• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.587-591
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• 2014

Automatic milking systems (AMS) rely upon voluntary cow traffic (the voluntary movement of cattle around a farm) for milk harvesting and feed consumption. Previous research on conventional milking systems has shown differences between dairy cow breeds for intake and milk production, however, the ability to manipulate voluntary cow traffic and milking frequency on AMS farms through breed selection is unknown. This study investigated the effect of breed (Holstein Friesian versus Illawarra) on voluntary cow traffic as determined by gate passes at the Camden AMS research farm dairy facility. Daily data on days in milk, milk yield, gate passes and milking frequency for 158 Holstein Friesian cows and 24 Illawarra cows were collated by month for the 2007 and 2008 years. Illawarra cows had 9% more gate passes/day than Holstein cows over the duration of the study; however, the milking frequency and milk yield of both breeds were similar. Gate passes were greatest for both breeds in early lactation and in the winter (June to August) and summer (December to February) seasons. These findings highlight an opportunity to translate increased voluntary cow movement associated with breed selection into increased milking frequencies, milk production and overall pasture-based AMS performance.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2011

Temporal Sign Language Recognition (TSLR) from hand motion is an active area of gesture recognition research in facilitating efficient communication with deaf people. TSLR systems consist of two stages: a motion sensing step which extracts useful features from signers' motion and a classification process which classifies these features as a performed sign. This work focuses on two of the research problems, namely unknown time varying signal of sign languages in feature extraction stage and computing complexity and time consumption in classification stage due to a very large sign sequences database. In this paper, we propose a combination of Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and application of the Single hidden Layer Feedforward Neural networks (SLFNs) trained by Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) to cope the limitations. DTW has several advantages over other approaches in that it can align the length of the time series data to a same prior size, while ELM is a useful technique for classifying these warped features. Our experiment demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed method with the recognition accuracy up to 98.67%. The proposed approach can be generalized to more detailed measurements so as to recognize hand gestures, body motion and facial expression.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.123-127
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• 2006

Background: Caveolin-1 is a principal component of caveolae membranes in vivo. Although expression of caveolae structure and expression of caveolin family, caveolin-1, -2 and -3, was known in chondrocytes, the functional role of caveolae and caveolins in chondrocytes remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the role of caveolin-1 in articular chondrocytes. Methods: Rabbit articular chondrocytes were prepared from cartilage slices of 2-week-old New Zealand white rabbits by enzymatic digestion. Caveolin-1 cDNA was transfected to articular chondrocytes using LipofectaminePLUS. The cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression levels were determined by immunoblot analysis, immunostaining, immunohistochemistry, and prostaglandin $E_2\;(PGE_2)$ assay was used to measure the COX-2 activity. Results: Ectopic expression of caveolin-1 induced COX-2 expression and activity, as indicated by immunoblot analysis and $PGE_2$ assay. And also, overexpression of caveolin-1 stimulated activation of p38 kinase and ERK-1/-2. Inhibition of p38 kinase and ERK-1/-2 with SB203580 and PD98059, respectively, led to a dose-dependent decrease COX-2 expression and $PGE_2$ production in caveolin-1-transfected cells. Conclusion: Taken together, our data suggest that ectopic expression of caveolin-1 contributes to the expression and activity of COX-2 in articular chondrocytes through MAP kinase pathway.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.161-182
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• 2010

The goals of this study were to identify differences in learners' and teachers' perspectives on EFL learners' language anxiety, to identify the differences among teachers coping with learners' language anxiety, and to find how learners cope with their language anxiety. The research was effectuated by means of a survey questionnaire and interviews. The data were collected from 92 teachers and 230 students in four different school settings. There were the $6^{th}$ grade 50 primary school learners, the $2^{nd}$ grade 60 middle school learners, the $11^{th}$ grade 60 high school learners of, and the $2^{nd}$ and $3^{rd}$ grade 60 university learners. There were also 26 primary school teachers, 22 middle school teachers, 21 high school teachers, and 23 university teachers. The findings reveal that there were differences in responses among the respondents. The findings suggest that teachers need to pay attention to their particular learners' anxiety sources: especially in the case of primary school setting, the activity of answering teachers' questions for teachers was the primary source of learner's anxiety, in the case of middle school settings, translating sentences in English into Korean, in the case of high school setting, checking unknown vocabulary, and in the case of university settings, university learners felt anxious when classmates spoke fluently. The implications of the study indicate that these aspects should be handled carefully to motivate certain group of learners.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.8-20
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• 2016

