Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A study on service quality of refurbishment contractors towards clients satisfaction

This study aims to examine contractors' service quality performance and to explore the relationship between service quality and client satisfaction when undertaking refurbishment projects for public institutions of higher education in Malaysia. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was generated based on the five service quality determinants in SERVQUAL, namely, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. From these five determinants, thirty-two attributes that may affect project service quality in refurbishment projects are identified to ascertain clients' service quality expectations. The results indicate that the reliability factor is the most important variable of service quality and that clients at public institutions of higher education have high expectations in terms of service quality from refurbishment contractors. The results also show that the values of service quality scores were negative for all attributes and that contractors are not currently meeting clients' expectations in refurbishment projects. Finally, the study indicates that the dimensions of empathy and assurance had significant effects on customer satisfaction.
A Reliability Study of Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI)– the Case of Albania

Studies have shown that language development in children is something adults can work on to initiate its enhancement in various ways. Reading aloud is one of the most effective ways families can promote the enhancement of literacy and language development of preschoolers (De Temple & Snow, 2003) (Senechal & Cornell, 1993) (Whitehurst, et al., 1988). Reading behaviors could derive from parent’s belief on the effects of reading to children. It is assumed that the more a parent believes that children would benefit from shared reading, the more s/he will read with the child. To measure parental belief about reading to children, DeBaryshe and Binder (1994) developed an instrument named Parental Reading Beliefs Inventory. The inventory, analyzed in the present study, resulted to be satisfyingly reliable within the sample of Albanian parents (42 items; ? =0.89). The purpose of this study was to i) examine the Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI) scale reliability in a sample of 265 Albanian parents, ii) evaluate internal consistency of the 7 PRBI original scale components, and iii) assess the item analysis. Categorical data of PRBI results from Albanian parents in Albania show that most parents have positive beliefs about reading to preschool children measured by this scale.
Class Cohesion Revisited : An Empirical Study on Industrial Systems

The assessment of the changeability of software systems is of major concern for buyers of the large systems found in fast-moving domains such as telecommunications. One way of approaching this problem is to investigate the dependency between the changeability of the software and its design, with the goal of finding design properties that can be used as changeability indicators. In the realm of objectoriented systems, experiments have been conducted showing that coupling between classes is such an indicator. However, class cohesion has not been quantitatively studied in respect to changeability. In this research, we set out to investigate whether low cohesion is correlated to high coupling and thus is a changeability indicator, too. As cohesion metrics, LCC and LCOM were adopted, and for measuring coupling, the Chidamber and Kemerer coupling metrics and variants thereof were used. The data collected from three test systems of industrial size indicate no such correlation. Suspecting that the cohesion metrics adopted for the experiment do not adequately capture the cohesion property, we analyzed manually the classes with lowest cohesion values. We found various reasons why these classes, despite of their low cohesion values, should not be broken into smaller classes. We conclude that cohesion metrics should not only be based on common attribute usage between methods and on method invocation, but also on patterns of interaction between class members and, ultimately, on the functionality of methods and attributes.
Human papillomavirus testing versus cytology in primary cervical cancer screening: End‐of‐study and extended follow‐up results from the Canadian cervical cancer screening trial

The Canadian Cervical Cancer Screening Trial was a randomized controlled trial comparing the performance of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing and Papanicolaou cytology to detect cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grades 2 or worse (CIN2+) among women aged 30–69 years attending routine cervical cancer screening in Montreal and St. John's, Canada (n = 10,154). We examined screening and prognostic values of enrollment cytologic and HPV testing results. Extended follow‐up data were available for St. John's participants (n = 5,754; 501,682.6 person‐months). HPV testing detected more CIN2+ than cytology during protocol‐defined (82.9 vs. 44.4%) and extended (54.2 vs. 19.3%) follow‐up periods, respectively. Three‐year risks ranged from 0.87% (95% CI: 0.37–2.05) for HPV‐/Pap‐ women to 35.77% (95% CI: 25.88–48.04) for HPV+/Pap+ women. Genotype‐specific risks ranged from 0.90% (95% CI: 0.40–2.01) to 43.84% (95% CI: 32.42–57.24) among HPV− and HPV16+ women, respectively, exceeding those associated with Pap+ or HPV+ results taken individually or jointly. Ten‐year risks ranged from 1.15% (95% CI: 0.60–2.19) for HPV−/Pap− women to 26.05% (95% CI: 15.34–42.13) for HPV+/Pap+ women and genotype‐specific risks ranged from 1.13% (95% CI: 0.59–2.14) to 32.78% (95% CI: 21.15–48.51) among women testing HPV− and HPV16+, respectively. Abnormal cytology stratified risks most meaningfully for HPV+ women. Primary HPV testing every 3 years provided a similar or greater level of reassurance against disease risks as currently recommended screening strategies. HPV‐based cervical screening may allow for greater disease detection than cytology‐based screening and permit safe extensions of screening intervals; genotype‐specific testing could provide further improvement in the positive predictive value of such screening.
Genetic Diversity Between and Within Sudanese Zebu Cattle Breeds Using Microsatellite Markers

