Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Critical Evaluation of U.S. Airlines¡¯ Service Quality Performance: Lower Costs vs. Satisfied Customers

Providing good quality services enables airlines to retain customer satisfaction, loyalty, market-share, and ultimately profitability. However, U.S. airlines compete primarily on price and are not known for good quality service. There have been a growing number of low-cost airlines. In such a business landscape, we study whether a full-service carrier indeed outperforms a low-cost carrier in terms of service quality when we control for the operational costs. We are also interested to find out which dimensions of service quality have the greatest potential for improvement and how these potential improvement areas differ for low-cost and full-service carriers. We contribute to the service operations literature that looks at efficiency by incorporating customer service quality outputs which has never been done before for the airline industry. We find that major airlines in the industry are lacking staff enthusiasm, adequate cabin presence, and behavioral consistency. Moreover, 33.3% of firms need to deliver more comfortable seats, better meals, in-flight entertainment, and cleaner surroundings. On the other hand, notably, U.S. airlines are operating quite efficiently when it comes to service supply chain quality. We also provide managerial guidelines for U.S. airlines to improve their service quality and overall customer satisfaction.
New Architecture for Mobile GIS Cloud Computing

Nowadays the fast growth and evolution on technologies such as cloud computing, mobile computing and geographic information systems (GIS) inherently exhibit spatiotemporal phenomena. These technologies have created opportunities for business implementation that utilize advanced mapping, mobile field-based applications and location aware systems. The capability to process and handle a big volume of data using cloud computing and to access location information via mobile have made GIS technology utilizes more widely. In this paper, we introduce a new mobile GIS cloud computing architecture that increase the efficiency of processing by decreasing the transmission time for data this is based on decreasing the size of transmitted data. The mobile geographic patrolling system based on cloud GIS has great significance for the development of gas pipeline patrolling. We propose pipeline patrolling prototype system which utilizes such technology.
Causes, Dimensions and Organizational Consequences of Mobbing: An Empirical Study

This paper aims to explore the relations between the perceived causes and dimensions of mobbing and two important organizational consequences, job satisfaction and turnover intention. The study employed survey design to collect data from 248 white collar employees working for SME’s operating in the agriculture industry in Antalya, Turkey. Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terrorization was used for data collection. More than half of the respondents had been subjected to some kind of mobbing during the previous year, for at least six months duration, most frequently from peers and generally due to organizational factors. Victims had lower levels of job satisfaction and most of them intended to leave the job
Gender and Trade Aspects of Labour Markets

Abstract We provide a comprehensive up-to-date review of the large body of theory and evidence on the linkages between trade liberalisation and gender inequality in income, as well as two of the latter's key underlying determinants: wages and employment. On balance, the evidence for developing countries points to an overall beneficial impact of trade expansion on female employment, both relative to male employment and in absolute terms, although largely concentrated in unskilled manufacturing. By contrast, the bulk of the evidence suggests a widening gender wage gap as a result of freer trade.
Keyword Extraction and Clustering for Expressive Opinion Generation

Humans are surrounded by an unprecedented wealth of information, available as documents, databases, or multimedia resources. Access to this information is conditioned by the availability of searching techniques. Keyword extraction and clustering for expressive opinion generation intelligently generates automatic expressive opinion sentences as a response to the user query based upon the transcript provided. Earliest techniques have used Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency (TFIDF) values and word concurrence frequencies to rank words for extraction, these approaches do not consider word meaning so they may ignore low frequency words which together indicate a highly salient topic. The system being developed uses reward functions along with novel algorithmic approach for overcoming the limitations of previous systems thereby resolving the problems of keyword extraction and topic diversity coverage. Here we are using the Stanford parser for Named Entity Recognition. Information extraction is conditioned by the Entities recognized by the system. The main purpose of the system is to maintain multiple hypothesis about the users information needs and to present a small sample of recommendations based on the most likes once along with the sentiment of the response.
Biomonitoring Laboratory Oriented to Software Applications Development

Abstract This paper presents a project-oriented laboratory. It is intended to provide an educational and research environment that stimulates innovative solutions in the growing field of Bioengineering. The authors took the advantages of the emerging technology and the increasing popularity of wearable biomonitoring devices, to teach students the key elements regarding the application of Information Technology in health monitoring. The students were involved in a complex project, along which they gain basic knowledge about the software development for biomonitoring, and apply it to effectively develop common structures and software applications. There are presented the stages of the laboratory work, with illustrations of the applications implementation at different levels of the hierarchy, starting from collecting data from the biomonitoring device, and finalizing with the data visualization by the end-user.
Characterization of Indigenous Goat Breeding Practices and Production System in West Gojjam Zone, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia

