Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
INTERDEPENDENCE AMONG AMHARIC LANGUAGE (L1) READING ABILITY, ENGLISH LANGUAGE (L2) PROFICIENCY AND L2 READING ABILITY OF GRADE ELEVEN STUDENTS

The purpose of the current study was to examine interdependence among mother tongue or Amharic language (L1) reading ability, English as foreign language (L2) proficiency and reading ability of grade eleven students at Damot Preparatory Secondary School for Higher Education, West Gojjam Administrative Zone, Ethiopia. Researcher randomly selected a sample of fifty grade eleven students. Mixed-method approach was employed for data gathering and analyses. To make the tests contextualized, one Amharic language and one English language school teachers prepared the tests to measure students’ L1 reading ability and L2 reading ability respectively. For students’ L2 proficiency, their first semester English language (L2 proficiency) final examination result was used. Then, the reading ability tests and L2 proficiency examination were analyzed through quantitative data. Correlations and regression were used to analyze the quantitative data. Researcher used unstructured-interview questions to collect qualitative data and analyzed in descriptions. It was found that learners’ (L2) reading ability score is influenced both by their first language (L1) reading ability and English as foreign language (L2) proficiency, with differences in effect. Students’ L2 reading ability is influenced both by their L1 reading ability and their L2 proficiency. This might imply both the interdependence and threshold level hypotheses contribute to L2 reading ability of learners. Thus, it is recommended that students’ L1 reading ability and L2 proficiency be promoted to help them improve their L2 reading ability. Besides, students need to be trained on L1 reading strategies so that they can transfer and employ them while they read their L2. In doing so, students could develop both their L1 reading ability and L2 reading proficiency and use them as facilitator in learning reading in their L1 and L2 language skills, promote their reading ability, acquaint them with academic reading, and in their day-to-day activities. Further research could be made to check interdependence among L1 reading ability, L2 proficiency, L2 reading ability and reading strategies in different contexts and grade levels. Studies might also be conducted on reverse effects of transfer from students’ L2 reading ability and L2 proficiency to students’ L1 reading ability at universities and colleges of Ethiopia and other multilingual countries.
The Impact of Alternative Modes of Expansion on Performance: An Empirical Investigation in Global Retailing

The size-performance relationship has long been a major research topic both in industrial organization and in strategy. In the late sixties, it has given rise to such famous strategy concepts as the so-called “experience curve”, but has since generated only limited interest. More recently, much research has been devoted to examining mergers and acquisitions on the one hand, and inter-firm alliances on the other hand. Both these moves affect a firm’s size in one way or another and are thus likely to have an impact on performance. However, the work on M&As or on alliances very rarely compares these different modes of growth to one another, or to organic growth. Our research aims specifically at analyzing the impact of each alternative mode of growth on the size effects resulting from the achieved growth. In this paper we develop conceptual arguments on the relative impact of these modes of growth on performance. We then test the resulting hypotheses on a sample of 54 firms in the global retail sector over the 1984-2001 period. Our initial results suggest that both M&As and alliances negatively affect performance. However, we show that the choice to form alliances or engage in M&As is determined by firm characteristics that also affect performance; when accounting for this endogeneity, we find that neither alliances nor M&As have a significant impact on performance.
Factors Associated to Stress of Nurses Working in Private Hospitals in Lalitpur District of Nepal

Background: Job stress is an emotional and physical reaction due to the imbalance between individual’s priorities and responsibilities to the job. Nurses specifically are profoundly vulnerable to job stress since they have to perform tedious tasks repeatedly. If these problems are not treated on time, stress may increase resulting in the negativity to their work performance. Objectives: The study is aimed at assessing the level of job stress among nurses working in selected private Hospitals of Nepal. Methodology: A descriptive design was adopted for the study. A total of 254 nurses were included by using random sampling technique. Data was collected with self-administered structured questionnaire. Similarly, data was presented by using descriptive statistics to reveal demographic information. Mean, rank and extent of stressor were calculated and student’s ‘t’ test and Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) test were used to look for associations. Results: Majority of participants (92%) were in moderate and high level job stress. Lack of career facilities was discovered as the major factor causing most frequent and more severe stress. Job stress would vary from hospitals to hospitals and units to units. It was intrigued that years of work experiences, education, age, marital status, children status and types of family had no direct role in job stress in nursing. Conclusion: Dearth of sufficient career incentives is seen as a major stressor. In order to bolster the morale of the nurses, adequate incentive and motivation needs to be provided to them so as to lessen job stress in nursing. Stress differed according to different hospitals and different working units.
EFFECT OF SAFE POST-HARVEST ALTERNATIVES ON QUALITY AND STORAGE LIFE OF “BARHI” DATE PALM

