Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Athletic Identity and Social Supports in Relation to Formation of Sports Commitment

The purpose of this study was to examine the formation model of sports commitment in its relation to sports participation and persistency by investigating the dynamics of relationships between social supports and athletic identity, athletic identity and sports commitment, and social supports and sports commitment. The participants were 250 collegiate athletes (males : 169 females : 81). They completed questionnaires (Social Support Scale for Sports, Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, Sports Commitment Scale). In examining the relationships between sports commitment, athletic identity and social supports by regression analysis, it was found that there were significant relationships between sports commitment and athletic identity, and athletic identity and social supports. On the other hand, there was no significance between sports commitment and social supports. Therefore, this study hypothesized the original theoretical model that social supports described the formation of athletic identity and athletic identity was the predictor variable for formation of sports commitment. The results of the Structural Equation Model (SEM) demonstrated goodness of fit and validity of the original formation model of sports commitment. The results of this study indicated that the formation process of sports commitment effects competitive sports participation and persistency. In addition, this study showed significant differences in the formation process for sports commitment between female and male collegiate athletes.
On The Comovement of REIT Prices

This study examines the comovement of equity real estate investment trust (REIT) prices in both the vintage (1980â€“1991) and the new (1992â€“2004) REIT eras. The results indicate that the comovement of equity REIT prices within the same property type has strengthened during the new REIT era. The results also indicate that, all else being equal, a high institutional participation, a low insider ownership, and a large market capitalization are associated with a high within-property-type price synchronicity. The evidence is consistent with two notions: (1) that increasing participation by institutional investors in the new REIT era facilitates the pricing of property-type common information on firm-level prices, and (2) that REITsâ€™ information openness to institutional investing plays a role in this strengthened pricing relationship.
Returns to Speculators: Telser versus Keynes

IN A recent article in this Journal, Lester G. Telser has added to our knowledge concerning the shape of the supply curve for storage of commodities. ' He develops a theory relating the quantity of inventories held to the expected price change, costs of storage, and the convenience yield (net of risk) from holding the commodity.2 In making an empirical test of this theory, Telser uses prices quoted for future contracts in the commodity to represent the expected spot quotations. Since the theory calls for expected spot prices, Telser must demonstrate that futures give an unbiased estimate of such expected prices. To do so, he must controvert a theory, commonly associated with J. M. Keynes and J. R. Hicks,3 which argues that futures prices are downward biased estimates of expected prices-that futures prices customarily rise as the contracts approach maturity. Telser's attack on the Keynes-Hicks hypothesis comes in two parts. He first presents a theoretical argument that the Keynes-Hicks hypothesis need not hold. He then offers an empirical test to demonstrate that there is no evidence of downward bias in the futures prices of wheat and cotton. The purpose of this note is to show that Telser's argument is faulty in two respects: his theoretical model of speculative behavior assumes away the problem, and his empirical test does not necessarily controvert the Keynes-Hicks argument. Data similar to Telser's are examined and are found to be consistent with a variant of the Keynes-Hicks hypothesis.
Network Characteristics and Firm Performance: An Examination of the Relationships in the Context of a Cluster**

The study examined the impact of spatial relationships on firm performance. It also assessed the impacts of network structural and relational characteristics on performance, as well as the moderating effects of these variables on the spatial relationship to performance linkages. The sample comprised 252 firms located in a mold industry cluster in the hejiang province of hina. Both in‐cluster ties and extra‐cluster ties positively impacted performance. However, the effects of distant ties were more pronounced. Tie stability had a positive effect whereas tie quality had a negative effect on performance. Network centrality, tie strength, and tie stability strengthened the relationship between in‐cluster ties and performance. By contrast, all network tie characteristics weakened and changed the form of the relationship between extra‐cluster ties and performance. The findings suggest the need for cluster firms to consciously cultivate distant linkages in their network ties in order to neutralize the tendencies for lock‐in and to arrest entropic deterioration in their respective clusters.
Floristic composition and spatial distribution of vascular epiphytes in the restingas of Maracanã, Brazil

Vascular epiphytes constitute a life form that is important to maintaining the biological diversity of forest ecosystems, because they provide food resources and specialized microenvironments for fauna in the forest canopy. This study aimed to describe the floristic composition and ecological aspects of vascular epiphytes occurring in the restingas (coastal woodlands) within the Algodoal-Maiandeua Environmentally Protected Area, located in the municipality of Maracana, in the state of Para, Brazil. We sampled five 50 × 50 m plots (three in dry restinga forest and two in floodplain restinga forest), the sampled area therefore totaling 1.25 ha. In the plots sampled, vascular epiphytes were identified and described according to their frequency, abundance, importance value (IV), functional group and vertical distribution (trunk, lower crown or upper crown of the host). For both forest types, we identified 477 individuals belonging to five families, nine genera and 11 species. The most species-rich families were Araceae and Orchidaceae. The species with the highest density, frequency and IV were the secondary hemiepiphytes Philodendron acutatum, Anthurium pentaphyllum and Philodendron muricatum, collectively accounting for 92.1% of all sampled individuals. The true epiphytes predominated. Epiphytic species richness and abundance was greater on the host trunk than in the lower or upper crown. The seasonal climate and structure of the forest favored greater abundance of secondary hemiepiphytes and a higher frequency of epiphytes on the trunks of their hosts.
Extending the mentor role in initial teacher education: embracing social justice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how mentors can act as change agents for social justice. It examines mentors’ roles in initial teacher education in the lifelong learning sector (LLS) and how critical spaces can be opened up to promote a flow of mentor, trainee teacher, learner and community empowerment. Design/methodology/approach – Two thematic literature reviews were undertaken: one of UK LLS ITE mentoring and the other an international review of social justice in relation to mentoring in ITE and the first year of teaching. Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, field and habitus (Bourdieu, 1986) are used as sensitising tools to explore LLS mentors’ practices and the possibilities for increasing the flow of “pedagogical capital” between mentors, trainee teachers, learners and communities, in such a way that would enable mentors to become agents for social justice. Findings – LLS mentors and trainee teachers are uncertain about their roles. In the UK and several countries, mentoring is dominat.
A Survey of Economic Growth