Banks are the engines that drive the operations in financial sector, money markets and growth of economy. With growing banking industry in India, frauds in Banks are increasing and fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated and ingenious. Shockingly, banking industry in India dubs rising fraud as "an inevitable cost of doing business." As part of study, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted in 2012-13 among 345 Bank employees "to know their perception towards bank frauds and evaluate factors that influence the degree of their compliance level." The study reveals, "there are poor employment practices and lack of effective employee training; usually over-burdened staff, weak internal control systems, and low compliance levels on the part of Bank Managers, Offices and Clerks. Although banks cannot be 100% secure against unknown threats, a certain level of preparedness can go a long way in countering fraud risk. Internal audit professionals should play an integral role in organization's fraud-fighting efforts. Some other promising steps are: educate customers about fraud prevention, make application of laws more stringent, leverage the power of data analysis technologies, follow fraud mitigation best practices, and employ multipoint scrutiny.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.39
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• pp.17.1-17.8
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• 2017

Background: Schwannomas (or neurilemmomas) of the tongue are benign, usually solitary, encapsulated masses derived from Schwann cells. Clinical evidence indicates that schwannoma is painless and slow growing. In general, schwannoma is treated by surgical excision. Here, we describe a case of schwannoma of the tongue, include a review of the literature from 1955 to 2016, and provide data on age, gender, location, presenting symptoms, size, and treatment methods. Case presentation: A 71-year-old female patient presented with a swelling at the base of the tongue of unknown duration. Magnetic resonance images (MRI) showed a large well-circumscribed solid mass and no significant lymph node enlargement. The mass was excised without removing overlying mucosa. Conclusions: The authors report a case of lingual schwannoma that was completely removed intraorally without preoperative biopsy. No sign or symptoms of recurrence were observed at 12 months postoperatively.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.179-182
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• 2000

Background: A pleural effusion is not a disease entity but a clincial sign of systemic or pleural disease. Although the diagnosis of pleural effusion can often be done by toracentesis and pleural needle biopsy the yeild of positive diagnosis is low.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.79-89
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• 2021

Green finance plays an important role in environmental protection missions and fighting climate change. The Environment Fund in Vietnam is the main channel of preferential capital offered to firms for environmental protection. Unfortunately, it was previously unknown which criteria influenced these companies' ability to obtain green financing. Using a survey method, we collected data through a structured questionnaire of 203 respondents that represent firms that had received concessional loans from 26 Environment Funds. A Multiple Linear Regression model was used to examine the determinants of access to concessional loans for environmental protection. We found relationships between age, size, ownership type, and industry sector, and access to green finance. Third-party guarantees were a significant factor in financing through Environment Funds. Moreover, we found commercial environmental projects face fewer green financing obstacles. Surprisingly, showing audited financial statements does not mitigate the information asymmetry between firms and these financial institutions. These findings suggest that Environment Funds should classify environmental project types to develop appropriate lending policies. In emerging markets, enterprises need to build a trusted relationship with financial institutions so that they can replace asset-based lending techniques, thereby increasing the firms' accessibility to green finance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.371-380
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• 2022

Objectives: To ensure that employers handling petroleum compounds understand whether petroleum-based UVCB (unknown or variable composition, complex reaction products, or biological materials) substances contain hazardous substances and comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Act, petroleum-based UVCB substances were analyzed and the results from samples were compared with MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) contents. Methods: Twenty-one petroleum samples were analyzed using GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry), targeting ten volatile organic compounds regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Results: The target chemicals were detected in 13 out of 21 samples. All 13 samples were in the naphtha (low boiling point naphthas (gasolines)) group. There were also naphtha group samples containing 2% benzene. Some naphtha samples used as solvents contained about 1% benzene. Conclusions: This study shows that naphtha group petroleum substances contain hazardous chemicals in many cases. In particular, if benzene, n-hexane, and toluene with low occupational exposure limits are contained above the limit concentration. Such information should be delivered in the article on MSDS legal regulations.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.377-388
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• 2022

The Personal sense of uniqueness (PSU) is positively associated with subjective well-being and has been recently shown its correlation with happiness, influencing consumer's experience behavior. However, the effects of hedonic and eudaimonic experience on conspicuous and inconspicuous (consumer's need for status and inner fulfillment) are unknown. The purpose of this research is to address a gap existing in the literature by testing the effects of PSU on hedonic and eudaimonic leisure experiences and how happiness leisure experiences effects conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption. The relationships hypothesized in the model are tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and bootstrapping procedure. Data was gathered using a self-administrated survey, answered by 200 consumers based on consumers' leisure experiences. The findings of this study suggest that (i) PSU positively and significantly influence hedonic and eudaimonic happiness; (ii) the effect of PSU on eudaimonic happiness is higher than in hedonic happiness; (iii) eudaimonic happiness positively and significantly influence conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption; and (iv) hedonic happiness negatively and significantly influence conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption. This study helps fill a gap in the literature by introducing and testing the effect of hedonic and eudaimonic leisure experiences and the relationship between these constructs and PSU and (in) conspicuous consumption.