Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiple Directorships and the Monitoring Role of the Board of Directors: Evidence From Malaysia

ABSTRACT This study aims to examine the relationship between multiple directorships and the monitoring role of the board of directors in Malaysian listed companies (PLC). The monitoring role is proxied by the percentage of directors’ attendance in board meetings, as attending meetings provides directors with resources about the management actions and assists directors to exercise their role effectively. The study uses a sample of 1023 directors from 134 companies on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia (Malaysian Bourse) in year 2008. The results of the study show that the incidence of multiple directorships is low. Independent directors are found to have more multiple directorships. Directors with multiple directorships are older directors, have less director ownerships and are on boards with a high fraction of independent directors. Based on the 75% cut-off for the percentage of meetings’ attendance, the logistic regression suggests that no agency cost is associated with multiple directorships. However, the tendency to be absent from board meetings is associated with the high number of board meetings whilst the tendency to attend more board meetings is associated with the increase in age, tenure, and director ownership. Keywords: Corporate governance; multiple directorships; board meetings attendance; director ownership; tenure; firm performance; Malaysia ABSTRAK Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji hubungan di antara pelbagai jawatan pengarah dan peranan pemantauan oleh lembaga pengarah dalam syarikat-syarikat tersenarai Malaysia (PLC). Peranan pemantauan adalah diproksikan kepada peratusan kehadiran Pengarah dalam mesyuarat lembaga yang mana menghadiri mesyuarat menyediakan mereka dengan sumber-sumber mengenai tindakan pihak pengurusan dan membantu mereka menjalankan peranan dengan berkesan. Kajian ini menggunakan sampel 1023 pengarah daripada 134 syarikat di Pasaran Utama Bursa Malaysia (Bursa Malaysia) pada tahun 2008. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa kewujudan pelbagai jawatan pengarah adalah rendah. Pengarah bebas didapati mempunyai lebih banyak pelbagai jawatan pengarah. Pengarah dengan pelbagai jawatan pengarah adalah terdiri daripada pengarah yang berumur, mempunyai kurang pemilikan pengarah dan berada di lembaga pengarah yang mempunyai pecahan pengarah bebas yang tinggi. Berdasarkan 75% peratusan kehadiran mesyuarat, regresi logistik menunjukkan tiada kos agensi yang berkaitan dengan pelbagai pengarah. Walau bagaimanapun, kecenderungan untuk ponteng mesyuarat lembaga dikaitkan dengan bilangan tinggi mesyuarat lembaga manakala kecenderungan untuk menghadiri mesyuarat Lembaga Pengarah lebih dikaitkan dengan peningkatan umur, tempoh perkhidmatan, dan pemilikan pengarah. Kata kunci: Tadbir urus korporat; pelbagai jawatan pengarah; kehadiran mesyuarat lembaga; pemilikan pengarah; tempoh perkhidmatan; prestasi firma; Malaysia
Force decay of orthodontic elastomeric chains by using three different mechanisms simulating canine retraction

The ideal force-delivery system must: provide optimal tooth moving forces that elicit the desired effects, be comfortable and hygienic for the patient, require minimal operator manipulation and patient cooperation and provide rapid tooth movement with minimal mobility during orthodontic therapy, the elastomeric chains have the greatest potential to fulfill these requirements. Materials and Methods: This in vitro study was designed to determine the effect of three different mechanisms for canine retraction : (6-3 , 6-5-3 and chain loop ) on the load relaxation behavior of three types of elastomeric chains : (maximum clear , maximum silver and extreme silver) from the same company (Ortho Technology company) with two different brand configurations: closed loop and open (short filament) chains under effect of time at (zero time, 24hr., 7, 14 , 21 and 28 days) in artificial saliva. Results: Statistical analysis showed that there was a highly significant difference in the mean percentage force decay for the three different mechanisms (P≤ 0.001). For all the three types, the 6-3 mechanism had the smallest mean percentage force decay. There was a highly significant difference in the mean percentage force decay for the different types (P≤ 0.001). For all three mechanisms, extreme silver elastomeric chains had the smallest percentage force decay while maximum silver elastomeric chains had the highest percentage force decay. Conclusion: This study illustrated that for all the three types of elastomeric chains, the (6-3) mechanism had the smallest mean percentage force decay. This finding suggests that it may be most efficient to retract a canine utilizing elastomeric chain directly from the molar hook to the canine bracket. The chain loop mechanism may not be indicated for space closure in vivo due to the excessive physiological force values involved with this mechanism.
Cladistics, bruchids and host plants: evolucionary interactions in Amblycerus (Coleoptera: Bruchidae)