The current investigation was carried out to study the influence of 1.5 % chitosan, Aloe Vera gel, propolis extract, 4% calcium chloride, each alone and combination of them to maintain quality attributes of “Barhi” date palm. The treated fruits stored at 0°C up to 90 days. Results showed that weight loss and total sugars content were increased with increasing storage period. Whereas firmness, total phenols and total tannins decreased by increasing storage period. 1.5% chitosan + 4% ethanolextracted propolis followed by 1.5% chitosan + Aloe Vera gel gave the lowest weight loss, the highest firmness and slow down compositional changes in total phenols, total sugars and total tannins. Thus, Chitosan + Propolis extract or chitosan + Aloe Vera gel were the best treatment to maintain quality of “Barhi” date palm during cold storage at 0°C. The study suggests that these treatments might be a promising alternative to maintain date palm quality and to get a safe and healthy product during cold storage and extending post-harvest life of date palm fruits.
Perspektif Akuntansi Template

Accepted 27/06/2020 Abstract. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of the announcement of Sukuk issuance on stock return volatility and time the varying volatility that occurs in the movement of stock returns and volatility. The data used in this research are daily closing price, and trading volume incorporates Sukuk issued during the year 2009-2013 in the D-100 D+100 of Observation period. Samples utilized the purposive sampling technique to obtain samples of 13 companies. This study uses the EGARCH (Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity) method of analysis. The results show that the best model for each sample in the EGARCH model is different. The results show that the phenomenon of time-varying volatility occurred in 13 samples. From 13 samples, the event announcement of the Sukuk issuance does not affect the volatility of stock returns except for the Multi Adira Finance company. Furthermore, the trading volume affects the stock returns volatility on nine companies; hence it does not affect the other four companies.
Expression profiling of DNA methyltransferase genes in wheat genotypes with contrasting drought tolerance.

Vassileva, V. , Vaseva, I. & Dimitrova, A. (2019). Expression profi ling of DNA methyltransferase genes in wheat genotypes with contrasting drought tolerance. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 25(5), 845–851 DNA methylation is a reversible epigenetic mechanism that affects important developmental processes and stress-related events in living organisms. The process of cytosine methylation is catalysed by DNA methyltransferases that are structurally and functionally conserved in all eukaryotes. This study assessed the effect of drought stress and subsequent rewatering on the transcription of DNA methyltransferase coding genes (TaMET1, TaMET2a, TaMET2b and TaMET3) in wheat genotypes with contrasting drought tolerance. The applied drought stress led to changes in leaf water defi cit in a variety-specifi c manner. Two of the wheat genotypes, Farmer and Bojana, performed as sensitive to drought, the other two, Yoana and Guinness, were considered as drought tolerant. Under drought and after recovery, the drought-sensitive genotypes exhibited high variability in the expression level of TaMET1, TaMET2b and TaMET3. The TaMET1 transcripts increased approximately three times under dehydration, compared to the controls. The drought-tolerant varieties had a relatively stable transcription of DNA methyltransferase genes. The TaMET1 expression was higher in the controls of tolerant varieties, compared to the sensitive genotypes, and did not change under drought exposure and after rewatering. The lowest response to dehydration had TaMET2a, which only slightly varied in the sensitive genotypes under dehydration. The results point to unique biological functions and diverse roles of the wheat DNA methyltransferases in drought conditions that mainly correlated with the level of drought tolerance of the studied genotypes.
CORRELATION AND PATH COEFFICIENT ANALYSES IN BREAD WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.)

Phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation (PCV, GCV), heritability, genetic advance (GA) and correlation and path coefficients for 13 characters were estimated in 47 genotypes of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The PCV was greater than GCV for all the characters which reflects the existing range of variability within the genotypes was not only due to varying influence of genotype but also environment. High heritability along with high genetic advance was observed for characters such as grain yield plant-1, ear weight and number of ears plant-1 which indicates that improvement in these traits can be done by direct selection. In correlation analysis the highest positive and significant correlation was recorded in harvest index, biological yield plant-1, number of ears plant-1, number of productive tillers plant-1 and ear weight on the dependent character i.e. grain yield per plant. In the path analysis the highest positive direct effect was observed in biological yield plant-1, harvest index, ear length, 1000-grain weight, days to 50% heading and number of spikelet’s ear-1. Traits such as number of productive tillers plant-1 and plant height had negative direct effect on yield. Traits such as biological yield plant-1, number of ears plant-1 and number of productive tillers plant-1 showed positive indirect effect on yield. Therefore these traits may be effective in selection during breeding programme for improving grain yield and quality.
SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING, WORK AND ACADEMIC SUCCESS: EVIDENCE FROM POST-GRADUATE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN NEW ZEALAND

