Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Appraisal of factors affecting bidding decisions in Nigeria

Abstract The usual practice in selecting a contractor for a project is through competitive bidding. The decision to bid is a complex activity that requires the consideration of several factors. These factors can be related to capability, time requirement and cost implication. The purpose of this study was to assess the factors related to time and cost performance with a view to examine their effect on bidding decisions. Data was obtained through the use of structured questionnaires from construction professionals in both consulting and contracting firms. The collected data was analysed through percentile and mean ranking. The study revealed the reputation of the client as the most prominent factor related to time performance that affects bidding decisions, while location and condition of the site were identified as the most significant factor related to cost performance that affects bidding decisions. Thus, it is recommended that contractors when taking bidding decisions should place priority on the reputation of the client, the location, and the condition of the site.
Dynamic Demand Response in Residential Prosumer Collectives

This research aims at exploring how smart grid opportunities can be leveraged to ameliorate demand response practices for residential prosumer collectives, while meeting the needs of end-users and power grids. Electricity has traditionally been generated in centralized plants then transmitted and distributed to end-users, but the increasing cost-effectiveness of micro-generation (e.g. solar photovoltaics) is resulting in the growth of more decentralized generation. The term “prosumers” is commonly used to refer to energy users (usually households) who engage in small-scale energy production. Of particular interest is the relatively new phenomenon of prosumer collectives, which typically involve interactions between small-scale decentralized generators to optimize their collective energy production and use through sharing, storing and/or trading energy. Drivers of collective prosumerism include sustaining community identity, optimizing energy demand and supply across multiple households, and gaining market power from collective action. Managing power flows in grids integrating intermittent micro-generation (e.g. from solar photovoltaics and micro-wind turbines) presents a challenge for prosumer collectives as well as power grid operators. Smart grid technologies and capabilities provide opportunities for dynamic demand response, where flexible demand can be better matched with variable supply. Ideally, smart grid opportunities should incentivize prosumers to maximize their energy self-consumption from local supply while fairly sharing any income from trading surplus energy, or any loss of utility associated with altering energy demand patterns.
A software defined radar platform for mm-wave sensing applications

In this paper we present a newly developed software defined radar platform for mm-wave sensing applications. The main features of this platform are up to eight analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters with a sample rate of 500 MSPS and 14-bit resolution for conversion and modulation. A 77-GHz SiGe chip with an in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) modulator in the transmit path and an I/Q receive mixer is used for radar measurements. As a first outlook on the potential benefits, frequency-modulated continuous-wave and range/Doppler radar measurements are presented. In these measurements the frequency ramps are solely generated in baseband and upconverted using the I/Q modulator as single-sideband mixer. Ramp durations down to 1μs were experimentally verified at a bandwidth of 200 MHz.
Fluidised Bed Microencapsulation of Ascorbic Acid : Effectiveness of Protection under Simulated Tropical Storage Conditions Executive Summary

This study investigates the use of microencapsulation by fluidised bed coating for the protection of ascorbic acid during long-term storage under simulated tropical conditions. Microencapsulation materials, loading levels, fluidised bed processing conditions and the results of storage trials were evaluated. Cellets® 350 is a suitable base material, whereas sugar spheres are not suitable due to agglomeration and bed collapse during processing. Sodium alginate provided the best overall performance with low processing losses and high retention of ascorbic acid during storage. The results of this study provide a basis for further research including incorporation of ascorbic acid microcapsules into food matrices using a fluidised bed coating.
An Image Encryption Scheme Based on Hybrid Orbit of Hyper-chaotic Systems

This paper puts forward a novel image encryption scheme based on ordinary differential equation system. Firstly, a hyper-chaotic differential equation system is used to generate two hyper-chaotic orbit sequences. Introducing the idea of hybrid orbit, two orbits are mixed to generate a hybrid hyper-chaotic sequence which is used to be the initial chaotic key stream. Secondly, the final encryption key stream is generated through two rounds of diffusion operation which is related to the initial chaotic key stream and plain-image. Therefore, the algorithm's key stream not only depends on the cipher keys but also depends on plain-image. Last but not least, the security and performance analysis have been performed, including key space analysis, histogram analysis, correlation analysis, information entropy analysis, peak signal-to-noise ratio analysis, key sensitivity analysis, differential analysis etc. All the experimental results show that the proposed image encryption scheme is secure and suitable for practical image and video encryption.
Public animal welfare discussions and outlooks in Australia

