Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of financial technology on profitability in Jordanian commercial banks

The aim of this study is to identify the influence of Financial Technology (FinTech) on profitability in Jordanian commercial banks. The convenience sample was surveyed using a descriptive cross-sectional approach. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. The study population consists of commercial banks. The tool was sent to employees of all Jordanian commercial banks through email, Facebook and Twitter in order to meet the researchers' target sample size of at least 381 participants. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. The results showed an impact of financial technology (financing, money transfers and lending) on banks' profitability. The results of this study demonstrate that the adoption of FinTech solutions by banks has a significant impact on their profitability and position. Financing, money transfer and lending are crucial in determining a bank's profitability and overall success. Therefore, this study contributed to the growth of a new model that connects financial technology through financing, money transfers and lending to profitability and it added many topics related to financial accounting technology for increasing profitability in Jordanian commercial banks.
Development of a multiparametric model for predicting the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer

Background Choosing the appropriate treatment early and predicting the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for locally advanced breast cancer patients are of particular importance for clinicians. Developing and validating a multiparametric model for predicting NAC would be very meaningful for clinical practice. Methods This study included 91 patients with locally advanced breast cancer treated from 2016 to 2020. The correlation between multiparametric characteristics and the efficacy of NAC was examined. The data were randomly divided into training and validation sets. A least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis was used for the variable screening. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to construct the model. Calibration and decision curves were used to assess the performance of the established model. Results Lymph node metastasis, the first standard apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) at the baseline, the change in the standard ADC at the first follow-up, the change in tumor volume at the first follow-up, and the clinical stage of the tumor at the baseline were selected for inclusion in the model. In the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the areas under the curve (AUCs) were 0.984 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.958–1] and 0.815 (95% CI: 0.509–1) for the primary and validation cohorts, respectively. The utility of the established model was confirmed by calibration and decision curves, and a nomogram was obtained. Conclusions A multiparametric model based on clinical-pathological-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features was established to predict the effect of NAC in patients with locally advanced breast cancer.
What part of mining are ecosystems? Defining success for the ‘restoration’of highly disturbed landscapes

Contemporary mining activities are predicated on the expectation that (a) mining is a temporary land-use and (b) proponents should return affected lands to a suitable postdisturbance ecological condition. As such, mine closure criteria are often set with the assumption that any desired ecosystem can be established on the reconstructed landscape and near/natural recovery processes can be fostered through carefully planned environmental management. However, most mining activities are sufficiently disruptive that fundamental characteristics of the post-disturbance environment bear very little semblance to the original landscape, such as its lithology, hydrology, soil biogeochemistry, and biodiversity. Consequently, there are few examples of ‘successful’ mine site recovery demonstrating near/natural restoration. This Chapter addresses some of the primary challenges underlying mine site restoration with emphasis on the reconciliation of ecological and socio-economic expectations for highly disturbed landscapes. It is argued that there is an incongruity between the ecological targets set for mine sites vs. the limitations of ecosystem recovery following such severe and possibly irreversible alterations to natural ecosystems. Given that mining is a deliberate (and highly lucrative) disturbance activity often leading to non-natural landscape attributes, ‘traditional’ restoration approaches may not always be appropriate and altered physical and social circumstances might be expected to lead to alternative ecological outcomes. Notwithstanding these constraints, a critical objective is to achieve the highest standards of biological conservation and ecosystem stewardship, particularly in an era of global environmental change.
Crustal Thickness Beneath Libya and the Origin of Partial Melt Beneath AS Sawda Volcanic Province From Receiver Function Constraints

This study investigates crustal thickness and properties within the Libyan region. Results obtained from 15 seismic stations belonging to the Libyan Center for Remote Sensing and Space Science are reported, in addition to 3 seismic stations publically available, using receiver functions. The results show crustal thicknesses ranging from 24 km to 36 km (with uncertainties ranging between ±0.10 km and ±0.90 km). More specifically, crustal thickness ranges from 32 km to 36 km in the southern portion of the Libyan territory then becomes thinner, between 24 km and 30 km, in the coastal areas of Libya and thinnest, between 24 km and 28 km, in the Sirt Basin. The observed high Vp/Vs value of 1.91 at one station located at the AS Sawda Volcanic Province in central Libya indicates the presence of either partial melt or an abnormally warm area. This finding suggests that magma reservoirs beneath the Libyan territory may still be partially molten and active, thereby posing significant earthquake and volcanic risks. The hypothesis of an active magma source is further demonstrated though the presence of asthenospheric upwelling and extension of the Sirt Basin. This study provides a new calculation of unconsolidated sediment layers by using the arrival time of the P to S converted phases. The results show sediments thicknesses of 0.4 km to 3.7 km, with the Vp/Vs values ranging from 2.2 to 4.8. The variations in crustal thickness throughout the region are correlated with surface elevation and Bouguer gravity anomalies, which suggest that they are isostatically compensated.
Allostratigraphy, Paleogeographic Evolution and Accommodation Controls of the Lower Colorado Allogroup in West-Central Alberta, Canada (Western Canada Foreland Basin)