Understanding the process of economic growth has been called the ultimate objective of economics. It has also been likened to an elusive quest – like the Holy Grail or the Elixir of Life (Easterly 2001). Taking on such a quest requires ingenuity and perseverance. Even small insights along the way can have major benefits to millions of people; small mistakes can do the reverse. Economies which achieve large increases in output over extended periods of time, not only enable rapid increases in standards of living, but also have dramatic changes in the economic, political and social landscape. For example, the USA is estimated to produce approximately 30 times as much in 1999 as it did in 1899. This sustained economic growth means that in 1999 the USA had an average income per capita of US$34 100. In contrast, sub-Saharan Africa had an average income of $490. Understanding these vast income differences, produced over many decades, is the elusive quest. The aim of this survey is to explain how economists try to understand the process of economic growth. To make the task manageable, the focus is on major issues and current debates. Models and conceptual frameworks are discussed in section III. Section IV summarises empirical studies, with a particular focus on econometric studies of groups of countries. This is not to say that case studies of single countries are not valuable, but space precludes covering everything. The following section sets out some facts about economic growth and, hopefully, motivates the further effort needed to tackle the theory and econometrics.
The antecedents of performance management among Finnish expatriates

The present study aims at increasing the understanding of existing expatriate performance management practices, their efficiency and related contextual factors. The descriptive findings mainly support the picture arising from the few earlier studies identified, but also bring out several new ideas such as the use of team goals. Second, key performance management practices influencing the perceived efficiency of the system were identified, the key finding being that expatriate performance management with officially set performance goals and formal performance evaluation increases the efficiency of the process. The results further show that a company's level of internationalization, its size, the position of the expatriate in the organizational hierarchy, his or her task type, the location of the host unit and the structure of the organization influence performance management practices.
3D CT‐Guided Pulsed Radiofrequency Treatment for Trigeminal Neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a pain syndrome characterized by pain in the trigeminal area often accompanied by a brief facial spasm or tic. The purpose of our study was to investigate the efficacy and clinical utility of CT‐guided pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) for treatment of TN. Patients who were diagnosed with severe TN between September 2010 and October 2010 at Beijing Tiantan Hospital were included. Pulsed radiofrequency treatment (PRFT) was employed to treat TN. To verify the accurate needle position, a thin‐section cranial CT scan was performed by using a multidetector CT scanner. Three‐dimensional reconstruction was performed to visualize the location of the needle and the foramen ovale. A total of 20 patients were included in the study. Seven patients (35%) had favorable outcome 1 year after the PRFT. The numeric rating scale in the 7 patients with good outcome was significantly lower than the 13 patients with bad outcome at 1 day, 1 week, and 2 weeks after the treatment. The remaining 13 patients had residual pain 2 weeks after the PRFT and had to receive radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RFTC). In conclusion, the results of our study demonstrate that CT‐guided PRFT is not an effective method of pain treatment for idiopathic TN as compared with conventional RFTC. However, CT‐guided PRFT is associated with less complication than RFTC.
Specific and Nonspecific Neural Activity during Selective Processing of Visual Representations in Working Memory

In this fMRI study, we investigated prefrontal cortex (PFC) and visual association regions during selective information processing. We recorded behavioral responses and neural activity during a delayed recognition task with a cue presented during the delay period. A specific cue (“Face” or “Scene”) was used to indicate which one of the two initially viewed pictures of a face and a scene would be tested at the end of a trial, whereas a nonspecific cue (“Both”) was used as control. As expected, the specific cues facilitated behavioral performance (faster response times) compared to the nonspecific cue. A postexperiment memory test showed that the items cued to remember were better recognized than those not cued. The fMRI results showed largely overlapped activations across the three cue conditions in dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC, dorsomedial PFC, posterior parietal cortex, ventral occipito-temporal cortex, dorsal striatum, and pulvinar nucleus. Among those regions, dorsomedial PFC and inferior occipital gyrus remained active during the entire postcue delay period. Differential activity was mainly found in the association cortices. In particular, the parahippocampal area and posterior superior parietal lobe showed significantly enhanced activity during the postcue period of the scene condition relative to the Face and Both conditions. No regions showed differentially greater responses to the face cue. Our findings suggest that a better representation of visual information in working memory may depend on enhancing the more specialized visual association areas or their interaction with PFC.
A seasonal alternation of coherent and compensatory dynamics occurs in phytoplankton