Australian society is characterized by a pervasive influence of animals in all aspects of human life. Although most countries use animals as companions, for production and for sport and entertainment, the scale and variety of animals in Australia is unparalleled. For example, companion animal ownership in Australia is among the highest in the world with 62% of households owning a pet (Animal Medicines Australia, 2016). Australia was the highest exporter in the world of beef, lamb, and mutton and goat meat in 2015 (MLA, 2015). Australia also uses kangaroos for human and animal food and deals with pockets of kangaroo overpopulation. Feral dogs, cats, goats, rabbits, and other introduced species pose a threat to wildlife or farming. Although there have been animal welfare concerns expressed by the public in the conventional media and on social media about companion animals, wildlife, animals used in sport and recreation, this chapter will focus on livestock, it being the focus of this book. Although public concerns about livestock animal welfare are well documented in several countries (e.g., European Commission, 2007; Gracia, 2013), there has been an on-going interest in these concerns in Australia (e.g., Parbery and Wilkinson, 2012; Coleman et al., 2015, 2017). These concerns about the livestock industries are not the major drivers of consumer-purchasing decisions because attitudes to livestock welfare is only one of the predictors of purchasing behavior with price, healthiness, and local production being more important for consumers (Coleman et al. 2005; Coleman and Toukhsati 2006). Public attitudes to livestock farming may, however, be a threat to social license to farm (Martin and Shepheard, 2011; Coleman et al., 2015, 2017). An attempt will be made here to tease out some of the possible effects of public concerns about farm animal welfare on the livestock industries in Australia. Suggestions to facilitate discourse among the various stakeholders will be raised with a view to achieving a degree of convergence in opinions and in agreed approaches to livestock farming in the future. The relevance of public attitude to consumption of animal products and to social license to farm will now be discussed in the context of the Australian experience.
TURNOVER INTENTION AMONG MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY EMPLOYEES IN MALAYSIA: AN ANALYSIS USING STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING (SEM)

This research paper explores the turnover intention among manufacturing industry employees in Malaysia. Four variables were studied: role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, and work-family conflict. The survey results collected from 153 employees from manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The analysis been obtained via SEM-PLS. Total four hyphotheses were tested. Positive results obtained for role overloaded towards turnover intention. Negative results obtained for role ambiguity, role conflict, and work-family conflict. Based on the findings all the manufacturing recognize importance of staff retention for superior value for an organization. Keywords: Manufacturing, Role ambiguity, Role conflict, Turnover Intention, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Keywords: Manufacturing, Role ambiguity, Role conflict, Turnover Intention, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
An evolutionary approach to intuitionism and moral realism

ion similar to other idealized models in science. Linguistic nativism is the claim that such a language faculty exists, and “allows for a certain type of highly constrained cognition. ” Moral nativism is analogous. E-moralities are the prevailing moral norms of a community. These are historical and cultural constructions, so moral norms, like E850 Prinz, 2008: 429. Italics in original. 851 Dwyer, 2008: 410.
Commercialization in Education

This contribution clarifies the terminology used to describe the reorganisation of public education. In much critical policy sociology the terms marketisation, privatisation and commercialisation are used interchangeably. Our argument is that each of these denotes distinct, albeit related, characteristics of contemporary schooling and the impact of the Global Education Industry (GEI). We define marketisation as the series of policy logics that aim to create quasi-markets in education; privatisation as the development of quasi-markets in education that privilege parental choice, school autonomy and venture philanthropy; and commercialisation as the creation, marketing and sale of educational goods and services to schools by external providers. In this chapter we explain the manifestations of each of these forms and offer two cases of actors situated within the GEI, the OECD and Pearson plc, to outline how commercialisation and privatisation proceed at the level of policy and practice.
Grandes deviations pour les processus d'apprentissage lent a statistiques discontinues sur une surface

Nous etablissons le principe de grandes deviations pour des chaines de markov dont les probabilites de transition sont differentes selon que le processus se trouve d'un cote ou de l'autre d'une surface. Les grandes deviations sont alors observees sur un intervalle de temps fixe pour le processus convenablement normalise. Sur chaque champ de probabilite, on fait les hypotheses de continuite qui permettent habituellement d'obtenir le principe de grandes deviations. Cette continuite est perdue sur la frontiere. De telles dynamiques sont utilisees dans de nombreux algorithmes stochastiques, en particulier dans certains algorithmes d'apprentissage pour les reseaux de neurones. Selon la configuration des supports des mesures au voisinage de la frontiere, deux types de comportement sont possibles pour le processus. Dans l'un, le nombre de traversees de la frontiere n'est pas borne. Une nouvelle fonction de cout apparait, combinaison des transformees de cramer de chaque champ ; elle correspond au melange des deux champs. La fonctionnelle d'action est calculee seulement sur les chemins pour lesquels il existe un nombre fini d'intervalles ou ils restent soit dans un des deux demi-espaces, soit sur la frontiere. Dans l'autre type de comportement, le processus traverse localement au plus une fois la frontiere ; la fonctionnelle de cout s'obtient en integrant successivement chaque transformee de cramer. Dans le dernier chapitre, nous donnons les equations verifiees par une trajectoire de cout minimal entre deux points. Leur resolution peut permettre de faire des simulations accelerees d'evenements rares
Chronic Rhinosinusitis: More Than Just "Asthma of the Upper Airway".

