Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Effects of Corporate Governance Attributes on the Quality of Directors-Related Information Disclosure: The Empirical Study of Malaysian Top 100 Companies

Th is study attempts to investigate the effects of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms towards the quality of directors-related informat ion (DRI) disclosure of Malaysian Top 100 co mpanies, after controlling variab les of firm-specific characteristics such as firm size and auditor size. A DRI disclosure was measured using scoring worksheet developed by Ramli (2001) to score the items in the corporate annual reports. Consistent with expectations, the Spearman correlation showed there are statistically proven the positive associations between board independence, board diversity managerial ownership and DRI disclosure at 5 percent level, with the exception of CEO duality. The result appears to suggest that there were positive impact of the CG mechanis ms on the quality of DRI d isclosure among Malaysian Top 100 largest companies which were ranked by the Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group (MSW G) based on their market capitalisation. Ho wever, the regression model reported R 2 of 38.1 percent which means that almost 62 percent of those factors influencing the DI disclosure have not been captured by the model. These other factors may perhaps be identified through future research involving larger samp le or other research method such as by questionnaire surveys or interviews.
Variations in treatment organisation, practices and outcomes within the Norwegian Opioid Maintenance Treatment Programme

Variations within and between opioid maintenance programmes have been identified in other countries such as US and the UK. The aim of this study was to assess possible differences in treatment organisation, practices and outcomes between 14 regional centres within the Norwegian Opioid Maintenance Treatment programme, which were subject to the same government standards. This was a national ecological study conducted in November 2008 in Norway. Marked variations between the centres in caseload, choice of agonists, prescribing doctor, as well as in the use of supervised dispensing and urine drug screening were found. Only prescribed agonist dose was consistent across all centres. Centres in which patients had more illicit drug use had fewer patients with long-term living arrangements, more unemployment, and more patients who reported social security benefits as main income. The differences occurred despite government regulations, policies and guidelines, and frequent national meetings between centre managers. These findings show how government standards may be interpreted and implemented differently
Comparison Different Automated Systems for Detection of Penicillinase inStaphylococcus Aureus

The accuracy of Vitek 2, WalkAway 40, and DL-96 systems for susceptibility testing of penicillin against 547 S. aureus was evaluated using broth micro dilution. BlaZ gene was taken as gold standard to predict penicillinase-producing or not. Overall, there are no very major error in Vitek 2, one in WalkAway 40 and seven in DL-96. No major errors and 59 minor errors were noted in this study. The results showed that Vitek 2 had more reliable rate to predict penicillinaseproducing S. aureus.
Community Participation in Ecotourism Projects in the Western Cape Province , South Africa : A discourse or a marketing strategy

vii Relevance to development studies vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 The history of protected areas and tourism development in South Africa 3 1.2 An overview of the Western Cape Province 4 1.3 Data Collection 6 1.4 Organisation of the Study 7 Chapter 2 Theoretical, Analytical and Conceptual Frameworks 8 2.1 An expression of Ecotourism Development through Local 8 Development lenses 8 2.2 Ecotourism: An Alternative or Mass-Tourism Upgrade? 9 2.2.1 Endogenous and Exogenous Development Approaches 11 2.2.2 Community Participation: A Contested Concept 13 2.2. 3 Empowerment as “means” or an “end”? 15 Chapter 3 The Study Areas 19 3.1 Cape Care Route case 19 3.2 Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve (CWCBR) Trails Project 21 3.3 Key Actors and their role in ecotourism 23 3.3.1 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Development Associations (DAs) 24 3.3.2 Power Relations amongst Actors 25 Chapter 4 The degree of community participation in ecotourism: Theory and limitations 27 4.1 Limitations to community participation 27 4.1.1 Structural limitations 27 4.1.2 Operational limitation 28 4.1.3 Historical limitation 29 Chapter 5 Research findings 31 5.1 Economic Impact 31 5.1.1 Entrepreneurship 31 5.1.2 Employment and poverty 32
CO2 formation on interstellar dust grains: a detailed study of the barrier of the CO + O channel

