Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DETERMINANTS OF CONTINUANCE INTENTION TO USE ONLINE SHOPS IN NIGERIA

Online shopping creates opportunities for businesses to reach consumers globally and directly. Evidences have revealed that many consumers who search different online shops abandon their purchase intentions or may not continue to use the online shops due to one reason or the other; hence, the need to carry out a study to investigate the factors that influence continuance intention to use. This study therefore, investigated the determinants of continuance intention to use online shops among students of two federal universities in Nigeria. Survey design was adopted for the study. 593 copies of questionnaire were distributed to students who were selected by disproportionate stratified random sampling technique from the two universities, while 455 copies were retrieved and considered suitable for analysis, translating to 76.7% response rate. The study found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norms, perceived enjoyment, perceived site quality, convenience, prior experience, shopping habit and trust determined continuance intention to use online shops by the students. However, perceived security and gender did not determine continuance intention to use online shops. The study concludes that the students had the intention to continue to patronise online shops. Findings from this study would assist e-retailers in knowing the factors that determine continuance use of online shops in order to meet the expectations of the youths who constitute the highest proportion of online shoppers in Nigeria.
A Large-Scale Validation Study of Measurement Errors in Longitudinal Survey Data

In this paper, we analyze measurement and classification errors in several key variables, including earnings and educational attainment, in a matched sample of survey and administrative longitudinal data. The data, spanning 1994-2001 and covering all sectors in the Danish economy, are much more comprehensive than usually seen in validation studies. Measurement errors in earnings are found to be much larger than reported in previous studies limited to one single firm. Individuals who attrite from the panel report their earnings significantly less accurate than individuals who are observed throughout the entire sampling period. Furthermore, females are found to report their earnings significantly more precise than males, part-time workers report significantly less accurate than full-time workers and low-income workers report significantly less accurate than workers with relatively higher income. Classification errors in categorical variables are found to be of about the same magnitude as previously found in the literature. We analyze whether response error in one variable makes it more likely that the same respondent will report other variables with error but do not find support for this hypothesis.
Ship emissions of SO2 and NO2: DOAS measurements from airborne platforms

Abstract. A unique methodology to measure gas fluxes of SO2 and NO2 from ships using optical remote sensing is described and demonstrated in a feasibility study. The measurement system is based on Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy using reflected skylight from the water surface as light source. A grating spectrometer records spectra around 311 nm and 440 nm, respectively, with the telescope pointed downward at a 30° angle from the horizon. The mass column values of SO2 and NO2 are retrieved from each spectrum and integrated across the plume. A simple geometric approximation is used to calculate the optical path. To obtain the total emission in kg h−1 the resulting total mass across the plume is multiplied with the apparent wind, i.e. a dilution factor corresponding to the vector between the wind and the ship speed. The system was tested in two feasibility studies in the Baltic Sea and Kattegat, from a CASA-212 airplane in 2008 and in the North Sea outside Rotterdam from a Dauphin helicopter in an EU campaign in 2009. In the Baltic Sea the average SO2 emission out of 22 ships was (54 ± 13) kg h−1, and the average NO2 emission was (33 ± 8) kg h−1, out of 13 ships. In the North Sea the average SO2 emission out of 21 ships was (42 ± 11) kg h−1, NO2 was not measured here. The detection limit of the system made it possible to detect SO2 in the ship plumes in 60% of the measurements when the described method was used. A comparison exercise was carried out by conducting airborne optical measurements on a passenger ferry in parallel with onboard measurements. The comparison shows agreement of (−30 ± 14)% and (−41 ± 11)%, respectively, for two days, with equal measurement precision of about 20%. This gives an idea of the measurement uncertainty caused by errors in the simple geometric approximation for the optical light path neglecting scattering of the light in ocean waves and direct and multiple scattering in the exhaust plume under various conditions. A tentative error budget indicates uncertainties within 30–45% but for a reliable error analysis the optical light path needs to be modelled. A ship emission model, FMI-STEAM, has been compared to the optical measurements showing an 18% overestimation and a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.6. It is shown that a combination of the optical method with modelled power consumption can estimate the sulphur fuel content within 40%, which would be sufficient to detect the difference between ships running at 1% and at 0.1%, limits applicable within the IMO regulated areas.
Novel 1H NMR approach to quantitative tissue oximetry using hexamethyldisiloxane

