Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of SME Owners' Characteristics on Technology Adoption

Technology adoption decisions among SMEs are believed to be inextricably linked to their owners who serve as key decision-makers in managing the business. Accordingly, this study investigates the relationship between SME owners’ characteristics (innovativeness, information systems (IS) knowledge and technology usage) and the adoption of technology in SMEs. Data was gathered from 544 SME owners of manufacturing and manufacturing-related companies involved in various industries scattered throughout Malaysia. The Partial Least Squares analysis revealed that owners’ IS knowledge and technology usage significantly influence technology adoption. However, owners’ innovativeness did not demonstrate any impact on technology adoption. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are further discussed in the paper.
Effect of micronutrients on plant growth and yield in green gram

Green gram is one of the main pulse crops in india. Green gram is the major source of protein and fibre. It is eaten both in raw form (sprouted green gram) and cooked form (dal). The use of micronutrients in crop production is gaining importance now a day. An investigation was undertaken during Rabi 2013-14 in the department of Seed Science and Technology, O.U. A.T, Bhubaneswar to find out the response of micronutrients application on plant growth, yield in green gram cv.PDM-11. Five different micronutrients viz. zinc, boron, molybdenum, manganese and cobalt were applied in different concentrations, singly and in combination consisting of ten treatments namely, soil application of Zn (10 & 25kg zinc sulphate; zinc chelate @500g/ha) and B (5 & 10 kg borax/ha), seed treatment of Mo (Ammonium molybdate @ 5g/kg) and Co (Cobalt nitrate @1g/kg), foliar spray of Mn (Manganese dioxide @ 0.5%), mixture of all micronutrients and a control. Applications of 25kg ZnSO4/ha, 10 kg borax/ha and micronutrients mixture resulted in enhancement of plant growth and yield characteristics viz. plant height, number of branches, pods, seeds and seed weight. The highest seed yield of 854.7kg/ha was obtained with application of micronutrients mixture followed by the application of borax @ 10kg/ha (830.50kg). Moderate effects were observed with application of Zn and Mo in respect of these traits. In general, applications of Zn, B and Mo in combinations were found effective in enhancing yield in this crop.
Does Vitamin D Supplementation Reduce the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease or is This a Myth

©2013 Turkish League Against Rheumatism. All rights reserved. We have had sunny summer months thanks to the geographic location of our country. Although we have just entered the first month of autumn, we still continue to have sunny weather. Physicians dealing with rheumatology immediately think of vitamin D (vit D) when they hear the word sun. The effects of vit D supplements on human health are not only the subject of much interest in the medical community, but the general public also a growing desire to learn more about this topic.
Effects of Several Amendment Materials on Salt Accumulation and Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) Growth in Sand Growing Media Established Over the Reclaimed Saline Soil

The purpose of this study was to find soil-amendment materials those support the growth of Kentucky bluegrass and reduce salt accumulation at the sand based growing media in saline conditions. Rootzone profile in columns consisted of 20 cm of top soil, 20 cm coarse sand as capillary rise interruption layer and 10 cm reclaimed paddy soil as the base of the profile. Top soils were mixtures of dredged sand (DS) and amendment with compositions of 90% sand + 10% peat moss (SP), 80% sand + 10% soil + 10% bottom ash (SSoBa), 80% sand + 20% soil (SSo), 90% sand + 5% peat + 5% zeolite (SPZ), and 80% sand + 20% bottom ash (SBa). The top soil mixtures of DS and amendments were treated with and without gypsum (Gp). The columns were soaked into 5 cm depth saline water reservoir with the salinity level of 3-5 dSm -1 . Irrigation of 2 dSm -1 saline water with rate of 5.7 mm day -1 was applied by 3 day interval. Application of zeolite decreased SAR, application of gypsum decreased ECe of the sand amended by peat + zeolite and decreased the SAR of sand amended by bottom ash. The SP and SSoGp resulted in higher clipping dry weight of Kentucky bluegrass. The SSoGp and SPZGp showed longer root lengths. The SP and SBaGp showed higher visual quality. Addition of gypsum to soil and bottom ash treatments resulted in the increased shoot growth, whereas additional gypsum to the treatments of peat, soil and zeolite increased the root growth of Kentucky bluegrass.
Multi detector computerized tomography scans aid in the staging of Head and Neck cancers