The Lower Colorado allogroup of the Western Canada Foreland Basin is a muddominated rock succession of marine, estuarine, and coastal plain depositional origin. Relative sea-level oscillations produced bounding discontinuities that allow the allogroup to be divided into four alloformations: the Joli Fou, Viking, Westgate, and Fish Scales. Rocks of the Lower Colorado allogroup within the study area record marine depositional environments represented by 9 facies. The facies represent depositional environments ranging from offshore marine to lower shoreface through to upper shoreface and river mouth environments. Geometric analysis of the isopach maps of the regional allomembers of the Lower Colorado allogroup has allowed the recognition and differentiation of the tectonic and eustatic contributions to the generation of accommodation patterns within the study area. Accommodation for the Joli Fou alloformation and allomembers VA and VB of the Viking alloformation were determined to be the result of eustatic changes, while allomembers VD, WB, WC, and FB were determined to be the result of tectonism. Analysis of Viking allomembers VA, VB1, and VB2 revealed multiple internal surfaces that lead to the identification and mapping of sand bodies within the Viking allomembers. This identification led to the creation of a hypothetical sea-level curve that illustrates how sea-level changed during the Viking from the transgression of VE0 to the transgression of VE3.
Heart rate dynamics and asymmetry during sympathetic activity stimulation and post-stimulation recovery in ski mountaineers—a pilot exploratory study

There is a lack of studies on non-linear heart rate (HR) variability in athletes. We aimed to assess the usefulness of short-term HR dynamics and asymmetry parameters to evaluate the neural modulation of cardiac activity based on non-stationary RR interval series by studying their changes during sympathetic nervous system activity stimulation (isometric handgrip test) and post-stimulation recovery in professional ski mountaineers. The correlation between the changes in the parameters and the respiratory rate (RespRate) and also the duration of the career was analyzed. Short-term (5 min) and ultra-short-term (1 min) rates of patterns with no variations (0V), number of acceleration runs of length 1 (AR1), and short-term Porta's Index were greater, whereas Guzik's Index (GI) was smaller during sympathetic stimulation compared to rest. GI increased and the number of AR1 decreased during recovery. Greater increases in GI and RMSSD were associated with greater decreases in RespRate during recovery. Greater increases in RespRate from rest to short-term sympathetic stimulation were associated with greater increases in 0V (Max-min method) and AR1 but also with greater decreases in decelerations of short-term variance and accelerations and decelerations of long-term variance. Greater increases in 0V (Max-min method) and number of AR1 during sympathetic stimulation were associated with a shorter career duration. Greater decreases in these parameters during recovery were associated with a longer career duration. Changes in measures of HR dynamics and asymmetry, calculated based on short-term non-stationary RRi time series induced by sympathetic stimulation and post-stimulation recovery, reflected sympathovagal shift and were associated with condition-related alterations in RespRate and career duration in athletes who practice ski mountaineering.
Sequential Observation and Selection with Rank-Dependent Payoffs : An Experimental Test

We report the results of two experiments with different parameter sets designed to study sequential observation and selection decision problems in which payoffs increase monotonically in the quality of the selected alternative. In this class of search problems, applicants are interviewed one at a time, decision makers only learn the applicant's rank relative to the applicants that have been interviewed and rejected, the decision to stop terminates the search, and payoffs decrease in the overall (and unknown) absolute rank of the selected applicant. Compared to the optimal policy, which we computed numerically, the subjects terminated their search too early in both experiments. Results from a probability estimation task conducted in Experiment 2 show that subjects overestimate the absolute quality of applicants given their relative rank. We competitively tested three behavioral decision rules and found that a multi-threshold rule, which has the same form as the optimal policy but is parameterized differently, best accounts for the data. The alternative parameterization that results in stopping too early can be explained by the estimation results from Experiment 2.
Estimating quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) for local authorities in Great Britain and its association with indicators of the inclusive economy: a cross-sectional study