The study was carried out in Bahirdar Zuria, Yilmana Densa and Gonji Kolela districts of Western Gojjam zone of Amhara National Regional State. The objectives of the study were to characterize production system and environment and to identify trait preference, breeding practices and objectives in the study area. A total of 270 households were selected purposively for characterization of the production practices. Data were gathered through semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussions and field observations. The result of the study showed that the major farming activities in the study area were mixed crop and livestock farming. Mating practice was natural mating or uncontrolled mating within the household’s flock and between neighboring flocks. In Bahirdar Zuria district respondents were keeping goats primarily for wealth status, whereas the primary reason for goat owners in Yilmana Densa and Gonji Kolela districts were for meat consumption. In study area appearance, color, character and age were the main criteria’s for selection of breeding bucks, whereas, twining ability, appearance, age at first sexual maturity and color were for does. When goat flock of a household were not mixed, inbreeding depression for goat in Bahirdar Zuria, Yilmana Densa and Gonji Kolela districts were 0.30, 0.19 and 0.22, respectively. Mixed crop and livestock rearing were the major farming activities in the study area and the goat producers were practicing uncontrolled mating. Further research is recommended to know more about traditional animal breeding practices. Keywords: Appearance, breeding, characterization, inbreeding, mating
When the stress of quitting meets the cost of playing: An Experiment on to quit or not to quit?

Business-owners often postpone disinvestment decisions even when future profits are not expected to compensate for current losses. We use an experiment to study one possible behavioral motivation. Studies in psychology suggest that making decisions is stressful and, consequently, many people prefer to buck-pass their decisions to someone else or to postpone them to future periods. Other people, however, are vigilant subjects that are able to make efficient decisions. In our experiment, we measure subjects’ buck-passing, vigilance and risk-aversion traits and study their performance in games in which they have to make investment and disinvestment decisions. We find that the number of rounds most subjects play is greater than the number expected by real-option theory but that vigilant and risk-averse subjects tend to make decisions that are more efficient than all other subjects, that vigilant but not risk-averse subjects tend to shirk making the investment decisions and that buck-passing and not risk-averse subjects tend to postpone their disinvestment decisions even when they make losses that would have induced most other subjects to disinvest. Unternehmer sind dafur bekannt, Desinvestitionsentscheidungen zu verschieben, auch wenn die Erwartung uber zukunftige Gewinne nicht ausreicht, um die derzeitigen Verluste zu kompensieren. Wir fuhren eine experimentelle Studie durch, um einen moglichen Treiber dieses Verhaltens besser zu verstehen. Psychologische Studien zeigen, dass das Treffen von Entscheidungen mit Stress verbunden sein kann, und dass viele Menschen daher eine Neigung haben, entweder andere ihre Entscheidungen treffen zu lassen oder diese auf zukunftige Perioden zu verschieben. Andere Personen sind dagegen wachsam und dazu in der Lage, effizient zu entscheiden. In unserem Experiment messen wir die Tendenz von Personen, ihre Entscheidungen zu verschieben bzw. wachsam zu sein sowie deren Risikobereitschaft und beobachten, wie gut diese in Spielen abschneiden, in denen sie Investitions- und Desinvestitionsentscheidungen treffen mussen. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die meisten Personen mehr Runden spielen, als dies auf Basis der Realoptionstheorie erklart werden kann, dass aber zugleich wachsame und risikoaverse Personen Entscheidungen treffen, die naher an eine effiziente Entscheidung herankommen als die anderer Personen. Wir zeigen weiterhin, dass wachsame, aber nicht risikoaverse Personen dazu neigen, die Investitionsentscheidung gar nicht erst zu treffen (d.h., die Teilnahme an dem Spiel zu vermeiden), und dass verschiebende und nicht risikoaverse Personen dazu neigen, ihre Desinvestitionsentscheidungen auch dann spat zu treffen, wenn sie Verluste machen, bei denen andere langst mit dem Spiel aufgehort hatten.
Native grouper indirectly ameliorates the negative effects of invasive lionfish