This study investigates relationship between academic performance, subjective well-being (happiness) and part-time work of 299 international students studying at postgraduate level in a tertiary institute in New Zealand. A quantitative approach is used and a robust set of demographic factors and explanatory variables is controlled for to identify the relationship between academic performance, happiness and part-time work of international students. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) is used for measuring the happiness of the research participants. The findings of this study suggest that 91 percent of the students participated in the research are happy; however, happiness has no statistically significant effects on academic performance of the students. A significant relationship exists between happiness and academic performance if different cut-off levels of happiness are used to divide the full sample of observation. Happiness affects the academic performance negatively when the students’ happiness level is above the median level. A large number of international students are engaged in part-time work. This study also finds that engaging in part-time work of full-time students have adverse effects on the academic performance.
Virulent Factors of Sorbitol-Negative Escherichia coli Isolated from Quail

Colibacillosis in poultry is a disease caused by Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) which can affect a significant economic loss in the poultry industry. APEC strains in this study were characterized based on the hemolysin and hemagglutinin production, as well as detection of four essential virulent genes, including the genes of increased serum survival ( iss ), capsule antigen ( kps ), temperature sensitive hemagglutinin ( tsh ) and enterohemolysin ( hly ) gene. In this study, all 21 Escherichia coli isolates from quails were negative in the MacConkey Sorbitol test, 38.1% of isolates showed hemolytic and 52.4% hemagglutinin activities. Genotypically, 61.9% of isolates had iss gene, kps gene for 9.5%, hly gene for 9.5%, and 4.8% of isolates had the tsh gene. These isolates are pathogenic strains and potentially acts as zoonotic agents.
Teacher talks: an analysis of direct and indirect influences for young learners in EFL class

This study investigated the types of teacher talks in classroom interactions; those are direct and indirect influences as proposed by Flanders (1970). Besides, the analysis of the teachers’ difficulties during their talks was found out since the subjects in this study were teacher candidates. They had been taught about teacher talk during their micro teaching and teaching practicum classes. Therefore, the proposed research questions were: 1) What are the direct and indirect influences of teacher talks for young learners that appeared in EFL class? 2) What are teacher’s difficulties during teacher talks? To answer the research questions, qualitative research was employed in this study by using observation sheet and questionnaire. The participants were five pre-service teachers from English Education Department of a private university in Jakarta. The teachers had joined teaching practicum in school so that they had had experiences in teaching primary school students. Based on the result, indirect influence of teacher talk were more frequently used (59%). Teachers indirectly influences the students by asking questions. Meanwhile, the direct influence gained 41% of the whole teacher talks with giving direction as the highest frequency (30%). Furthermore, vocabulary and grammar became the main factors of difficulty in teacher talk. Teachers sometimes got confused on how to deliver the certain expressions or give instructions, which made them less confident, especially when they felt nervous. This study was hopefully beneficial for the English department and universities to provide better learning process, other teachers’ candidates that still improve their speaking skills to be more aware of their talks during teaching, and future researchers to broaden the field of study.
Fair Value Measurement in Saudi Arabia and its Expected Impact: A Special Focus on the Insurance Sector

There is an ongoing debate in the world regarding valuing the assets at their historical cost or at the fair value measurement. The fair value measurement has been explained under Standard 13 of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), providinga single framework tomeasurefair value and associated disclosures. The adoption of fair value accounting in all the companies for equityas per IAS 16, IAS 38,IAS 40 and IFRS 13 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(KSA)is under consideration by Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA), Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA)and Capital Market Authority (CMA), but allowed in banking and insurance sectors. The Saudi Arabian companies might achieve several benefits in adopting the IFRS framework and also revaluing the equityand marketable securities. according to fair value measurement. Hence, the current study assesses the expected effectof fair value measurementon the companies’ financial statementsin the insurance sector. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) wasused to measure the efficiency of the two methods of accounting, i.e. the historical cost method and fair value method. Even though there are policy issues that might hinder the adoption of fairvalue accounting by the companies, since IFRS is more comprehensive compared to Saudi standards, it is found that the adoption is enhancingthe reporting standards in KSA.
Self-Supervised and Collaborative Learning