A preliminary cladistic analysis of forty species of Amblycerus Thunberg is presented based on 29 morphological characters. The analysis generated four equally parsimonious trees of 60 steps in length with a consistency index of 0.63 and a retention index of 0.88. By replacing host families by each species of Amblycerus on the cladogram, an approximation of macroevolution into host taxa was formulated. These bruchids appear to have moved from the plant family Fabaceae into 12 other plant families, with many species into the families Sterculiaceae and Boraginaceae. Various factors including oviposition behavior are cited for some host shifts. Plant chemistry is especially important but we only have correlative data to support these conclusions. To us, it appears that the most parsimonious explanation for the host shifts that we observed was by macroevolution during enhanced rates of bruchid diversification in the Recent epoch.
INHERENT ID: A NOVEL APPROACH TO DETECT COUNTERFEIT CONSUMER GOODS USING PRODUCT INHERENT FEATURES

Product-Piracy or counterfeiting is a well known problem which leads to economic damage that affects in particular countries that use advanced production and manufacturing processes based on intensive research and development to produce high quality goods. The existence of counterfeiting leads to the development of methods and technologies to secure high-quality products. The present way to secure top-quality products is often followed by an application of artiﬁcial security features. In this text we show a novel approach in detail to secure products against counterfeiting using features of the product itself instead of additional labels. The speciﬁc conditions of production, manufacturing technologies and materials generate spe-ciﬁc features, which identify the product uniquely.
Genetic variability of Appaloosa horses: a study of a closed breeding population from Argentina

The genetic diversity and structure of 72 Appaloosa horses belonging to a closed breeding popula- tion from an ecological reserve in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was investigated using eight microsatellite markers from the International Society for Animal Genetics panel. Our data showed that this Appaloosa horse population had an elevated degree of genetic diversity (He = 0.746) and did not present a significant increase of homozygous individuals (FIS~0). However, the short tandem repeats, AHT5, ASB2, HTG10 and VHL20, were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P-value< 0.05). Genetic relationships between this population and other well known horse breeds showed that Appaloosa horses from Argentina could have had their origin in the horses of the Nez Perce's people in Idaho while other Appaloosa horses may have had influences from Andalu- sian and Lusitano breeds. This closed breeding population conserves an important degree of Appaloosa genetic diversity and notwithstanding its particular breeding characteristics, represents a valuable genetic resource for conservation.
ALLOZYME BASED GENETIC VARIATION BETWEEN HATCHERY AND NATURAL POPULATIONS OF SAHAR (TOR PUTITORA)

Sahar ( Tor putitora ) formed a substantial natural fishery in the major riverine and lacustrine ecosystem of Nepal. Biological diversity of this species is being threatened by various anthropogenic activities. In view of the conservational value and the aquaculture potential of T. putitora , significant development in artificial propagation of this species has been achieved. The successful hatchery production of T. putitora brought to the forefront problematic questions regarding genetic variation of the hatchery stocks. A study was, therefore, conducted to determine the genetic variability within and between hatchery stocks and their wild counterparts of T. putitora using allozyme markers. Analyses of seven enzyme systems resuled in 11 loci being resolved from lake population and two consecutive generations of hatchery populations of T. putitora . Based on five polymorphic loci, all populations had percentage polymorphic loci 45.45. Significant reduction (P 0.05), observed heterozygosity increased in first generation of hatchery population (H o = 0.181 ±0.233) compared to natural population (H o =0.179±0.221). The H o of second generation of hatchery population was lowest (0.119 ±0.143) among the populations studied. Loss of rare alleles from the two generations of hatchery population, while these alleles were present in corresponding natural populations suggested the founders (20-30 individuals) of the hatchery populations probably represented bottlenecks to very small effective population size ( N e ). J. Nat. Hist. Mus. Vol. 26, 2012: 212-223
Inhibition of LSD1 epigenetically attenuates oral cancer growth and metastasis

Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) is a nuclear histone demethylase and a member of the amine oxidase (AO) family. LSD1 is a flavin-containing AO that specifically catalyzes the demethylation of mono- and di-methylated histone H3 lysine 4 through an FAD-dependent oxidative reaction. LSD1 is inappropriately upregulated in lung, liver, brain and esophageal cancers, where it promotes cancer initiation, progression, and metastasis. However, unlike other lysine-specific demethylases, the role and specific targets of LSD1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) pathogenesis remain unknown. We show that LSD1 protein expression was increased in malignant OSCC tissues in a clinical tissue microarray, and its expression correlated with progressive tumor stages. In an orthotopic oral cancer mouse model, LSD1 overexpression in aggressive HSC-3 cells promoted metastasis whereas knockdown of LSD1 inhibited tumor spread, suggesting that LSD1 is a key regulator of OSCC metastasis. Pharmacological inhibition of LSD1 using a specific small molecule inhibitor, GSK-LSD1, down-regulated EGF signaling pathway. Further, GSK-LSD1 attenuates CTGF/CCN2, MMP13, LOXL4 and vimentin expression but increased E-cadherin expression in pre-existing, patient-derived tonsillar OSCC xenografts. Similarly, GSK-LSD1 inhibited proliferation and CTGF expression in mesenchymal cells, including myoepithelial cells and osteosarcoma cells. In addition, gene set enrichment analysis revealed that GSK-LSD1 increased p53 expression and apoptosis while inhibiting c-myc, β-catenin and YAP-induced oncogenic transcriptional networks. These data reveal that aberrant LSD1 activation regulates key OSCC microenvironment and EMT promoting factors, including CTGF, LOXL4 and MMP13.
Using SAR to Detect Moorland Fire Scars in the Peak District.

Severe fires can burn into the peat releasing CO2� into the atmosphere; fires can also destroy the moorland habitat and cause gully erosion all of which are of great concern to Moors for the Future (MFF) that manage the land at the Peak District National Park (PDNP). Monitoring the occurrence of moorland fire scars and fire scar recovery will help to manage the land more efficiently as precise fire scar records over time have not been kept for the PDNP. The overall aim of the project is to investigate whether Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can be used to detect moorland fire scars and monitor the rate of vegetation recovery as has been achieved in other types of environments such as boreal (Bourgeau-Chavez et al, 1997) and the tropics (Huang and Siegert, 2004). SAR has been selected as it benefits from providing a greater temporal resolution of images compared to optical imagery as the sensors are not affected by cloud cover. Archival time-series SAR imagery has been supplied by the Landmap Service, originally sourced from the European Space Agency (ESA). This paper provides results of an initial pilot project to test the capability of ERS 2 and ASAR data to detect the 18th April 2003 Bleaklow fire scar which was mapped using a GPS by PDNP rangers just after the fire event. The methodology will involve pre-processing the C-band ASAR and ERS 2 data in SARscape 4.2 to produce geocoded greyscale images and multi-difference colour composites. The level of coherence will be assess between images with fire scars expected to exhibit a high level of coherence compared to the surrounding vegetation (Dahdal et al., 2009). Future research will assess other sensor variables such as radar frequency and polarisation and also the affects of scene variable e.g. soil moisture and fire intensity.
Non-Scalar Economy: An Incentive-Based Approach for Managing Pollution and Attaining Economic Sustainability