Traditionally, rhinosinusitis (RS) was divided into three distinct conditions according to duration, with chronic RS (CRS) defined as disease present for longer than 12 weeks. In addition, whereas acute and subacute sinusitis were defined as infectious processes driven by pyogenic organisms such as Streptococcus, Haemophilus, and Moraxella, CRS was contrasted by the presence of anaerobic, gram-negative, and Staphylococcus infections. Although more acute forms of RS are still primarily considered to be infectious diseases (although now they are most commonly recognized as being caused by respiratory viruses), there has been a comprehensive rethinking of the role of infection in the pathogenesis of CRS. Although bacteria are present and influential in exacerbating the presence and severity of sinus inflammation, CRS is no longer considered to be primarily an infectious disease but, instead, is a disease of chronic, endogenously driven inflammation. What has been enigmatic, however, is the nature of that inflammation.
Enhancing vascularization of a gelatin-based micro-cavitary hydrogel by increasing the density of the micro-cavities

The transport of nutrients and oxygen by vascular networks into engineered tissue constructs is critical to their successful integration into host tissues. Hydrogel has achieved some promising results as scaffolds for vascularization. However, the vascularization of hydrogel is still constrained by its inherent submicron- or nano-sized pores. In this study, two gelatin-based micro-cavitary gel (Gel-MCG) constructs with varying densities of micro-cavities were developed with a photocrosslinkable gelatin methacrylate (Gel-MA) precursor and porogenic gelatin microspheres (MS), and their functions in supporting vascularization within hydrogels were evaluated with endothelial progenitor outgrowth cells (EPOCs). The increase of cavitary density could enhance the vascularization of Gel-MCG constructs. After 14 d of culture in vitro, the vascularization of Gel-MCG constructs with higher cavitary density was significantly superior to that of gelatin spongy control and the fusion of vascularized cavities in the constructs could be observed. Further subcutaneous implantation of the Gel-MCG constructs with higher cavitary density into nude mice also showed obvious vascular invasion from host tissues. Taken together, these results indicate that the increase in cavitary density can efficiently facilitate the vascularization of Gel-MCG constructs both in vitro and in vivo and that such highly-porous Gel-MCG constructs have great potential to be a promising scaffold for the development of vascularized tissue constructs.
The Parkinson Pandemic-A Call to Action.

Pandemics are usually equated with infectious diseases such as Zika, influenza, and HIV. However, an imminent noninfectious pandemic, Parkinson disease (PD), requires immediate action. Neurological disorders are now the leading cause of disability in the world.1 Among these neurological disorders, the fastest growing is PD, whose growth is surpassing that of Alzheimer disease.1 From 1990 to 2015, the prevalence of, and thus disability and deaths owing to, PD more than doubled.1 The Global Burden of Disease Study estimates that 6.2 million individuals currently have PD. Because the incidence of PD increases sharply with age and because the world’s population is aging, the number of individuals affected is poised for exponential growth (Figure). Conservatively applying worldwide prevalence data from a 2014 meta-analysis2 to projections of the world’s future population,3 the number of people with PD will double from 6.9 million in 2015 to 14.2 million in 2040. Applying this same growth rate to the lower estimate by the Global Burden of Disease study (6.2 million in 2015) projects to a staggering 12.9 million affected by 2040. All these estimates likely understate the true prevalence of PD. The future burden will probably be higher owing to underreporting (record-based studies miss many who have not been diagnosed), declining smoking rates (smoking is associated with a 50% decreased risk of PD), and increasing longevity. Regardless of the exact numbers, if PD were an infectious condition, it would rightly be called a pandemic.4 To address this pandemic, the PD community should follow the efforts of the HIV community as detailed in David France’s book How to Survive a Plague.5 In just 15 years, the affected community took what was initially an unknown and rapidly fatal illness and transformed it into one that was highly treatable, allowing millions of individuals around the world to live long, healthy lives. France outlines at least 4 efforts that should be applied to PD.
Corporate Governance and Financial Distress: Malaysian Perspective