Introduction/Objectives: To assess the efficacy and correlation of MDCT scans in the clinical staging of patients with HNCs prior to therapeutic intervention. Methodology: Thirty-four HNCs were studied according to the 2005 WHO. Clinical AJCC 6th edition & radiological staging. Results: 14 Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC 41.2%) mean age 49.4 + 14.7 years, 13 Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC 38.2%) mean age 37.1 + 20.5 years, 3 Odontogenic Carcinoma (ODC 8.8% made up of 2 cases ameloblastic carcinoma 5.9% and 1 case of ameloblastic carcinosarcoma 2.9%). Others cases were 3 Adenocarcinoma (8.8%) and 1 Sinonasal Carcinoma NC (2.9%). Mean age insignificant according to gender (p = 0.342). Sensitivity, specificity, positive & negative predictive values and accuracy of clinical and radiological nodal involvements were: (47.4%; 80%; 61.8%; 75%; 54.5%) & (78.9%; 93.3%; 85.3%; 93.8%; 77.8%) respectively. Difference between clinical and radiological stages was statistically significant (X2= 260.8; p=0.01). There was a low but positive correlation between the clinical and radiologic stages (Pearson’s correlation r = 0.6). Conclusion: MDCT was significantly more accurate than clinical examination in the TNM of HNCs using AJCC/UICC TNM guidelines. Authors recommend MDCT as first line imaging technique in resource limited settings.
Bayesian Approaches to Copula Modelling

Copula models have become one of the most widely used tools in the applied modelling of multivariate data. Similarly, Bayesian methods are increasingly used to obtain efficient likelihood-based inference. However, to date, there has been only limited use of Bayesian approaches in the formulation and estimation of copula models. This article aims to address this shortcoming in two ways. First, to introduce copula models and aspects of copula theory that are especially relevant for a Bayesian analysis. Second, to outline Bayesian approaches to formulating and estimating copula models, and their advantages over alternative methods. Copulas covered include Archimedean, copulas constructed by inversion, and vine copulas; along with their interpretation as transformations. A number of parameterisations of a correlation matrix of a Gaussian copula are considered, along with hierarchical priors that allow for Bayesian selection and model averaging for each parameterisation. Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling schemes for fitting Gaussian and D-vine copulas, with and without selection, are given in detail. The relationship between the prior for the parameters of a D-vine, and the prior for a correlation matrix of a Gaussian copula, is discussed. Last, it is shown how to compute Bayesian inference when the data are discrete-valued using data augmentation. This approach generalises popular Bayesian methods for the estimation of models for multivariate binary and other ordinal data to more general copula models. Bayesian data augmentation has substantial advantages over other methods of estimation for this class of models.
Title MSH2 Dysregulation Is Triggered by Proinflammatory Cytokine Stimulation and Is Associated with Liver Cancer

Inflammation predisposes to tumorigenesis in various organs by potentiating a susceptibility to genetic aberrations. The mechanismunderlying the enhanced genetic instability through chronic inflammation, however, is not clear. Here, we demonstrated that TNFa stimulation induced transcriptional downregulation of MSH2, a member of the mismatch repair family, via NF-kB– dependent miR-21 expression in hepatocytes. Liver cancers developed in ALB-MSH2 / AIDþ, ALB-MSH2 / , and ALB-AIDþmice, in which MSH2 is deficient and/or activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AICDA) is expressed in cells with albumin-producing hepatocytes. The mutation signatures in the tumors developed in these models, especially ALB-MSH2 / AIDþ mice, closely resembled those of human hepatocellular carcinoma. Our findings demonstrated that inflammation-mediated dysregulation of MSH2 may be a mechanism of genetic alterations during hepatocarcinogenesis. Cancer Res; 76(15); 4383–93. 2016 AACR.
Analysis of Microsatellite Markers on Bovine Chromosomes 1 and 14 for Potential Allelic Association with Carcass Traits in Hanwoo (Korean Cattle)

This study was conducted to investigate potential effects of previously identified QTL regions on carcass traits in Hanwoo. The data analyzed in this study was collected from 326 steers of 67 proven sire. Thirteen micorsatellite markers spanning QTL regions on bovine chromosomes 1 and 14 were genotyped in 326 steers. The following breeding values were analyzed for QTL effects. Cold carcass weight breeding value (CCWBV), longissimus muscle area breeding value (LMABV), marbling score breeding value (MSBV) and backfat thickness breeding value (BFTBV). Chi-square tests were performed to compare frequencies of individual allele between high and low breeding value groups. Significant differences of allele frequencies in BMS711, MCM130, BMS4049, and BMS2263 were found. And also, in RM180, BL1029, BM4305, and BMS2055 there were significant differencies of allele frequencies. These results showed a potential application for investigation of putative QTL locations.
Wages in the Netherlands: a Micro Approach