Non-trophic interactions between Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans and P. miles and Atlantic and Caribbean reef fishes are not yet well understood. To determine the effects of potential competitive and behavioral interactions between native predators and invasive lionfish, we experimentally altered the presence of lionfish and red grouper Epinephelus morio in karst solution holes in Florida Bay, USA, and then tracked subsequent changes in the juvenile reef fish and motile macroinvertebrate communities for 6 wk. Relative to solution holes where we excluded both predators, mean juvenile reef fish abundance declined 83.7% in solution holes with a lionfish but increased by 154% in solution holes with a red grouper. There was no difference in juvenile reef fish abundance in solution holes with both lionfish and red grouper compared to holes where we excluded both predators. The composition of lionfish stomach contents shifted from mostly teleost fishes when lionfish were present in solution holes alone, to mostly crustaceans when in the presence of a red grouper. Concurrently, the abundance of 2 species of cleaner shrimp (Ancylomenes pedersoni and Periclimenes yucatanicus) decreased by 14.7% when lionfish were present but increased by 56.2% at holes where lionfish were excluded. We suggest that these results are due to altered lionfish predatory behavior in the presence of red grouper and highlight the importance of maintaining intact native predator communities for ameliorating the negative effects of the lionfish invasion.
Quantifying Cloud Radiative Effects based on Cloudsat and Calipso Profiles

Clouds play an important part in the energy budget of the earth. They reflect solar radiation and thus cool the earth, but also emit longwave radiation to the surface and hence contribute to the natural greenhouse effect. It is difficult to quantify the influence of clouds on the budget because of a lack of accurate global observations of cloud microphysical properties and radiation fluxes. A new possibility of observing clouds and aerosols is provided by the satellites CloudSat (Stephens et al., 2002) and CALIPSO (Winker et al., 2009). Both carry active instruments (the Cloud Profiling Radar CPR and the Cloud and Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization CALIOP) and are therefore able to resolve the vertical structure of clouds and aerosol layers. Another fundamental problem is that radiative transfer in climate models needs to be calculated with strong simplifications in the radiative transfer parameterizations. Important simplifications typically made are to solve the radiative transfer problem in 1D instead of 3D and describe the influence of nonresolved cloud structure by a small number of parameters. In this study, the new active satellite data together with the Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for Global climate models (RRTMG) (Iacono et al., 2008) are used to estimate the influences of subscale cloud variability and parameterization uncertainties in radiation schemes.
Ultrafast Superconducting Digital Circuits for Analysis and Processing of Microwave Signals

: Rapid-Single-Flux-Quantum (RSFQ) digital circuits based on shunted Josephson junctions have been shown to be able to digitally process signals up to several hundreds GHz. The principle of operation is based on the generation, transport and processing of picosecond voltage pulses of 2.07 mV.ps quantized area, which corresponds to one quantum flux h/2e. Operation of RSFQ circuits can be performed with clock frequencies of the order of 20 to 50 GHz with present technology. We will present current developments and experimental results obtained so far, based on circuits developed in the JeSEF RSFQ process of IPHT Jena[1], using a 1 kA/cm2 shunted Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb junctions. Some particular potential applications for space will be emphasized.
Cancer Proteomics for Biomarker Development

Cancer is a diverse disease, and biomarkers reflecting this diversity will lead to better therapeutic strategies. By linking proteomic data and clinico-pathological parameters, we are identifying proteins informative for features of clinical relevance to cancer patients. To obtain proteome data, we developed a large format system for two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis and an application of highly sensitive fluorescent dye for laser microdissection. Following the comprehensive proteome study of more than 1,000 surgical specimens and corresponding clinico-pathological data, we concluded that the proteome reflects the major cancer phenotypes such as histological differentiation, poor prognosis, and response to treatment. Furthermore, we found that certain single proteins predict the clinical outcome in many types of malignancies including esophageal cancer, lung adenocarcinoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, hepatocellular carcinoma, Ewing's sarcoma and osteosarcoma. By monitoring biomarker proteins to predict the clinical outcome, we will be able to optimize the therapeutic strategy, either by intensifying treatment or by avoiding over-treatment. The results of the cancer proteomics studies are integrated into a proteome database named Genome Medicine Database of Japan Proteomics. The above establish proteomics as a primary tool in the development of novel diagnostic modalities for personalized medicine.
Retinal image analysis using multidirectional functors based on geodesic conversions

A retinal image contains vital information. Extracting these features is the first and most important step in the analysis of retinal images for various applications of medical or human recognition. In this study, a morphological-based blood vessel extraction algorithm using adaptive-local analysis from colored retinal images is proposed. In this algorithm, by applying the appropriate morphology functors and local histogram stretching on the retinal images, the brightness of the images is considerably uniformed. Furthermore, curvelet transform (CT) is used to enhance the retinal images by highlighting the edges of the images in various scales and directions and by the adaptive and local improving of the CT coefficients. Since the blood vessels in retinal images are distributed in various directions, we use the morphology functors with multidirectional structure elements to extract the blood vessels from the retinal images. Geodesic conversion-based morphology functors are used to properly refine the appeared frills with a size smaller than those of the arterioles in the images. Finally, by locally applying the connected component analysis in the images and locally applying an adaptive filter on the connected components, all of the residual frills are refined from the images. The obtained results of the proposed algorithm show that the blood vessels are extracted from the background of the images with high accuracy, which in turn shows the high ability of the proposed algorithm in extracting the retinal blood vessels.
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Thermal Conductivity Enhancement of Copper-Water Nanofluid