The aim of the present study was to assess the genetic variation and establish the relationship between and within three Sudanese zebu cattle breeds using panel composed from 9 bovine specific microsatellite markers recommended by the International Society of Animal Genetics (ISAG). The study was performed on a total of 75 unrelated cattle individuals from Fuga, Kenana and Butana breeds. A total of 74 microsatellite alleles were identified with number of alleles at one locus ranging from 5 to 12 alleles. Sharing allele analysis showed no unique allele for any breed studied. High values for the observed heterozygosity were found all over the loci and the three breeds studied: Fuga (0.778); Butana (0.737) and Kenana (0.692). Moreover, gene diversity was also high for the 9 microsatellite studied in the three breeds. Its overall value was 0.684 with values of 0.778, 0.737 and 0.692 for three breeds: Fuga, Butana and Kenana; respectively. Inbreeding values proved the absence of inbreeding between the three breeds as well as within breeds. Drawing phylogeny tree between the breeds prove that Butana and Kenana are within one cluster while Fuga is in another cluster, the three breeds are then coming from one ancestor. The observed high genetic diversity along with the high values observed for heterozygosity, in the three breeds studied, can be used in designing good programs for genetic improvement in Sudanese zebu cattle. This study reports on a comprehensive study of the genetic structure and diversity of Sudanese zebu cattle breeds. Significant amount of genetic variability in the three local Sudanese zebu cattle were observed. This genetic information revealed that Sudanese zebu cattle breeds constitute important and diverse bank of genetic diversity for bovine breeding and conservation. The obtained genetic data shaded light on some issues related to the local Sudanese zebu cattle breeds origin and structure. The study proved that Sudanese zebu cattle breeds are important and viable targets for conservation for they display special traits both phenotypic and of cultural and historical nature that should earn conservation efforts.
WISE J233237.05−505643.5: A DOUBLE-PEAKED, BROAD-LINED ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS WITH A SPIRAL-SHAPED RADIO MORPHOLOGY

We present radio continuum mapping, optical imaging, and spectroscopy of the newly discovered double-peaked, broad-lined active galactic nucleus (AGN) WISE J233237.05−505643.5 at redshift z = 0.3447. This source exhibits an FR-I and FR-II hybrid morphology, characterized by a bright core, jet, and Doppler-boosted lobe structures in Australian Telescope Compact Array continuum maps at 1.5, 5.6, and 9 GHz. Unlike most FR-II objects, W2332−5056 is hosted by a disk-like galaxy. The core has a projected 5″ linear radio feature that is perpendicular to the curved primary jet, hinting at unusual and complex activity within the inner 25 kpc. The multi-epoch, optical-near-IR photometric measurements indicate significant variability over a 3–20 yr baseline from the AGN component. Gemini South optical data show unusual double-peaked emission-line features: the centroids of the broad-lined components of Hα and Hβ are blueshifted with respect to the narrow lines and host galaxy by ∼3800 km s−1. We examine possible cases that involve single or double supermassive black holes in the system and discuss the required future investigations to disentangle the mysterious nature of this system.
Optimizing Pipeline Control In Transient Gas Flow

Consider a pipeline with time dependent delivery volumes at various load points. Such a system can be controlled by changing with time the pressure setpoints at stations to manipulate flow and linepack. We present an algorithm that computes an optimum set of time-varying setpoint values (out to a user-specified simulation horizon) simultaneously for all stations. These setpoint values are computed so that
Channel quality estimation metrics in cognitive radio networks: a survey

The rapid growth of wireless communication systems around the world has led to a significant demand for more radio spectrum resources. Radio spectrum regulators are facing several challenges due to spectrum scarcity caused not only by increased demand but also by inefficient management of this resource. Currently, the spectrum is statically allocated to licensed users even though some of them use this resource intermittently. This has resulted in underutilisation of the spectrum and therefore, spectrum scarcity for new users. Cognitive radio aims at solving this problem through dynamic spectrum access, which uses spectrum holes opportunistically. A cognitive radio can select the best channel available at a particular location and time. To accomplish that goal, the system requires some criteria, or channel quality estimation metrics, to rank the channels that it potentially could use. In this study, the authors present a survey on several channel quality estimation metrics such as bit error rate, signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio, outage probability, channel quality estimation index, spectrum sensing accuracy of secondary user, and the idle state duration expectation.
SNPAAMapper: An efficient genome-wide SNP variant analysis pipeline for next-generation sequencing data