Many OECD countries have experienced growing wage inequality since the 1980s. This trend is generally explained by increasing relative demand for skilled labor due to skill biased technological progress and, to some extent, globalization. By using micro data from Statistics Netherlands, this paper examines trends in Dutch (real pre-tax) wage inequality between 2000 and 2005, thus extending the previous literature by covering recent years. We find that inequality, after correcting for observed worker characteristics, decreased somewhat at the lower half of the wage distribution, while increasing slightly at most of the upper half, and relatively strong at the highest few percentiles. Wage growth was also higher for occupation categories with a higher initial wage level, and for workers in the Randstad agglomerations. It is shown that changes in the wage structure are to a large extent explained by prices and quantities of worker characteristics, while changes in the residual wage distribution play a role at the highest percentiles.
Rate of convergence under weak contractiveness conditions

We introduce a new class of selfmaps T of metric spaces, which generalizes the weakly Zamfirescu maps (and therefore weakly contraction maps, weakly Kannan maps, weakly Chatterjea maps and quasi-contraction maps with constant h < 1 2 ). We give an explicit Cauchy rate for the Picard iteration sequences {Tx0}n∈N for this type of maps, and show that if the space is complete, then all Picard iteration sequences converge to the unique fixed point of T . Our Cauchy rate depends on the space (X, d), the map T , and the starting point x0 ∈ X only through an upper bound b ≥ d(x0, Tx0) and certain moduli θ, μ for the map, but is otherwise fully uniform. As a step on the way to proving our fixed point result we also calculate a modulus of uniqueness for this type of maps.
Cocaine Use among a Sample of Police Detainees

Lee Milner and Kiah McGregor examine the use of cocaine among a group of individuals detained by police and interviewed for the AIC's Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program. The analysis shows that while most cocaine use occurs in DUMA's Sydney sites, use also occurs in other areas. Cocaine users are predominately multiple-drug users and are also likely to test positive to other drugs, especially heroin. They are also more likely to have had prior contact with the criminal justice system than non-cocaine users, and to report deriving an income from crime.
Comparison of Face Recognition Based on Global, Local and Component Classifiers using Multisensory Images

A feature selection technique along with an information fusion procedure for improving the recognition accuracy of a visual and thermal image-based facial recognition system is presented in this study. A novel modular Kernel Eigen spaces approach is developed and implemented on the phase congruency feature maps extracted from the visual and thermal images individually. This study proposes a novel face recognition method which exploits both global and local discriminative features. In this method, global features are extracted from the whole face images by keeping the low-frequency coefficients of fourier transform, which we believe encodes the holistic facial Information, such as facial contour. For local feature extraction, Gabor wavelets are exploited considering their biological relevance. After that, to the global fourier features and each local patch of Gabor features.
The moss Macromitrium richardii (Orthotrichaceae) with sporophyte and calyptra enclosed in Hymenaea resin from the Dominican Republic

Dominican amber is an important source for Early Miocene bryophytes. We report the moss Macromitrium richardii Schwagr. , an extant representative of the Orthotrichaceae, from the Dominican amber collection of the American Museum of Natural History. This species is currently a widespread Neotropical epiphyte. The specimen includes several gametophytes and sporophytes, and represents the first fossil record of Orthotrichaceae. Alongside the Macromitrium shoots we observed several fragments of the liverworts Cheilolejeunea antiqua and Frullania sp. The unusual thermal behavior of the resin sample initially led to doubts about the Miocene age of the specimen, but chemical analyses of the Hymenaea resin provides evidence that the specimen represents a highly oxidized sample of Miocene Dominican amber rather than an artificially thermally-treated subfossil resin (copal). Our inclusion demonstrates the exceptional preservation potential of tree resin, but our observations also suggest that provenance (including any possibility that a modern resin has been thermally treated to make it appear older) should be scrutinized when single pieces with atypical thermal behavior and exceptionally well-preserved extant morphotypes come to light.
Fatigue performance of aircraft panels with novel skin buckling containment features

To increase structural efficiency of stiffened panels in an aircraft, it is plausible to introduce skin buckling containment features to increase the local skin stability and thus static strength performance. Introducing buckling containment features may also significantly influence the fatigue crack growth performance of the stiffened panel. This study focuses on the experimental demonstration of panel durability with skin bay buckling containment features. Through a series of fatigue crack growth tests on integrally machined aluminium alloy stiffened panels, the potential to simultaneously improve static strength performance and crack propagation behaviour is demonstrated. The introduction of prismatic buckling containment features which have yielded significant static strength performance gains have herein demonstrated potential fatigue life gains of up to + 63 per cent.
Variation in Taxonomic Diversity of the Fish Assemblage Associated with Soft Bottoms in San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California Sur, Mexico