A Master of Science thesis in Chemical Engineering by Nayef Hussein Abou-Tayoun entitled, "Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Thermal Conductivity Enhancement of Copper-Water Nanofluid," submitted in January 2012. Thesis advisor is Dr. Rachid Chebbi. Available are both soft and hard copies of the thesis.
Single Assay Detection of Acute Bee Paralysis Virus, Kashmir Bee Virus and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus

Single Assay Detection of Acute Bee Paralysis Virus, Kashmir Bee Virus and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus A new RT-PCR primer pair designed to identify Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV), Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV) or Israeli Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (IAPV) of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) in a single assay is described. These primers are used to screen samples for ABPV, KBV, or IAPV in a single RT-PCR reaction saving time and money. The primers are located in the predicted overlapping gene (pog/ORFX) which is highly conserved across ABPV, KBV, IAPV and other dicistroviruses of social insects. This study has also identified the first case of IAPV in Denmark. Jednoczesne Wykrywanie Wirusa Ostrego Paraliżu Pszczół, Kaszmirskiego Wirusa Pszczół i Izraelskiego Wirusa Ostrego Paraliżu Pszczół Badanie pszczół na obecność wirusów jest zarówno czasochłonne, jak i drogie. Siedem wirusów, które są obecnie są najczęściej badane u pszczół, przy konwencjonalnym PCR wymagają przeprowadzenia oddzielnych analiz dla każdego z oznaczanych wirusów w badanej próbie. W pracy prezentowane jest wykorzystanie starterów AKI, przy pomocy których w pojedynczej reakcji można wykryć obecność każdego z trzech wirusów: wirus ostrego paraliżu pszczół (ABPV), wirus kaszmirski (KBV), izraelski wirus ostrego paraliżu (IAPV). Analiza sekwencji genów z GenBank wykazała, że wirusy te są ze sobą ściśle spokrewnione. W sekwencji wszystkich 3 wirusów został zidentyfikowany specyficzny region o 100% podobieństwie i opracowano startery, które pozwalają na powielenie tego regionu. Nowe startery zostały sprawdzone na 87 próbach. Jednocześnie wszystkie te próby zostały przebadane przy użyciu wcześniej stosowanych starterów, specyficznych dla każdego z wirusów. Stwierdzono, że we wszystkich przypadkach gdzie z użyciem specyficznego startera uzyskano produkt, ten sam produkt był również otrzymywany przy zastosowaniu starterów AKI. Uzyskane produkty AKI PCR zawierają tylko 101 par zasad, dzięki czemu są wystarczająco długie do wykrycia na żelu, ale na tyle krótkie, aby można je analizować za pomocą Real Time PCR. Podczas badań, po raz pierwszy stwierdzono występowanie IAPV w Danii, co zostało potwierdzone poprzez sekwencjonowanie i otrzymanie specyficznego produktu z użyciem innych starterów.
Re-Examining the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy: a Cross Country Analysis

Objective: We revisit the analysis of the gender gap in life expectancy with an emphasis on labor force participation rate in addition to other demographic, economic, and health related factors that may influence life expectancy. Method: We use data from the World Development Indicators, as well as 2SLS with time fixed effects to account for possible simultaneity. Result: We find that increasing female labor force participation rate in high income Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries is positively related to the narrowing life expectancy gender gap among OECD countries. Conclusion: The findings support the notion that male – female competition and gender equality has health consequences for both males and females especially when the level of country development or income is considered. A variety of other factors also influence life expectancy across countries categorized by their levels of development and income. These factors are identified and discussed.
Public and Private Investment in Saudi Economy: Evidence from Weak Exogeneity and Bound Cointegration Tests

This paper investigates the long-run equilibrium relationship between the real private and total public investment disaggregated into government and public enterprises investment in Saudi Arabia by using the weak exogeneity and ARDL cointegration tests after using Engle-Granger and Perron-Rodriguez cointegration tests. The results show the stable long-run relation between private and total public investment. The public investment crowds out the private investment, while this latter is crowding in by infrastructure government investment. The absence of financial accelerator mechanism indicates that the private enterprises could be in vicious loan-credit cycle. The finding indicate that long-run exceeds short-run crowding-out, since the public sector still dominates the economic activities and attracts more capital resources. But the disequilibrium of private investment is widely corrected and converges back, with a high speed of adjustment, to its long-run equilibrium.