Many NGS analysis tools focusing on read alignment and variant calling functions for exome sequencing data have been developed in recent years. However, publicly available tools dealing with the downstream analysis of genome-wide variants are fewer and have limited functionality. We developed SNPAAMapper, a novel variant analysis pipeline that can effectively classify variants by region (e.g. CDS, UTRs, intron, upstream, downstream), predict amino acid change type (e.g. synonymous, non-synonymous mutation), and prioritize mutation effects (e.g. CDS versus UTRs). Additional functionality afforded by our pipeline includes: checking variants at exon/intron junctions, customized homozygosity and allele frequency cutoff parameters, and annotation of known variants with dbSNP information, listing original and mutated amino acid sequences containing variants. The final result is reported in a spreadsheet format table containing all variant associated information and prioritized amino acids effects for investigators to examine. Availability Perl scripts and required input files are available on the web at http://www.ccmb. med.umich. edu/ccdu /SNPAAMapper.
Greenfield FDI and Skill Upgrading: A Polarized Issue

Outbound FDI is often accused of increasing income inequality in developed countries by shifting labour demand from low-skilled towards high-skilled workers (wage polarization). In response, we employ data on greenfield FDI that, in contrast to M&As, may be more clearly linked to skill upgrading. Our data also delineate greenfield FDI by sector, function and destination, allowing us to control for different motives and skill intensities for 17 developed countries for 20032005. We find that greenfield FDI in support services, e.g., back and front office services, induces polarized skill upgrading, benefitting high-skilled workers at the expense of medium-skilled workers, thereby polarizing wages.
Emotional reactions to psychiatric patients

In psychodynamic milieu treatment, the relations between patients and nurses are the main tools for understanding and helping the patients. For this reason, it is important to construct methods to follow the development of relations and to study characteristics of helpful and nonhelpful relations. In this article, a checklist with feeling words given to nurses and aides in psychiatric treatment facilities is presented and its measurement properties are described. The analysis showed that the checklist as a whole measures the amount of emotional arousal in a reliable way. The individual feeling words have acceptable variance. A factor analysis gave a limited number of factors that are clinically understandable. The checklist seems to be well worth further study.
Terrestrial to Satellite Communications Using Multi-antenna Relays Nodes

—Satellite communications and relaying techniques have been receiving the attention of the research community over the last years. This paper proposes a terrestrial to satellite commu- nication system aided by terrestrial relay nodes to facilitate a robust, reliable, and efﬁcient communication link and improve the spectral efﬁciency. In particular, this paper concentrates on evaluating the spectral efﬁciency and bit error rate (BER) performance of terrestrial to satellite multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) amplify and forward (AF) relay links. Zero Forcing (ZF) and Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) multi-antenna decoding techniques are employed, which have been well established in terrestrial wireless communications. Numerical results are provided to quantify the performance gain of the proposed communication system.
Dialogues on the Net - Power structures in asynchronous discussions in the context of a web based teacher training course

The general aim of this thesis is to investigate the interaction processes that occur in group dialogues when teacher students work in small groups, using net based asynchronous dialogues to solve a problem in the area of environmental sustainability. More specifically, the interest is to determine whether students’ net based dialogues give rise to patterns of dominance/subordination similar to those observed in face-to-face situations. Research focus included an interest in the significance of group composition. The questions posed were whether interaction processes depend on a) certain background characteristics of the students and/or b) are affected by group composition: whether the majority/minority of the group members are male/female; have parents with high or low parental educational attainments; speak Swedish or another language at home; and if they are born in our outside of Sweden. From the investigation, involving 147 students in 29 groups, it appears that not only do the individual student's background characteristics play an important part with respect to communication patterns; the composition of the group with respect to these background characteristics was also found to influence the communication patterns. When the study group was analysed as a whole, older students were found to be more active in the discussion than younger. Students born outside Sweden and students speaking another language than Swedish at home played a more secluded part in the discussion than students with a Swedish background. When group composition was included in the analysis, it was found that the presence of more males in a group seemed to influence women’s contributions negatively. Female students sent fewer postings and fewer words in total the higher the share of males in the group. The discussion style was also affected; more agreements and supportive remarks were made in groups that had a higher the share of males. In groups with a larger proportion of students who were born in Sweden and in groups with a high share of students speaking Swedish at home, more but shorter contributions were posted. The group composition with respect to students with a Swedish background was also found to affect the use of disagreements; in groups with a high share of students born in Sweden or speaking Swedish at home, fewer disagreement remarks were sent than in groups with a lower share of this category of students. (Less)
Direct SMARTS : Accelerating Microarchitectural Simulation Through Direct Execution