19F NMR spin‐lattice relaxometry of hexafluorobenzene (HFB) has been shown to be a highly sensitive indicator of tumor oxygenation. In this study hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) was identified as a proton NMR analog, and its potential as a probe for investigating dynamic changes in tissue oxygen tension (pO2) was evaluated. HMDSO has a single proton resonance (δ= –0.3 ppm) and the spin‐lattice relaxation rate, Rl (= 1/T1) exhibits a linear dependence on pO2: R1 (s–1) = 0.1126 + 0.0013* pO2 (torr) at 37°C. To demonstrate application in vivo, HMDSO was administered into healthy rat thigh muscle (100 μl) and tumors (50 μl). Local pO2 was determined by using pulse‐burst saturation recovery (PBSR) 1H NMR spectroscopy to assess R1. Water and fat signals were effectively suppressed by frequency‐selective excitation of the HMDSO resonance. Rat thigh muscle had a mean baseline pO2 of 35 ± 11 torr, with a typical stability of ±3 torr over 20 min, when the rats breathed air. Altering the inhaled gas to oxygen produced a significant increase in pO2 to 100–200 torr. In tumors, altering the inspired gas also produced significant (albeit generally smaller) changes. This new pO2 reporter molecule offers a potentially valuable new tool for investigating pO2 in vivo. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Service Experience & Expectations of Saudi Arabia Domestic Tourists in the Lodging Sector

The Saudi government's 2030 vision has recognized the vital role of religious tourism in the diversification of the kingdom’s economy in addition to reliance on gas and oil revenue. Currently, religious tourism contributes at least 3% to the Saudi’s GDP. The government plans to double the revenue from religious tourism by doubling accommodation capacity for both the Hajj and Umrah visitors. The increasing number of international and luxury hotels in Makkah and other major cities reflect a rising of the hotel industry in Saudi Arabia. Research has documented the important role of service quality in influencing organizational outcomes such as increasing sales profit, promoting customer loyalty, improving customer relations, enhancing customer satisfaction, and performance superiority. It is important for hotels in Saudi Arabia to provide quality service to ensure sustainable success in the competitive global market. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the service quality of Saudian hotels from the aspects of tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy to determine if there is a service quality gap between the hotels in Saudi Arabia and outside the Middle East. This study adopted a qualitative approach by conducting in-depth interviews among 24 experienced hotel guests. The findings of the study can serve as a reference for hotel companies to improve their service quality and to elevate the image of hotels in Saudi Arabia.
Squeezing in an injection-locked semiconductor laser.

The intensity-noise properties of an injection-locked semiconductor laser were studied experimentally. The constant-current-driven semiconductor laser producing the amplitude-squeezed state whose intensity noise was reduced below the standard quantum limit (SQL) by 0.72 dB was injection-locked by an external master laser. The measured intensity-noise level of the injection-locked semiconductor laser was 0.91 dB below the SQL. This experimental result indicates that a phase-coherent amplitude-squeezed state or squeezed vacuum state together with a reference local oscillator wave can be generated directly by semiconductor laser systems.
Compensation of speed dependency in sensorless rotor temperature estimation for permanent magnet synchronous motor

The work proposes an improved method for estimating the magnet temperature in permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM's) without using any temperature sensors. Originally the method implies an intermittent injection of a voltage pulse in the positive d-axis of the motor while keeping the load current zero. Thus, the resulting d-current response depends on both the initial value of the d-current itself and the actual magnetization level of the permanent magnets. Since the magnetization of the magnets depends on the temperature, different d-current slopes are associated with given temperature levels of the magnets. At higher speeds the current response is additionally affected by induced voltages of various sources which lead to erroneous estimation of the magnet temperature. By applying a voltage pulse in the positive and negative d-axis of the motor, symmetry of the induced voltages can be achieved in a manner that the difference of the current responses from the positive and negative pulse is no longer affected by the induced voltages.
Comparison of two adaptive procedures for fitting a multi-channel compression hearing aid

We compared two adaptive procedures for fitting a multi-channel compression hearing aid. “Camadapt” uses judgements of the loudness of speech stimuli and the tonal quality of music stimuli. “Eartuner” uses judgements of the loudness and clarity of speech stimuli with differing spectral characteristics. Sixteen new users of hearing aids were fitted unilaterally, using each procedure. The fittings were assigned to Programs 1 and 2 in the aid, in a counter-balanced order. Subjects kept a diary of their experiences with each program in everyday life. Following 2-4 weeks of experience, they filled in the APHAB and other questionnaires and were re-fitted using both procedures. Camadapt generally led to higher low-level gains and lower high-level gains than Eartuner. Gains recommended by the procedures did not change following experience. Eight subjects preferred the Camadapt fitting and eight preferred the Eartuner fitting. Most subjects gave high overall satisfaction ratings for both procedures. Test-retest reliability was better for Eartuner than for Camadapt. Preference for the Camadapt fitting was associated with slightly better speech communication with Camadapt, while preference for the Eartuner fitting was associated with fewer problems with aversion for that procedure.
Keyword Spotting in Poorly Printed Documents using Pseudo 2-D Hidden Markov Models