Context. The formation of carbon dioxide in quiescent regions of molecular clouds has not yet been fully understood, even though CO2 is one of the most abundant species in interstellar ices. Aims. CO2 formation is studied via oxidation of CO molecules on cold surfaces under conditions close to those encountered in quiescent molecular clouds. Methods. Carbon monoxide and oxygen atoms are codeposited using two differentially pumped beam lines on two different surfaces (amorphous water ice or oxydized graphite) held at given temperatures between 10 and 60 K. The products are probed via mass spectroscopy by using the temperature-programmed desorption technique. Results. We show that the reaction CO + O can form carbon dioxide in solid phase with an efficiency that depends on the temperature of the surface. The activation barrier for the reaction, based on modelling results, is estimated to be in the range of 780−475 K/kb . O ur model also allows us to distinguish the mechanisms (Eley Rideal or Langmuir-Hinshelwood) at play in different temperature regimes. Our results suggest that competition between CO2 formation via CO + O and other surface reactions of O is a key factor in the yields of CO2 obtained experimentally. Conclusions. CO2 can be formed by the CO + O reaction on cold surfaces via processes that mimic carbon dioxide formation in the interstellar medium. Astrophysically, the presence of CO2 in quiescent molecular clouds could be explained by the reaction CO + O occurring on interstellar dust grains.
Improving the use of bioethanol by-products in monogastric feeding.

Eighteen DDGS samples (8 wheat DDGS and 10 corn DDGS) were obtained from 6 different countries. Each sample was analysed for proximate and total amino acids (TAA) and evaluated for true ileal amino acid digestibility (AAD) using caecectomized cockerels. Wheat DDGS were classified as low and standard whereas corn DDGS showed an additional high protein type. Important variations were observed among the total lysine and threonine of the wheat DDGS and among all total amino acids of the corn DDGS with the exception of total cystine. Both wheat and corn DDGS showed low lysine digestibilities (38 and 62%) and low cystine digestibilities (56 and 64%) associated to high variations. Original cereals, processing conditions and disposition of solubles, could explain the variations. The potential of NIRS (Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy) was also investigated. The feasibility study show that the NIRS calibrations explain more than 95 and 80% of the variation respectively for TAA and DAA (with the exception of tryptophan digestibility, R=0.66). Accuracies associated to the models varied from 2 to 6% (excepted for DLys, 9%). These encouraging results indicate that this tool is promising for the prediction of the nutritional variability measured among DDGS. __________________________________________________________________________________
Nanotechnology: Applications in pharmaceutical drug delivery systems

Nanotechnology has great benefits in the area of pharmaceutical researches and applications. It is used to create small features on software’s and computers chips for last 25 years. The major principal that makes the nanomaterial differ from other material are the enhanced surface area and quantum effects; so that the properties like strength, reactivity, electrical behaviour etc. are enhanced. While the quantum effects affect the magnetic, optical and electrical behaviour of materials. In the pharmaceutical area nanotechnology has been widely used for the targeting drug delivery. Recently the developments in nanotechnology have shown that nanomaterials have a great potential as drug carriers. Their small sizes make them physiologically and biologically, a favourable material for biomedical applications. The present study reviews some of the recent biomedical applications of nanotechnology.
The Competences of Physical Education Students. Unified Versus Two-Tier University Studies

Abstract Introduction. The objective of the study was a comparative analysis of the results of unified and two-tier university studies in physical education at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport in Biała Podlaska of the University of Physical Education in Warsaw. Material and methods. The study utilized 128 full-time final semester students. The study utilized a diagnostic poll and random survey method. On the basis of respondents' opinions, the following results were analyzed: respondents' expectations regarding their education and the level of their fulfilment, forms of activities undertaken during studies, professional plans and opinions regarding the course of studies in PE. Results. The analysis revealed that, when making the decision to study physical education, respondents expected to gain directional competences and knowledge and skills enabling further education. Respondents highly regarded the level of these competences gained. The majority of respondents expressed a wish to find employment in the education sector and other institutions of physical education. Conclusion. The result of the research indicated that transforming unified Master's studies into two-tier university studies did not bring about fundamental changes in the outcome of studies in physical education.
PROBABILISTIC PERFORMANCE-BASED SEISMIC DESIGN OF BRIDGE COLUMNS

Because earthquakes are random events it is reasonable to design structures taking into account the non-deterministic features of response. Performance-based design is intended to provide options to designers and bridge owners to manage the target performance of the structure. Probabilistic damage control approach (PDCA) is a new procedure for seismic design of bridges subjected to earthquakes. As part of a study funded by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), this innovative design methodology is developed by incorporating “Damage Index” (DI) and different earthquake return periods to provide flexibility to the designer. The damage level of the bridge is established for each earthquake level as a function of the degree of lateral displacement nonlinearity and is related to six apparent damage states (DS) defined in a previous study at the University of Nevada, Reno. The correlation between DI and DS was determined from a statistical analysis of measured data for 21 bridge column models subjected to seismic loads on shake tables. Extensive analytical modeling of seismic response of two-column bents was conducted. A wide range of variables was included in the study to address the effect of aspect ratio, transverse steel ratio, longitudinal steel ratio, material properties, site class, return period, target DI, and the number of columns in bents. Each column bents was analyzed under fifteen near-field and ten far-field ground motions. A statistical analysis of the demand DIs was performed to develop fragility curves and calculate the reliability index for each DS. The calculated reliability index and fragility curves show that the proposed method can be effectively used in seismic design of new bridges.
Beyond Pure Public and Pure Private Management Models: Partial Privatization in the European Airport Industry