In the current economy, the cost of damage to the environment is often external, which is likely to lead to over-exploitation and inadequate provisioning. There are a variety of incentive-based schemes, such as effluent taxes or tradable permits, which attempt to confront the polluting agents with a ‘price’ equal to the marginal external cost of their activity. However, competitive incentives alone are not adequate for effective management of the shared resources. Thus, the current solutions exhibit several drawbacks including susceptibility to international free-riding, sensitivity to accurate estimation of cost of pollution or environmental targets, and inability to take the cumulative nature of pollution and its cost into account. This paper proposes an approach to eliminate the commons dilemma by using non-scalar numbers for the underlying economic signals. Rather than adding the cost of pollution to the cost of private resources, this cost is kept in a separate dimension represented by the second component of money and price. This separation enables us to develop more effective models for economic signals and incentives, and avoid the above-mentioned drawbacks. In the proposed design, the cost of pollution is cumulative and would have a progressively higher economic impact on both the competitive and cooperative incentives for managing pollution leading to a provable sustainable point. Moreover, the proposed model does not suffer from the free rider problem; does not require accurate estimation of the true cost of pollution; is simple to implement and backward compatible with the current economy.
An Nlp-Based Approach for Improving Human-Robot Interaction

Abstract This study aims to explore the possibility of improving human-robot interaction (HRI) by exploiting natural language resources and using natural language processing (NLP) methods. The theoretical basis of the study rests on the claim that effective and efficient human robot interaction requires linguistic and ontological agreement. A further claim is that the required ontology is implicitly present in the lexical and grammatical structure of natural language. The paper offers some NLP techniques to uncover (fragments of) the ontology hidden in natural language and to generate semantic representations of natural language sentences using that ontology. The paper also presents the implementation details of an NLP module capable of parsing English and Turkish along with an overview of the architecture of a robotic interface that makes use of this module for expressing the spatial motions of objects observed by a robot
Challenges and Prospects of Internet Banking in Bangladesh: Banker's (Service Providers) Point of View

Information technology has become a necessary tool for today’s organizations and banking industry is not an exception. Internet banking is modern technology based computerized system of providing banking systems to client with low cost and quick services. Though Bangladesh was comparatively a late adoptee but now almost all the banks are providing internet banking to their customers. But what is striking is the lack of comprehensive study of internet banking covering organizational and operational sides and exhaustive study as to problem and prospects. Considering the importance of internet banking this study was taken up. The main objectives of this study were to evaluate internet banking structure, operations and to examine the bankers’ (Service Providers) perception towards internet banking in Bangladesh. There are 25 banks were selected for intensive study. As to bankers respondents i.e. internet banking service providers, 50 respondents taking 2 respondents (one Manager and another IT Professional) from each bank were selected for interview. This research work used extended form of commonly used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to verify the adoption and opinion of internet banking service providers.
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE AFTER THE SPANISH BANKING REFORMS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF 19 COMMERCIAL BANKS

A diagnostic review of the Spanish financial system during the 2008 financial crisis reveals the emergency need for banking reform in the sector. In an attempt to evaluate the impact of the Spanish reform, the present study examines the bank ́s performance before/after the reform was adopted, using data of 19 Spanish commercial banks extracted from the Global Vantage research database (Standard and Poor’s) over the period 2006 to 2013. This study uses multivariable regression method to investigate the impact of the CAMELS rating system: capital adequacy, asset quality, management quality, liquidity and sensitivity to market risks on the bank ́s performance such as earnings efficiency. The time-line of the study is essential because it helps us to determine the financial performance of Spanish commercial banks before the banking reforms during the financial crisis and an important set in terms of mergers and acquisition in the banking industry. The empirical results have found strong and positive evidence that Capital Adequacy, Management Capacity, Liquidity and Sensitivity to Market Risk are useful predictors of banks performance (earnings efficiency), thus, any reform pilot toward this banking indicators will eventually have a positive impact on banking performance. Base on the present study, the Spanish reform was so vital for better banking performance. Therefore, this study serves not only to academics but also to policy makers.
NARROWING DEVELOPMENT GAPS IN ASEAN