Due to growing complexity and costs of hardware systems, computer architects traditionally rely on software simulation to evaluate new designs. Although software simulation excels in convenience and flexibility, it suffers from prohibitively long turnaround time. Researchers are constantly searching for methods to accelerate software simulations. SMARTS is a framework that uses rigorous statistical sampling to accelerate simulation time without sacrificing accuracy. Its turnaround time is limited by the speed of the functional warming mode, which updates architectural state and select microarchitectural structures. This paper presents direct warming as an efficient technique for accelerating functional warming. Direct warming extends direct execution, in which the simulated program code is executed natively on the host machine hardware rather than through emulation. To achieve identical simulation behavior to functional warming, direct warming integrates instrumentation code for record generation into the direct execution code. In this paper, we investigate and analyze several implementation alternatives to maximize the performance of direct warming by evaluating a collection of benchmarks onthe RSIM simulator. On average, Direct SMARTS achieves a 96x speedup over full detailed simulation, with a maximum speedup of 134x. In addition, with the Direct SMARTS framework, we achieve an average error of 0.4%, with an upper bound of 0.7%.
Instability of eating disorder diagnoses: prospective study

Background The stability of eating disorder diagnoses has received little research attention. Aims To examine the course of the full range of clinical eating disorders. Method A sample of 192 women with a current DSM–IV eating disorder (55 with anorexia nervosa, 108 with bulimia nervosa and 29 with eating disorder not otherwise specified) were assessed three times over 30 months using a standardised interview. Results Although the overarching category of ‘eating disorder’ was relatively stable, the stability of the three specific eating disorder diagnoses was low, with just a third of participants retaining their original diagnosis. This was due only in part to remission since the remission rate was low across all three diagnoses. Conclusions There is considerable diagnostic flux within the eating disorders but a low overall remission rate. This suggests that underpinning their psychopathology may be common biological and psychological causal and maintaining processes.
The Teachers’ voice in Saxony-Anhalt: perspectives on transition from primary to secondary school

ABSTRACT Preparation and provision for transition between primary and secondary school get mixed reviews across all subjects. The literature suggests that modern languages is an area deserving particular attention. There are examples of good practice in transition, but the general picture is, at best, patchy. Researchers [e.g. Blondin, C. , M. Candelier, P. Edelenbos, R. Johnstone, A. Kubanek-German, and T. Taeschner. 1998. Foreign Languages in Primary and Pre-school Education. London: Centre for Information on Language and Teaching Research; Hill, K. , A. Davies, J. Oldfield, and N. Watson. 1998. Questioning an early start: the transition from primary to secondary foreign language learning. Melbourne Papers in Language Testing 6, no. 2: 21–36; Rosenbusch, M. 1995. Language learners in the elementary school: investing in the future. In Foreign language learning: The Journey of a Lifetime, ed. R. Donato and R. Terry, 1–32. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook] confirm that this is not a country-specific issue, but one which crosses borders of countries and continents. The purpose of this article is to report on how schools in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, have dealt with the challenge of transition. The outcomes of semi-structured interviews with 25 secondary schools teachers suggest that many of the problems in Saxony-Anhalt are the same as for other countries, not least in relation to communication between secondary and primary schools and the exchange of information on individual pupils. Our German neighbours offer models of good practice in relation to continuing professional development, clearly defined and understood teaching content and methods and the avoidance of any need for pupils to start their modern language learning experience afresh on arrival at secondary school.
Development and Confirmatory Factory Analysis of the Achievement Task Value Scale for University Students

The aims of the study were (a) to develop a scale to measure university students’ task value and (b) to use confirmatory factor analytic techniques to investigate the construct validity of the scale. The questionnaire items were developed based on theoretical considerations and the final version contained 38 items divided into 4 subscales. Analyses were conducted on 2 samples of university students (n1 = 430, n2 = 430). The results of confirmatory factor analysis suggested a modified version of the 4-factor model. The scale may have construct validity for the current sample of university students. Finally, possible applications for this scale, including for the early identification and prevention of problematic task values among university students, and implications for further psychometric research are highlighted.