Objectives Quantifying area-level inequalities in population health can help to inform policy responses. We describe an approach for estimating quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE), a comprehensive health expectancy measure, for local authorities (LAs) in Great Britain (GB). To identify potential factors accounting for LA-level QALE inequalities, we examined the association between inclusive economy indicators and QALE. Setting 361/363 LAs in GB (lower tier/district level) within the period 2018–2020. Data and methods We estimated life tables for LAs using official statistics and utility scores from an area-level linkage of the Understanding Society survey. Using the Sullivan method, we estimated QALE at birth in years with corresponding 80% CIs. To examine the association between inclusive economy indicators and QALE, we used an open access data set operationalising the inclusive economy, created by the System Science in Public Health and Health Economics Research consortium. Results Population-weighted QALE estimates across LAs in GB were lowest in Scotland (females/males: 65.1 years/64.9 years) and Wales (65.0 years/65.2 years), while they were highest in England (67.5 years/67.6 years). The range across LAs for females was from 56.3 years (80% CI 45.6 to 67.1) in Mansfield to 77.7 years (80% CI 65.11 to 90.2) in Runnymede. QALE for males ranged from 57.5 years (80% CI 40.2 to 74.7) in Merthyr Tydfil to 77.2 years (80% CI 65.4 to 89.1) in Runnymede. Indicators of the inclusive economy accounted for more than half of the variation in QALE at the LA level (adjusted R2 females/males: 50%/57%). Although more inclusivity was generally associated with higher levels of QALE at the LA level, this association was not consistent across all 13 inclusive economy indicators. Conclusions QALE can be estimated for LAs in GB, enabling further research into area-level health inequalities. The associations we identified between inclusive economy indicators and QALE highlight potential policy priorities for improving population health and reducing health inequalities.
Landsat approaches to map agro-pastoral farming in the wetlands of southern Sudan

ABSTRACT Machine-learning algorithms (MLA) are coming of age within satellite remote sensing (SRS). This study compares the performance of a number of MLAs with more traditional indices and algorithms to map annual agro-pastoralist farming activity in southern Sudan. Two Landsat images from the early dry season 2014 and 2015 were analysed thoroughly and evaluated by interpretation of farming cover from very high resolution (VHR) images on Google Earth (GE). Traditional SRS indices based upon red and near infrared (NIR) bands used for monitoring rangelands did not perform well for the wet rangeland conditions compared to the use of blue and shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands. The species distribution model programme, MaxEnt, was used to produce a continuous farming activity indices using only Landsat-derived variables. Compared to other SRS classification approaches, maximum entropy (MaxEnt) showed the best overall performance to map farming activity followed by classification tree analysis (CTA). Overall mapping agreement >95.0% was reached for most methodologies, with MaxEnt showing very high mapping agreement (≥98.5%) for both years. When the result of MaxEnt’s good performance is put together in a 2014–15 or a 1999–2002 change detection scenario, it corroborates ground reports on massive human abuses that have taken place in Unity state of southern Sudan.
Long‐Term Warming Trends in Korea and Contribution of Urbanization: An Updated Assessment

This study conducted an updated analysis of the long‐term temperature trends over South Korea and reassessed the contribution of the urbanization effect to the local warming trends. Linear trends were analyzed for three different periods over South Korea in order to consider possible inhomogeneity due to changes in the number of available stations: recent 103 years (1912–2014), 61 years (1954–2014), and 42 years (1973–2014). The local temperature has increased by 1.90°C, 1.35°C, and 0.99°C during the three periods, respectively, which are found 1.4–2.6 times larger than the global land mean trends. The countries located in the northern middle and high latitudes exhibit similar warming trends (about 1.5 times stronger than the global mean), suggesting a weak influence of urbanization on the local warming over South Korea. Urbanization contribution is assessed using two methods. First, results from “city minus rural” methods showed that 30–45% of the local warming trends during recent four decades are likely due to the urbanization effect, depending on station classification methods and analysis periods. Results from an “observation minus reanalysis” method using the Twentieth Century Reanalysis (20CR) data sets (v2 and v2c) indicated about 25–30% contribution of the urbanization effect to the local warming trend during the recent six decades. However, the urbanization contribution was estimated as low as 3–11% when considering the century‐long period. Our results confirm large uncertainties in the estimation of urbanization contribution when using shorter‐term periods and suggest that the urbanization contribution to the century‐long warming trends could be much lower.
Kink mode oscillation of the current sheet

Oscillations of the current sheet observed by the Cluster spacecraft are investigated, using the special ability of Cluster to separate between spatial and temporal variations. We find that before substorm onset, a thin current sheet moves with a velocity of 10 km/s mainly in the vertical direction; after substorm onset the current sheet thickens and moves with greater velocity, ∼25 km/s. Oscillations of the current sheet observed before and after substorm onset can well be interpreted and modeled as a driven magnetoacoustic, with different values for the (Harris) current sheet half thickness and the current sheet velocity before and after substorm onset. The damping rate of the wave can be shown to be related to the thickening rate of the current sheet.
The Role of Oxidative Stress in TB Meningitis and Therapeutic Options