Development gaps happen when there is a difference in either the per capita income or other social development between countries or regions. The enlargement process in the ASEAN widened further the existing developmental gap. Using GDP per capita, HDI index and information technology data, this paper examines the extent of the developmental gap in the ASEAN prior to the enlargement exercise and after the process. The paper also examines income convergence in the ASEAN over the period 1970-2003. The results reveal that income gap among the ASEAN members did not converge after decades of integration process. Comparison with the EU's integration experience shows that the structural funds and other policy tools executed by the EU are among the key elements of convergence that are absent in the ASEAN. Political will in ensuring compliance and effective implementation is clearly needed for a successful ASEAN economic integration.
Modeling the influence of floriculture effluent on soil quality and dry matter yield of wheat on Fluvisols at Ziway

Greenhouse experiments were conducted at DZARC on soil sampled from farmers’ field to examine the influence of floriculture effluent on soil quality and crop performance, and to see the most likely trends. The sample was splitted into two; the first remained to be as it is while the second was subjected to sterilization and call it non-sterilized (NS) and sterilized (S) soil, respectively. Seven rates of effluent was used as a treatment and laid out in CRD with four replications. The effluent was found to have high pH, EC, N, P, S, exchangeable bases, low in micronutrients and very low in heavy metals. The shoot dry weight was reduced by 36.9 and 58.8 % for NS and S soils respectively in the first harvest. The second round experiment further confirmed that it keeps decreasing due to effluent additions. However, at lower volumes, the non-sterilized soil showed benefit from the effluent and hence the value started to increase but later it followed the same trends with application of higher volumes. Chemical properties were highly influenced by effluent additions. The pH and EC continuously increased whereas OC and TN increased to some extent but decreased as the volume of effluent increased. Exchangeable bases and micro-nutrients were continuously increased. The trends indicated that dry weight on Fluvisols will decline corresponding to the decrease in soil organic matter while pH, CEC and ESP continuously increases ending in the shift of slight alkaline soil to sodic soil. Generally, the effluent was found to disturb the performance of the crop and soil quality parameters. Disturbance in terms of shoot dry weight and soil quality parameters revealed that it was much less for the NS owing to the presence of organism. Keywords ? Effluents, floriculture, non-sterilized, sterilized, soil quality
Study into the Redistribution of Tension on the Components of the Loaded Textile Fabric System

*Department of Textile Technology Studentų 56, LT-51424 Kaunas, Lithuania E-mail: Virginijus.Urbelis@ktu.lt Abstract We have studied the trends in the redistribution of tensions falling on the individual components of bi-component textile fabric systems under a constant load on the system. Using Matukonis’ model of a heterogeneous bi-component system, we show the factors predetermining the trends in the change in partial tensions falling on individual components of a system. The creep behaviour of three bi-component textile systems characteristic of outer garment manufacture, composed of face fabric and interlining, is experimentally studied on a relaxometer we have developed, in order to verify the features revealed by the analysis of the model’s behaviour. Experimental results proved the theoretical findings. It was established that the trend of change over the time under tension which initially falls on individual components of loaded bi-component textile fabric system is unambiguously predetermined by the difference in creep amount of the entire system and of a single component.
The Qigong and Quality of life Trial: Implications for Women in Cancer Survivorship Phase

The Qigong and Quality of life Trial: Implications for Women in Cancer Survivorship Phase Background: Qigong is widely acknowledged by Asian breast cancer survivors as a potent health-promoting physical activity. This study investigated the hypothesis that quality of life (QoL) in the Qigong group is better than the placebo (aerobic) or usual care group. Methods: 197 participants were randomly assigned to either the 8-week Qigong, Placebo or Usual care (control) group. Measurement taken at baseline and post-intervention included QoL, distress and fatigue. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and Kruskal Wallis were used to examine for differences between groups of the measurements.