An algorithm for robust machine recognition of keywords embedded in a poorly printed document is presented. For each keyword, two statistical models, called pseudo 2-D hidden Markov models, are created for representing the actual keyword and all the other extraneous words, respectively. Dynamic programming is then used for matching an unknown input word with the two models and for making a maximum likelihood decision. Although the models are pseudo 2-D in the sense that they are not fully connected 2-D networks, they are shown to be general enough in characterizing printed words efficiently. These models facilitate a nice "elastic matching" property in both horizontal and vertical directions, which makes the recognizer not only independent of size and slant but also tolerant of highly deformed and noisy words. The system is evaluated on a synthetically created database that contains about 26000 words. Currently, the authors achieve a recognition accuracy of 99% when words in testing and training sets are of the same font size, and 96% when they are in different sizes. In the latter case, the conventional 1-D HMM achieves only a 70% accuracy rate. >
Preview : Published ahead of advance online publication Altered mesenchymal niche cells impede generation of normal hematopoietic progenitor cells in leukemic bone marrow

This is a PDF file of an unedited peer-reviewed manuscript that has been accepted for publication. NPG are providing this early version of the manuscript as a service to our customers. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting and a proof review before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.
1,2-Diacylglycerol Content and Its Fatty Acid Composition in Thoracic Aorta of Diabetic Rats

These experiments were conducted to determine 1,2-diacylglycerol (DAG) in the thoracic aorta obtained from streptozocin-induced diabetic rats because 1,2-DAG is assumed to be a second messenger associated with phosphoinositide metabolism. After preincubation for a 25-min stabilization, 1,2-DAG content in isolated thoracic aortas 4 and 8 wk after streptozocin injection was significantly decreased by 42 and 31%, respectively, compared with age-matched control rats on 10-min norepinephrine stimulation (10−5 M). However, 4 wk of daily insulin injection after 4 wk of untreated diabetes significantly shifted 1,2-DAG toward normal levels. Analysis of its fatty acid composition showed a significant difference between control and diabetic rat aortas at both 4 and 8 wk. In particular, the percentage of arachidonate, a precursor of eicosanoids, decreased. Such alteration in the fatty acid profile in diabetic rat aortas was inhibited by insulin treatment. 1,2-DAG content in the 8-wk diabetic group was also significantly decreased by 33% compared with control in the absence of norepinephrine, whereas 1,2-DAG content was lower than in the presence of norepinephrine in both the control and diabetic groups. Cholesterol, triglyceride, and phosphatidylcholine content in diabetic rat aortas was lower than control. Lower levels of 1,2-DAG in the thoracic aorta from diabetic rats were observed in the presence and absence of norepinephrine, suggesting that a defect in 1,2-DAG production may be associated with abnormalities of vascular smooth muscle responsiveness by agonists, as described previously.
Koch's postulates revisited