ABSTRACT The use of private funding and management is enjoying an increasing trend in airports. The literature has not paid enough attention to the mixed management models in this industry, although many European airports take the form of mixed public-private companies, where ownership is shared between public and private sectors. We examine the determinants of the degree of private participation in the European airport sector. Drawing on a sample of the 100 largest European airports, we estimate a multivariate equation in order to determine the role of airport characteristics, fiscal variables, and political factors on the extent of private involvement. Our results confirm the alignment between public and private interests in partially privatized airports. Fiscal constraints and market attractiveness promote private participation. Integrated governance models and the share of network carriers prevent the presence of private ownership, while the degree of private participation appears to be pragmatic rather than ideological.
Improving the throughput of the forward population genetic simulation environment simuPOP

Biological populations arise, develop and evolve under a series of well-studied laws and fairly regular mechanisms. Population genetics is a field of science, that aims to study and model these laws and the genetic composition and diversity of populations of various types of species and life. At best, population genetic models can be of use in verifying past events of a population and eventually reconstructing unknown population histories in light of multidisciplinary evidence. An example case of this is the research concerning human population prehistory of Finland. Population simulations are a sub-branch of the rapidly developing field of bioinformatics and can be divided into two pipelines: forward-in-time and backward-in-time (coalescent). The methodologies enable in silico testing of the development of genetic composition of individuals in a well-defined population. This thesis focuses on the forward-in-time approach. Multiple pieces of software exist today for forward population simulations, and simuPOP [http://simupop.sourceforge. net] probably is the single most flexible one of them. Being able to incorporate transmission of genomes and arbitrary individual information between generations, simuPOP has potential applications even beyond population genetics. However, simuPOP tends to use an enormous amount of computer random access memory when simulating large population sizes. This thesis introduces three approaches to improve the throughput of simuPOP. These are i) introducing scripting guidelines, ii) approximating a complex simulation using the inbuilt biallelic mode of simuPOP and iii) changes in the source code of simuPOP that would enable improved throughput. A previous simuPOP script designed to simulate past demographic events of Finnish population history is used as an example. A batch of 100 simulation runs is run on three versions of the previous script: standard, modified and biallelic. As compared to the standard mode, the modified simulation script performs marginally faster. Despite doubling the user time of a single simulation run, the biallelic approximation method proves to consume three times less random access memory still being compatible from the population genetic point of view. This suggests that built-in support for the biallelic approximation could be a valuable supplement to simuPOP. Evidently, simuPOP can be applied to very complex forward population simulations. The use of individual information fields enables the user to set up arbitrary simulation scenarios. Data structure changes at source code level are likely to improve throughput even further. Besides introducing improvements and guidelines to the simulation workflow, this thesis is a standalone case study concerning the use and development of a bioinformatics software. Furthermore, an individual development version of simuPOP called simuPOP-rev is founded with the goal of implementing the source code changes suggested in this thesis. ACM Computing Classification System (CCS): D.1 [Programming techniques], G.1. 6…
Efficient or opportunistic earnings management with regards to the role of firm size and corporate governance practices

The purpose of this study is to examine the type of earnings management in Iran and to investigate it, the effect of discretionary accruals, as a proxy for earnings management, on future profitability has been examined. Also we consider the effect of firm size, ownership structure, audit quality and the proportion of independent board members on it. In this research, a sample of 167 firms in a 6 year financial period from 2004 to 2009 has been analyzed and fixed effect regression method is applied. The results show that managers tends to use efficient earnings management in Iran and firm size, ownership structure, audit quality and the proportion of independent board members can influence on the type of earnings management.
The relative influence of English (L2) vs. Russian (L1) on the translation from Swedish (L3) into Russian depending on proficiency in L3