The necessity of large labeled training database is ubiquitous now with the development of deep neural networks. But there are multiple challenges to collecting labeled data, with the primary concerns being time and cost requirements. Through this work, we focus on developing approaches to create better models with less labeled data by utilizing unlabeled data, which is usually easily available. We develop approaches inspired by co-training, transfer learning, and self-supervised learning to beneﬁt from unlabeled data and multiple experts to achieve better results even with less labeled data. In this report, we present: (1) a collaborative learning framework, built upon transfer learning and co-training, (2) incorporation of label consistency in proposed framework to learn discriminative features, (3) a knowledge transfer framework to combine knowledge of multiple models trained via self-supervised learning to train a supervised network, and (4) a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) based approach, inspired by self-supervised learning and collaborative learning, to reduce bias in a face identiﬁcation network.
Study of HER-2/neu status in adenocarcinoma of stomach and gastroesophageal junction

Background: To study the expression of Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2/neu) in adenocarcinoma of stomach and gastroesophageal junction and to study and describe the association of HER-2/neu expression with various clinicopathological parameters in Indian population. Methods: Immunohistochemical testing was done on 91 cases diagnosed as adenocarcinoma of gastric and gastroesophageal junction by histological examination to determine HER2 status. HER2 amplification was confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on cases that had equivocal (immunohistochemistry-IHC score 2+) HER2 expression. The association between HER-2 positivity and clinicopathological parameters was assessed by Chi-square test. Results: The HER-2 IHC results are as follows: score 3+ (positive): 8.79%; score 2+ (equivocal): 10.99%; score 0 and 1+ (negative): 80.22%. Of the 10 cases of equivocal IHC results, 2 cases (20%) showed amplification of HER-2 gene demonstrated by dual probe FISH analysis. The overall prevalence of HER-2 positivity detected using immunohistochemistry and FISH was 10.99% (10/91 cases). HER-2 positivity correlated with the tumor grade (well and moderately differentiated tumor, p=0.013) and intestinal type (p=0.025) but not with age, gender, pathological stage and lymph node metastasis. Conclusions: HER-2 positivity in our study was 10.99%. HER-2 positivity significantly correlated with intestinal type of adenocarcinoma and the grade of the tumor. Two cases with strong HER-2 staining but in less than 10% of the tumor showed gene amplification by FISH.
Hierarchical optimization Control of Redundant Manipulator for Robot-assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery

For the time varying optimization problem, the tracking error cannot converge to zero at the finite time because of the optimal solution changing over time. This paper proposes a novel varying parameter recurrent neural network (VPRNN) based hierarchical optimization of a 7-DoF surgical manipulator for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (RAMIS), which guarantees task tracking, Remote Center of Motion (RCM) and manipulability index optimization. A theoretically grounded hierarchical optimization framework based is introduced to control multiple tasks based on their priority. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is demonstrated with both simulation and experimental results. The results show that the proposed VPRNN-based method can optimal three tasks at the same time and have better performance than previous work.
Investigation of Motivational Interviewing Techniques to Address Health Disparities for Low-Income Hispanic Women Either At Risk for or Diagnosed with Diabetes Type-2

Hispanic women are less physically active and have higher rates of diabetes type 2 (DM2) when compared to other population groups. This review uses the social ecological model (SEM) as a framework to identify the individual and social environmental factors associated with successful physical activity (PA) interventions for Hispanic women with DM2. Research questions include; 1) Which social ecological levels have been applied to PA interventions? 2) Which individual and social environmental intervention strategies are associated with successful PA outcomes? Database searches using CINAHL, PubMed, and Scopus for the years 2000 – 2015 identified 10 studies; with six using quasi-experimental study designs, and 4 using randomized controlled designs. Inclusion criteria were Hispanic/Latina women with DM2; ≥ 70% women; PA interventions; measures of PA; and quantitative designs. Future research should focus on a combination of intervention levels, and DM2 programs should place a greater emphasis on PA intervention strategies.
The Impact of FDI on Economic Growth in Case of Romania

Foreign direct investment flows had increased worldwide over the last decades and many specialists think that there is a strong correlation among trade, FDI, labor force, and economic growth in the receiving countries. Based on available statistical data, we will examine the effects of FDI on GDP growth and the causality relations between GDP, trade openness, labor force, and FDI in case of Romania for the last decades. The ARDL bound testing approach is used to study the existence of a long-run relationship between FDI, trade, labor, and economic growth. Then the error-correction based Granger causality test is used to test the direction of causality between the variables. The results revealed that there is cointegration among the variables when real GDP and foreign direct investment are the dependent variables. Foreign direct investment, trade openness, and labor force are the main determinants of economic growth in the long run in Romania. In addition, the increase of gross domestic product, exports, imports and labor force promote foreign direct investment in the long run.