What an excellent editorial from Professor Hall and Dr Lemoine’ on the need to evolve hypotheses from our observations of the molecular pathology of human disease, and to test these hypotheses in appropriate model systems. The idea of modifying Koch’s postulates to allow for developments in molecular biology is not a new one and has been tossed around the molecular oncology field for several years. The four points listed by Hall and Lemoine are notable in that they are applicable to the study of all human disease, and not just tumour pathology. Hopefully this will stimulate further discussion among pathologists. However, the value of the new postulates turns on the question of what is a suitable model system. For genes involved in human cancer there is no single suitable model system. To demonstrate a causal role for a mutation in cancer requires study of human tissue to allow for species differences. Yet it must be studied in a fully functioning living organism to allow for interactions with various physiological processes and to take account of the possibility that the selective advantage conferred by the mutation may not be expressed in the artificial environment of tissue culture. However, putting the mutated human gene into transgenic animals means that all cells carry the mutation (unlike somatic mutations in cancer); therefore the influence of normal cells is not seen. Xenografts require immunocompromised hosts; therefore the action of the immune system is not seen. If all these experiments corroborate each other, the balance of probability is shifted in favour of causality rather than association. But what if different models give different results? The question of how important is the temporal sequence of mutations is still an open one. Fearon and Vogelstein argue that it is the total sum of mutations that is important and not the order in which they are acquired.2 Some studies claiming to address this point may use tissue specimens from different stages of tumour development but taken at the same timepoint. This invalidates any conclusions as to temporality, since more ‘advanced’ clones of cells may have taken over the original tumour. Also if, for example, tissue adjacent to a tumour has an increased proliferation rate, it does not necessarily mean that the tumour arose from hyperplastic cells representing an early stage in tumorigenesis. It may also mean that the tumour is secretinggrowth factors which have caused the increase in proliferation in the adjacent tissue after the tumour had developed. Questions of temporality can only be addressed if observations are made at different time points. In summary, while rules and postulates are all very well, true advances in pathology will continue to depend on critical evaluation of our experimental models and a constant struggle for their improvement.
Muscarinic receptor antagonists for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Introduction: Long-acting muscarinic receptor antagonists (LAMAs) are central to the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) because of the important role of the cholinergic system in the pathophysiology of this disorder. Areas covered: LAMAs show clinically meaningful effects in lung function and other important supportive outcomes, such as exacerbations, health-related quality of life, dyspnea, rescue medication use and nighttime/early morning symptoms, and are safe. Muscarinic receptor antagonists could exert other useful actions such as the anti-inflammatory, anti-remodeling, mucus-modifying, and anti-cough effects. Concerns have been raised about possible associations of muscarinic receptor antagonists with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Muscarinic receptor antagonists can be combined with long-acting β2-agonists (LABAs), inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) and LABA + ICS. There are number of LAMAs that are being identified but only few have reached the clinical development. Fixed-dose combination formulations of both novel and established LAMAs with LABAs are being developed. Expert opinion: There are important questions concerning the use of LAMAs in the treatment of patients suffering from stable COPD that need conclusive answers.
EFFECT OF HEAT MOISTURE TREATMENT ON FUNCTIONAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF NATIVE AND MODIFIED MILLET FLOURS

Millets are one of the oldest foods known to humans and cultivated since time immemorial. Millets are termed as nutricereals since, they are nutritionally superior to major cereals with respect to protein, energy, vitamins and minerals. The functional properties and phytochemical components of native and modified millet flours were studied. The functional characteristics such as water absorption index (WAI) and water solubility index (WSI) were maximum in native flour than modified millet four. The data projected for water absorption capacity (WAC) and oil absorption capacity (OAC) of modified millet flour was high when compared with native flour. The soluble, insoluble and total dietary fibre content was observed to be high in modified millet flour than native flour. Among the native flours, little millet contained higher proportions of polyphenols (373.67 ± 12.16 mg GAE/100 g), antioxidant activity was 83.27 ± 2.28 mg AAEAA/100g in pearl millet, phytate content was 35.17 ± 0.63 mg/ 100g in kodo millet (35.17 ± 0.63 mg/100g) and tannin content was 22.67 ± 0.21 mg TAE/100g, respectively in proso millet flour followed by other millet flour.
A Framework for Hand Gesture Recognition with Applications to Sign Language

Sign language is the most natural and expressive way for the hearing impaired. Because of this, automatic sign language recognition has long attracted vision researchers. It offers enhancement of communication capabilities for the speech and hearing impaired, promising improved social opportunities and integration. This paper describes a gesture recognition system which can recognize wide classes of hand gesture in a vision based setup. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed recognition system can be used reliably in recognizing some signs of native Indian sign language
The effect of limited search ability on the quality of competitive rent-seeking clubs

A competitive rent-seeking club (CRSC) offers its members the chance of winning a prize (status, position, privilege) by being selected, typically, by a civil servant or a politician. The selector replaces in our setting the usual contest success function; instead of determining the winner on the basis of the club-members’ efforts, he selects the winner on the basis of quality. This article focuses on the effect of incomplete search of the selector on the efficiency of democratic self-governing and decentralized RSC’s that control admittance to the club and its transparency, assuming that quality of their members is fixed. The incomplete search of the selector is assumed to take the simple form of fixed random sampling of the contestants—the members of the CRSC. Our results imply that, even when active rent-seeking expenditures are disregarded, the decisions of CRSC’s regarding their composition and transparency tend to reduce quality and are therefore inefficient.