This study examined the relative influence of L1 and L2 on the translation from L3 to L1 depending on the proficiency level of participants in the L3. Native speakers of Russian, matched for proficiency in English (L2), translated words from Swedish (L3) into Russian (L1). The words were Russian-Swedish, English-Swedish, English-Russian-Swedish cognates, and noncognates. Three groups participated in the experiment: beginners in Swedish, intermediate learners of Swedish, and advanced Swedish speakers. The results show that the speed of translation depends on both word type and proficiency level. As expected, beginners responded more slowly than two other groups, but responses to English-Russian-Swedish cognates and English-Swedish cognates appeared to be faster than Russian-Swedish cognates and noncognates, showing that the influence of English is relatively stronger than the influence of Russian. Advanced speakers were faster than beginners, but were unexpectedly slower than intermediate learners and showed no influence of English, translating English-Swedish cognates and noncognates with almost similar speed. Moreover, they were slower than intermediate participants in translating even Russian-Swedish cognates. Intermediate learners were equally fast in translating English-Russian-Swedish cognates and Russian-Swedish cognates, and relatively fast in translating English-Swedish cognates. The findings are discussed in terms of usage and activation patterns of the three languages.
Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in multilingual classrooms

Three inter-related assumptions regarding best practice in second/foreign language teaching and bilingual/immersion education continue to dominate classroom instruction. These assumptions are that: (a) the target language (TL) should be used exclusively for instructional purposes without recourse to students’ first language (L1); (b) translation between L1 and TL has no place in the language classroom; and (c) within immersion and bilingual programs, the two languages should be kept rigidly separate. Research evidence provides minimal support for these assumptions and they are also inconsistent with the instructional implications of current theory in the areas of cognitive psychology and applied linguistics. Based on current research and theory, a set of bilingual instructional strategies are proposed and concrete examples are provided to illustrate how these strategies can be used together with monolingual strategies in a balanced and complementary way.
When Things That Were Never Experienced Are Easier To “Remember” Than Things That Were

Can things that were never experienced be more readily accepted on recognition tests than things that were experienced? A current explanation of false memory predicts that this can happen when things that were never experienced provide superior access to the gist of events. This prediction was tested in three experiments in which the task was to accept all test items that were consistent with the substance of previously studied material, regardless of whether they had been studied. Acceptance rates were consistently higher for some never-studied items (those that provided superior access to gist memories) than for studied items. This effect varied predictably as a function of manipulations of the strength of gist memories and their accessibility. These results have implications for the use of exploratory memory-interrogation procedures in psychotherapy and the law.
Persistent shift of Calanus spp. in the southwestern Norwegian Sea since 2003, linked to ocean climate

E. , H. , Jo´nasdo´ttir, S. , and Ferreira, A. S. A. Persistent shift of Calanus spp. in the southwestern Norwegian Sea since 2003, linked to ocean climate. – ICES The southwestern Norwegian Sea is characterized by an inﬂow of warm and saline Atlantic water from the southwest and cold and less saline East IcelandicWater(EIW),ofArcticorigin,fromthenorthwest.ThesetwowatermassesmeetandformtheIceland-FaroeFront (IFF). Inthisregion,the copepod Calanus ﬁnmarchicus plays a key role in the pelagic ecosystem. Time-series of C. ﬁnmarchicus and Calanus hyperboreus in May and September,extendingbacktotheearly1990s,werestudiedinrelationtophytoplanktonbloomdynamicsandhydrography.Themainreproductiveperiodof C. ﬁnmarchicus startedconsistentlyearliersouthoftheIFF,resultingindifferentlifecyclesandstagecompositionsinthetwowatermasses. In 2003, a sudden shift occurred north of the IFF, resulting in a similar phenology pattern to south of the IFF. Before this, only one generation of C. ﬁnmarchicus was produced in the Arctic water, but the earlier reproduction enabled the species to produce two generations after 2003. Simultaneously, C.hyperboreus ,anexpatriateintheEIW,largelydisappeared.Foodavailabilityisunlikelythereasonforthephenologicaldifferences observed across the front, as the typical pattern of the phytoplankton spring bloom showed an earlier onset north of the IFF. Temperature and salinity peaked at record high values in 2003 and 2004, and therefore possible links to oceanography are discussed. The dominant role of Calanus spp. and the potential linkages to water mass exchanges may herald strong effects on the ecosystem and pelagic ﬁsh in this subpolar Atlantic region under expected climate change.
CART application to image primitives tracking

In this paper we present a new method for image primitives tracking based on a CART (Classification and Regression Tree). Primitives tracking procedure uses lines and circles as primitives. We have applied the proposed method to sport event scenarios, specifically, soccer matches. We estimate CART parameters using a learning procedure based on RGB image channels. In order to illustrate its performance, it has been applied to real HD (High Definition) video sequences and some numerical experiments are shown. The quality of the primitives tracking with the decision tree is validated by the percentage error rates obtained and the comparison with other techniques as a morphological method. We also present applications of the proposed method to camera calibration and graphic object insertion in real video sequences.