The San Ignacio Lagoon is one of the largest in the northwest area of Baja California Sur; it is characterized by high levels of commercial fish catch; however the number of investigations related to taxonomic diversity is low. The variation in taxonomic diversity was determined for the assemblage of fish associated with soft bottoms, at 11 locations in a period from spring of 1998 to winter of 1999. Variation in diversity of the soft bottom fish were evaluated considering the taxonomic distance between species, using the indices of alpha, average alpha, beta and gamma diversity, also the indices of taxonomic distinctness (Δ*) and average taxonomic distinctness (Δ+). Bottom trawls were performed using an experimental net to an average depth of 5 meters, between 9:00 to 17:00 hours. 1361 organisms were observed, belonging to 44 species on 35 genera. According to the average alpha, beta and gamma diversity indices, the season with higher value on average alpha diversity was summer, with 6.68 species followed by spring with 5.73 species. In beta´s case the highest value was observed during spring (21.27%) followed by summer (20.18%). Taking gamma in account, the highest values were observed during spring and summer, both seasons with 27 species each. The lowest values observed according to the average alpha beta and gamma indices, was observed during winter season (5.27, 20.18% and 20 species, respectively). In the spatial analysis, the average taxonomic distinctness index (Δ+) show a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05), while taxonomic distinctness index (Δ*) showed no significant difference (p ≥ 0.05). In the temporal analysis both indices showed no difference (p ≥ 0.05).
Designing an English for Specific Course for Teachers Training College Students

This paper attempted by measuring and designing the course of English for Specific Purposes especially for the teachers training college students. English for Specific Purposes surveys the development and classification of ESP areas, The basic principles and techniques in ESP design were covering the Syllabus, Materials and Methodology of assessment. ESP depends to the learners needs. ESP can be classified into the two parts, Such as: EAP (English for Academic Purpose) and EOP (English for Occupational Purpose). In this study, This research is focused on the ESP which is referring to the EAP. The study of ESP for this case is based on the learners’ needs. The researcher was given some questionnaires to the learners that will be the next students in ESP class. Then, the researcher was taken the data by collecting the data. Afterwards, the researcher was analyzed the data by taking the percentage of the research. Last, the researcher was designed the course design, syllabus and lesson plan of teaching.
Filtering artefacts in bacterial community composition can affect the outcome of dissolved organic matter biolability assays

Abstract. Inland waters are large contributors to global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, in part due to the vulnerability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) to microbial decomposition and respiration to CO2 during transport through aquatic systems. To assess the degree of this vulnerability, aquatic DOM is often incubated in standardized "biolability" assays. These assays isolate the dissolved fraction of aquatic OM by size filtration prior to incubation. We test whether this size selection has an impact on the bacterial community composition and the consequent dynamics of DOM degradation using three different filtering strategies: 0.2 μm (filtered-and-inoculated), 0.7 μm (generally the most common DOM filter size) and 106 μm ("unfiltered"). We found that bacterial community composition, based on 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, was significantly affected by the different filter sizes. At the same time, filtering strategy also affected the DOM degradation dynamics. However, the dynamics of these two responses were decoupled, suggesting that filtration primarily influences biolability assays through bacterial abundance and the presence of their associated predators. By the end of the 41-day incubations all treatments tended to converge on a common total DOM biolability level, with the 0.7 μm filtered incubations reaching this point the quickest. These results suggest that assays to assess the total biolability of aquatic DOM should last long enough to remove filtration artefacts in the microbial population. Filtering strategy should also be taken into account when comparing results across biolability assays.
Hotel Businesses Use of Social Media as a Public Relations Instrument: Twitter Sample

Developments in the information and communication technologies have begun to offer new possibilities for public relations activities of hotel businesses. With the help of Twitter, which is included in the social media tools, the hotel businesses have got the opportunity to inform the target audience. In addition, consumers have had the opportunity to transmit requests, expectations and suggestions to the business. This study, which is aimed at evaluating the use of social media by hotel companies, examined the shares between 01 December 2016 and 01 March 2017 via Twitter through the institutional accounts of three of the ten largest capacity hotels, according to HotelNewsNow (2015) data, by content analysis. It is often the case that hotel businesses choose the tweet from the sharing types, that they communicate one-way, and that the content of the tweets is heavily promotional. As a result of categorizing the tweets that hotel groups sent from their corporate twitter accounts, eleven themes were determined. The result that the most used themes consisted of presentation, corporate news, thanks, information were reached.