Meningitis is an inflammatory condition affecting the meninges surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis can be triggered by various factors, including infectious agents like viruses and bacteria and non-infectious contributors such as cancer or head injuries. The impact of meningitis on the central nervous system involves disruptions in the blood–brain barrier, cellular infiltrations, and structural alterations. The clinical features that differentiate between tuberculous meningitis (TBM) and non-tuberculous meningitis (NTM) are discussed in this review and aid in accurate diagnosis. The intricate interplay of reactive oxygen species, ferroptosis, and reactive nitrogen species within the central nervous system reveals a promising field of research for innovative therapeutic strategies tailored to TBM. This review highlights the alternative treatments targeting oxidative stress-induced TBM and ferroptosis, providing potential avenues for intervention in the pathogenesis of this complex condition.
Heard and Seen: Developing Inclusive Activities for Enabling the Voices of Children with Disabilities in Oral Health Research

The Convention on the Rights of the Child argues for children’s involvement in research. Oral health research frequently excludes children with disabilities and their voices. This study takes a rights-based approach by devising methods to include disabled children in oral health research. This is an ethnographic study. Methods utilized interviews, guided tours, symbols, drawings, pictures, and games. The selection of method depended on the ability and preference of each child. Using pictures and games as prompts enabled child participation. The guided tour activity facilitated the development of relationships with the children. It also increased their ability to chat informally and appeared to reduce power imbalances compared to formal, structured interviewing. Focus group interviews, symbols, and drawings acted as barriers to children’s participation. Involving children with disabilities in oral health research requires using appropriate methodological designs and innovative, pluralistic methods drawn from different disciplines. This promotes a rights-based approach, which recognizes diversity and aims to reduce the discrimination and disempowerment of children with disabilities.
Capacitive probe calibration in eutroferric red nitosol cultivated with irrigated forages.

Knowledge of soil water content is important for proper irrigation management because it allows estimating the required amount of water to be applied at the correct time. Capacitance sensors are an alternative of quantification of soil water content (? , cm3 cm-3 ), providing depth readings in a practical and fast way. A capacitive probe (Diviner 2000®) was calibrated in a eutroferric red nitosol cultivated with irrigated forages at the experimental area of ESALQ/USP in the city of Piracicaba - SP, Brazil. Four access tubes were installed and every 2 weeks samples were collected with 3 replicates for each depth level, by the end of 8 weeks starting from ? saturated. Readings were taken with the equipment for every 0.1 m of soil up to 0.7 m of depth, together with the collection of soil samples for the determination of ? in the laboratory. A power equation was developed for each depth studied as well as for the whole soil profile. The proposed general calibration curve (SF = 0,256*? current 0.3422), adjusted by regression analysis, was significantly related to the measurements of the equipment, with high correlation (r 2 = 0.87), and standard error of 0.022 cm3 cm-3 . The calibration for each depth has shown higher coefficients of correlation at the lower depths, minimizing the error of the estimates. On-site calibration allowed better accuracy of soil water monitoring and, thus, provide better irrigation management.
Radiative Forcing by Dust and Black Carbon on the Juneau Icefield, Alaska

Here we present the first known data set on black carbon (BC) and mineral dust concentrations in snow from the Juneau Icefield (JIF) in southeastern Alaska, where glacier melt rates are among the highest on Earth. In May 2016, concentrations of BC (0.4–3.1 μg/L) and dust (0.2–34 mg/L) were relatively low and decreased toward the interior of the JIF. The associated radiative forcing (RF) averaged 4 W/m2. In July, after 10 weeks of exposure, the aged snow surface had substantially higher concentrations of BC (2.1–14.8 μg/L) and dust (11–72 mg/L) that were not spatially distributed by elevation or distance from the coast. RF by dust and BC ranged from 70 to 130 W/m2 (87 W/m2 average) across the JIF in July, and RF was dominated by dust. The associated median snow water equivalent reduction in the July samples is estimated at 10–18 mm/day, potentially advancing melt on the scale of days to weeks. Aging of the snow surface in summer likely resulted in a positive feedback of melt consolidation, enhanced solar absorption and melting, and further concentration of surface particles. Regional projections of warming temperatures and increased rain at the expense of snow make it likely that summer season darkening will become a more important contributor to the high melt rates on the JIF. Further studies are needed to elucidate the spatiotemporal occurrence of various light‐absorbing particles on the JIF, and models of ice field wastage should incorporate their associated RF.