on the effects of monetary unions on regional economic integration. This literature either investigates past episodes of monetary unions or attempts to gauge any effect with a few years of EMU data. This paper takes instead a more general perspective - it investigates the link between economic integration and the overall institutional process of regional integration in Europe – of which monetary integration was only one step – over the last 50 years. We look mainly at two dimensions - European institutional integration – whose main steps were the customs union in 1968, the single market in 1993 and the single currency in 1999 – and intra-European trade. We pay special attention to the successive EU enlargements which took place in 1973, 1981, 1986, and 1995. Different facets of openness and trade linkages are presented. After looking at some descriptive links between institutional and trade integration, the paper uses some causality tests to assess the direction of causality and magnitude of impact. The evidence provided is consistent with the idea that the interaction between regional institutional and trade integration before monetary union matters. Such interaction runs in both directions, although the link from institutional to trade integration dominates. Many open questions remain, however.
History of colonisation and updated distribution of the Monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus (Linnaeus, 1758) and its hostplants in mainland Portugal, Azores and Madeira

The first observations of the Monarch butterfly ( Danaus plexippus ) in Iberia date from 1886, al - though breeding records emerged almost a century later: 1960 in Spain, 1980s–1990s in Madeira and Azores, and 2003 in mainland Portugal. We reviewed the history of the colonisation of mainland and insular Portugal by the Monarch butterfly and its hostplants ( Gomphocarpus fruticosus , G. physocarpus
Determination of critical period of crop-weed competition in greengram (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek) in the Gangetic alluvial soil of India

A field experiment was conducted in Viswavidyalaya Farm, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, during Pre-kharif season 2004 and 2005 to evaluate the critical period of crop-weed competition in summer greengram. The experiment was laidout in randomized block design (RBD) with 6 treatments replicated four times. From this experiment it was recycled that weed free from 7 or 14 DAS resulted significantly higher yield. On the contrary weed free after 28 DAS onwards did not increase the yield significantl y over unweeded control.
Clinical and Basic Cardiology

For a long time beta-blockers were considered contraindicated for use in heart failure although some experimental and clinical data already in the 1960s and 1970s suggested a beneficial role for beta-blockers in heart failure. Observations of good tolerability of i.v. beta-blockers in acute myocardial infarction and acute heart failure encouraged us to test beta-blockers also in chronic congestive heart failure. The accumulating knowledge of harmful effects from activated neurohormones and negative long-term effects by inotropic drugs eventually rendered the concept of beta-blocker treatment in heart failure more attractive. Beta-blockers are antiischaemic, antiproliferative, antiapoptotic, attenuate inflammatory cytokine, stabilise electrically unstable myocardium and reverse ventricular remodelling. Recent multicentre trials have definitely proved that beta-blockers reduce mortality and morbidity, are well tolerated and improve quality of life. Even in a subset of severe compensated heart failure beta-blockers have been shown to be safe and to reduce mortality and hospitalisation by 35–50 % in addition to conventional heart failure treatment with diuretics, digitalis and ACE-inhibitors. All patients with stable compensated systolic heart failure should therefore be challenged with a beta-blocker. Once stabi-lised on the beta-blocker most primary physicians would be able to be responsible for the long-term follow-up of these patients. J Clin Basic Cardiol 2002; 5: 215–23.
Efficacy and Safety of Low-Dose Colchicine after Myocardial Infarction.

BACKGROUND Experimental and clinical evidence support the role of inflammation in atherosclerosis and its complications. Colchicine is an orally administered, potent antiinflammatory medication that is indicated for the treatment of gout and pericarditis. METHODS We performed a randomized, double-blind trial involving patients recruited within 30 days after a myocardial infarction. The patients were randomly assigned to receive either low-dose colchicine (0.5 mg once daily) or placebo. The primary efficacy end point was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, resuscitated cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, stroke, or urgent hospitalization for angina leading to coronary revascularization. The components of the primary end point and safety were also assessed. RESULTS A total of 4745 patients were enrolled; 2366 patients were assigned to the colchicine group, and 2379 to the placebo group. Patients were followed for a median of 22.6 months. The primary end point occurred in 5.5% of the patients in the colchicine group, as compared with 7.1% of those in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61 to 0.96; P = 0.02). The hazard ratios were 0.84 (95% CI, 0.46 to 1.52) for death from cardiovascular causes, 0.83 (95% CI, 0.25 to 2.73) for resuscitated cardiac arrest, 0.91 (95% CI, 0.68 to 1.21) for myocardial infarction, 0.26 (95% CI, 0.10 to 0.70) for stroke, and 0.50 (95% CI, 0.31 to 0.81) for urgent hospitalization for angina leading to coronary revascularization. Diarrhea was reported in 9.7% of the patients in the colchicine group and in 8.9% of those in the placebo group (P = 0.35). Pneumonia was reported as a serious adverse event in 0.9% of the patients in the colchicine group and in 0.4% of those in the placebo group (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with a recent myocardial infarction, colchicine at a dose of 0.5 mg daily led to a significantly lower risk of ischemic cardiovascular events than placebo. (Funded by the Government of Quebec and others; COLCOT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02551094.).
Comparison Between CB-SEM and PLS-SEM: Testing and Confirming the Maqasid Syariah Quality of Life Measurement Model

Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is a powerful multivariate statistical analysis technique which combines both factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. It is capable of analysing the inter-relationships among latent constructs simultaneously in a model. These latent constructs are measured using certain number of items in a questionnaire. Covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM) or full SEM have become the choice for many researchers in a variety of disciplines because of their ability to evaluate complex relationships using parametric statistical approach. Researchers could also opt for Variance-based SEM (VB-SEM) or Partial Least Square-SEM (PLS-SEM) when their data failed the parametric assumptions such as multivariate normality distribution and minimum sample size. However, the approach of VB-SEM or PLS-SEM is a non-parametric instead of a parametric approach in CB-SEM. This article compared the performance of both SEM approaches using the same dataset to validate the Measurement Model for Maqasid Syariah Quality of Life (MSQoL). The findings of both analyses suggested that CB-SEM or full SEM is more appropriate to validate and confirm the MSQoL measurement model.
New insights into migration of the Cretaceous Sierran arc using high-precision U-Pb geochronology

COURTNEY L. BECK: New insights into migration of the Cretaceous Sierran arc using high-precision U-Pb geochronology (Under the direction of Drew S. Coleman) A compilation of 254 U-Pb zircon and K-Ar and Ar-Ar biotite ages for the central Sierra Nevada batholith, CA, shows no record of monotonic west-to-east migration of magmatism during the Cretaceous. Rather, spatial age variation in the central Sierra Nevada batholith is dominated by 1) a stepwise shift of the locus of magmatism 2) a west-to-east migration to the end of magmatism and 3) patterns within intrusive suites that reflect local crustal deformation. The step in magmatism was contemporaneous with the beginning of the Sierra Crest magmatic event and beginning of deformation along ductile shear zones in the eastern Sierra. At ~102 Ma, a laterally extensive shear zone formed along the eastern margin of the Cretaceous batholith and was localized and dissected by Sierra Crest plutons. Central Sierran biotite ages cluster between ~78 and 90 Ma and may reflect batholith-wide exhumation or cooling related to waning of local magmatism. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Social exclusion among students with visual impairments at UKZN Edgewood and Howard College campuses.

Title: Social exclusion amongst students with visual impairments at UKZN Howard College and Edgewood Campuses. This research used a qualitative study exploring thick descriptions, inside voices and perspectives of “otherization”, powerlessness and voiceless-ness resulting from social exclusionary processes perpetuated by social and university structures and poverty. Convenience sampling was used. Semi structured individual interviews and focus group discussions were used to explore the key research questions focusing on social and university challenges experienced by students with visual impairments at UKZN in their social and university environments. The data was interpreted through The Anti Oppressive Approach (Dominelli, 2002) which gave support to understanding how continuing to ignore marginalized persons with visual impairments out of mainstream systems of development, perpetuated “othering”, powerlessness and voicelessness. This study provided evidence of the multi dimensional and multi structural nature of the social exclusionary process with key focus on abuse of power by dominant groups (sighted persons), violation of human rights and visual impairment as confinement as experienced by students with visual impairments either in their social or university environments or both. In addition, this theory looked at the manner in which dominant or superior groups arrange resources around them to benefit them and exclude persons with disabilities. This research also gave a voice to women with visual impairments being oppressed by sighted women as well as poverty as a social exclusionary process.
Social Policy Report Giving Child and Youth Development Knowledge Away