Research aim: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms – board of directors’ characteristics (board size, board activity, CEO duality, and board independence) – and financially distressed companies in Malaysia. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: In order to gather the required data, the secondary data, which are the annual reports of all the selected companies, are obtained from Bursa Malaysia from years 2010 until 2016. Financially distressed companies are defined as those companies that are classified in the Bursa Malaysia Practice Note (PN17). The sample of companies comprises all sectors except banking and financing companies. Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances Analysis, Pearson Spearman’s Rho Correlations Analysis, and Binary Logistic Regression Analysis are used to analyse the collected data. Research finding: This study provides evidence that board activity has a significant relationship with financially distressed companies. Theoretical contribution/ Originality: This study is desired to improve corporate governance mechanisms among financially distressed companies and improve shareholders value. Practitioner/ Policy implication: This study helps the shareholders, management, potential investors, and other stakeholders of public listed companies to understand how selected board of directors’ characteristics are associated with companies in a financial distress situation. Research limitation/ Implication: The limitation of this research is the time-period of the study. Keywords: Financial Distress, Corporate Governance, Board of Directors, Malaysia Type of manuscript: Research paper JEL Classification: M41, M49
Manufacturing and Regulatory Barriers to Generic Drug Competition: A Structural Model Approach

Understanding the drivers of market concentration in the generic pharmaceutical industry is essential to guaranteeing the availability of low-cost generics. In this paper, we develop a structural model to capture the multiple determinants governing manufacturers’ entry decisions; in particular, we focus on how manufacturing complexity and the regulatory environment for generics approval affect concentration in drug markets. We estimate the model using data collated from six disparate sources. We find that manufacturing complexity, as reflected in the number of active ingredients, for example, significantly reduces the likelihood of generics entry. Moreover, the delay in the review process for the generics applications significantly affects the number of firms entering a market. Our policy simulations suggest that a shortened drug approval review time significantly increases the average number of entrants per market and reduces the fraction of markets with no generics entry; however, a notable portion of markets would still lack any generic competition. This paper was accepted by Jayashankar Swaminathan, operations management.
Deriving Probes From Large‐Insert Clones by PCR Methods

This unit describes several polymerase chain reaction (PCR)‐based methods to obtain DNA fragments from clones with large inserts without prior knowledge of the insert DNA sequence. The protocols can be categorized into three groups: (1) methods to generate DNA fragments at random representing the entire length of the cloned insert, (2) methods to generate DNA fragments representing the extremities of an insert, and (3) methods to generate complex probes suitable for fluorescence in situ hybridization. Support protocols describe direct cloning of these PCR products and the isolation of total yeast DNA from yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) clones.
Changes in the Rumen Epimural Bacterial Diversity of Beef Cattle as Affected by Diet and Induced Ruminal Acidosis

ABSTRACT Little is known about the nature of the rumen epithelial adherent (epimural) microbiome in cattle fed different diets. Using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), and pyrosequencing of the V3 hypervariable coding region of 16S rRNA, epimural bacterial communities of 8 cattle were profiled during the transition from a forage to a high-concentrate diet, during acidosis, and after recovery. A total of 153,621 high-quality gene sequences were obtained, with populations exhibiting less taxonomic variability among individuals than across diets. The bacterial community composition exhibited clustering (P < 0.03) by diet, with only 14 genera, representing >1% of the rumen epimural population, differing (P ≤ 0.05) among diets. During acidosis, levels of Atopobium, Desulfocurvus, Fervidicola, Lactobacillus, and Olsenella increased, while during the recovery, Desulfocurvus, Lactobacillus, and Olsenella reverted to levels similar to those with the high-grain diet and Sharpea and Succinivibrio reverted to levels similar to those with the forage diet. The relative abundances of bacterial populations changed during diet transition for all qPCR targets except Streptococcus spp. Less than 5% of total operational taxonomic units (OTUs) identified exhibited significant variability across diets. Based on DGGE, the community structures of epithelial populations differed (P ≤ 0.10); segregation was most prominent for the mixed forage diet versus the grain, acidotic challenge, and recovery diets. Atopobium, cc142, Lactobacillus, Olsenella, RC39, Sharpea, Solobacterium, Succiniclasticum, and Syntrophococcus were particularly prevalent during acidosis. Determining the metabolic roles of these key genera in the rumens of cattle fed high-grain diets could define a clinical microbial profile associated with ruminal acidosis.
The Effect of Internal Marketing on Turnover Intentions in Knowledge Workers in the IT Sector

This study suggests applying the concept of internal marketing to combat turnover intentions in knowledge workers in the IT sector. Internal marketing sees all employees as the firm's customers. The major hypothesis examined here is that when employees feel that a firm considers and treats them like customers, it increases employment commitment and reduces turnover intentions. A multivariate hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) incorporating demographic, personal, organizational and external variables were used to identify the unique contribution of internal marketing to turnover intentions. The findings showed a negative correlation between internal marketing and turnover intention that contributed significantly to the explained variance beyond the effects of other independent variables. These results are discussed in the light of their theoretical and practical implications and in particular that IT organizations should consider adopting internal-marketing practices to reduce turnover intention and hence voluntary turnover.