We review what is known about Head Start’s impacts on children and argue that the program is likely to generate benefi ts to participants and society as a whole that are larger than program costs. Our conclusions differ from those in some previous reviews because we use a more appropriate standard to judge program effectiveness (benefi t-cost analysis), draw on a body of new evidence for Head Start’s long-term effects on early cohorts of participating children, and discuss why common interpretations of a recent randomized experimental evaluation of Head Start’s short-term impacts may be overly pessimistic. Estimating the long-term benefi ts of Head Start for recent participants necessarily requires a number of assumptions. But we believe there is a plausible case that short-term effects on achievement scores of . 1 to . 2 standard deviations might be large enough for Head Start to pass a benefi t-cost test. Data from the experiment imply that Head Start enrollment – as distinct from assignment to the experimental treatment group – usually generates impacts of at least this magnitude. While, in principle, there could be more benefi cial ways of deploying Head Start resources, the benefi ts of such changes remain uncertain and there is some downside risk. There is a growing scientifi c consensus that a variety of early childhood interventions generate benefi ts in excess of costs at current levels of spending, which suggests the value of increased spending in this area. However there remains considerable uncertainty about what form any additional investment should take. Additional government funding to support rigorous research to identify the relative strengths of Head Start and its alternatives, as well as the critical “active ingredients” in these programs that most effectively produce shortand long-term developmental benefi ts, would be a particularly high value-added activity.
Geometric optimal control with an application to imaging in nuclear magnetic resonance

This work addresses the contrast problem in nuclear magnetic resonance as a Mayer problem in optimal control. This is a problem motivated by improving the visible contrast in magnetic resonance imaging, in which the magnetization of the nuclei of the substances imaged are first prepared by being set to a particular configuration by an external magnetic field, the control. In particular we examine the contrast problem by saturation, wherein the magnetization of the first substance is set to zero. This system is modeled by a pair of Bloch equations representing the evolution of the magnetization vectors of the nuclei of two different substances, both influenced by the same control field. The Pontryagin maximum principle is used to reduce the problem to the analysis of so-called singular trajectories of the system, and we apply the tools of geometric optimal control. We explore the exceptional singular trajectories in detail. In this case the singular control, which is generically a feedback of the state and adjoint vectors of the Hamiltonian system, is a feedback of only the state for this problem, characterizing exceptional singular trajectories as solutions of an ordinary differential equation in the state variables. We introduce the concept of feedback equivalent control systems and results concerning quadratic differential equations, and compute a set of invariants for the quadratic approximation of exceptional singular flow to distinguish the different cases occurring in physical experiments. Additionally, Gröbner bases are employed to make an algebraic-geometric classification of the equilibrium and singular points of the exceptional dynamics.
Effect of Knee Compression on Kinetic Variables During Vertical Jumps

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine how knee compression affected kinetic variables during vertical jumps. Ten healthy males, age 20s, performed a single maximum vertical jump and a ten-consecutive vertical jump trial without knee compression (control condition) and with knee compression. The collected data of ground reaction force were used to analyse the vertical jump height (VJH), peak active force (PAF), decay rate (DR), peak passive force (PPF), loading rate (LR), and the coefficient of variation (CV). During a maximum vertical jump, knee compression increased the magnitudes of DR, PAF, and VJH by 19.8%, 3.41%, and 4.87%, respectively, compared to those under a control condition. During ten consecutive vertical jumps, PAF and VJH showed statistically significant difference according to the repetition count. Also, the mean and CV of PAF, DR, LR, and VJH over consecutive jumps were higher in magnitude under knee compression condition than under the control condition.
the Financial accelerator under learninG and the role oF Monetary Policy

The financial crisis that unraveled after the Lehman Brothers collapse affected in different degrees almost all countries around the world, independently of the direct exposure of their financial institutions to toxic assets. Most countries saw a sharp drop in demand, together with sudden increases in financial spreads and a dramatic fall in stock markets. Developed countries and many emerging market economies responded with a considerable monetary easing accompanied by unconventional central bank policies and fiscal stimulus packages to moderate the downturn in the economy. The sharp fall in assets prices was followed by a striking recovery, which has gone hand-in-hand with a reduction in financial market stress and an initial recovery in activity.1 In fact, financial conditions in many countries quickly returned to their pre-Lehman levels at the end of 2009 (figure 1). While this may, in part, reflect the strong policy responses around the world, it is also consistent with the view that market participants overreacted to the initial shock and have been adjusting their expectations upward as the crisis turned out to be milder than initially thought.
Identification of sources of resistance to the beanfly and two other agromyzid flies in soybean and mungbean.

A total of 6775 soybean and 3713 mungbean accessions was screened for resistance to the beanfly, Ophiomyia phaseoli (Tryon), and 2 other agromyzids, O. centrosematis (de Meijere), and Melanagromyza sojae (Zehntner), in mass screening trials during 2 yr. Since no immune accessions were found in the preliminary screening, we did a directional selection and screened the least affected entries a 2nd and 3rd time. We selected 16 soybean and 28 mungbean accessions that were least affected. When tested at 6 locations around Taiwan, 4 soybean and 3 mungbean accessions were least affected at all locations. These soybean accessions were highly resistant and mungbean accessions were moderately resistant to all 3 species. These accessions are now being used to breed resistance into high yield potential commercial varieties of these crops.