Functional groups with diverse responses to environmental factors sum to produce communities with less temporal variability in their biomass than those lacking this diversity. The detection of these compensatory dynamics can be complicated by a spatio-temporal alternation in the environmental factors limiting growth (both abiotic and biotic), which restricts the occurrence of compensatory dynamics to certain periods or locations. Hence, resolving the spatio-temporal scale may uncover important spatial and/or temporal components in community variability. Using long-term data from Lake Constance (Bodensee), we find that a reduction in grazing pressure and relaxed competition for nutrients during winter and spring generates coherent dynamics among edible and less edible phytoplankton. During summer and fall, when both grazing pressure and nutrient limitation are present, edible and less edible phytoplankton exhibit compensatory dynamics. This study supports recent work suggesting that both abiotic and biotic interactions promote compensatory dynamics and to our knowledge, this is the first example of a system where compensatory and coherent dynamics seasonally alternate.
The Perceptual Responses to Occluded Exercise

The purpose was to determine repetitions to failure and perceptual responses to exercise with and without occlusion. 15 subjects participated in a randomized crossover study of 3 trials. The first determined one repetition maximum (1RM) on the leg extension. Subjects were then assigned to an occlusion (OCC) or control (CON) group. After trial 2, subjects crossed over to the opposite trial. Knee wraps (KW) were placed around the upper thigh of each leg during OCC. Subjects completed 2 sets of leg extensions to failure at 30% 1RM, with 30 s rest between sets. Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and pain (P) were taken following each set. Data were analyzed using paired sample t-tests with an alpha level of 0.01. OCC repetitions were lower for the first and second set compared to CON (p=0.001). Total work completed was significantly lower with OCC compared to CON (p=0.001). OCC RPE were higher for both the first (p=0.01) and second set (p=0.003) compared to CON. P was not different following one set but was higher with OCC over CON following the second (p=0.009). In conclusion, KW provide an OCC stimulus allowing failure to occur sooner. However, the higher perceptual responses with OCC may limit its application to the highly motivated.
Population pharmacokinetics of levocetirizine in very young children: the pediatricians’ perspective

Developmental changes during infancy and childhood can affect drug pharmacokinetics (PK), i.e., absorption, distribution, metabolism, and renal excretion. This, in turn, influences optimal dosing, efficacy, and safety. To date, of the 40 H1‐antihistamines available worldwide, only 11 have been studied in children using a PK approach. Here, we provide the pediatricians’ perspective on the population PK of levocetirizine, the pharmacologically active enantiomer of cetirizine, in very young children who received oral cetirizine, and describe the factors that influence levocetirizine PK in this population. In a prospective, randomized, double‐blind, parallel‐group, placebo‐controlled study, very young children received oral cetirizine 0.25 mg/kg twice daily for 18 months. Plasma levocetirizine concentrations were measured in timed, sparse blood samples collected at steady‐state (3, 12 and 18 months after commencement of treatment) for the purpose of monitoring safety, and levocetirizine population, PK parameters were derived by using non‐linear mixed effects modeling. In 343 children (age 14–46 months, body weight 8.2–20.5 kg), a total of 943 blood samples were obtained. Compliance with cetirizine dosing was documented. The population PK model used predicted that with increasing body weight, levocetirizine oral clearance would increase by 0.044 l/h/kg, and levocetirizine volume of distribution would increase by 0.639 l/kg. Levocetirizine PK were not influenced by eosinophilia, sensitization to allergens, allergic disease, gastroenteritis/diarrhea, or concomitant ingestion of other medications. This population PK model predicts that in very young children, the oral clearance of levocetirizine will be rapid and will increase as body weight and age increase, therefore, levocetirizine dosing should be based on body weight and age in this population. Compared with older patients, on a mg/kg basis, relatively higher doses may be needed, and twice‐daily dosing may be necessary, as previously reported for the related racemic H1‐antihistamine cetirizine.
Nonsyndromic orofacial clefts: association with maternal hyperhomocysteinemia.

Maternal folic acid supplementation has been suggested to play a role in the prevention of nonsyndromic orofacial clefts, i.e., cleft lip +/- cleft palate. Using a case-control design, we investigated vitamin-dependent homocysteine metabolism in 35 mothers with nonsyndromic orofacial cleft offspring and 56 control mothers with nonmalformed offspring. A standardized oral methionine loading test was performed, in which fasting and afterload plasma total homocysteine, serum and red-cell folate, serum vitamin B12, and whole-blood vitamin B6 levels were determined. We found that both fasting (P < 0.01) as well as afterload (P < 0.05) homocysteine concentrations were significantly higher in cases compared to controls. Hyperhomocysteinemia, defined by a fasting and/or afterload homocysteine concentration above the 97.5th percentile, was present in 15.6% of the cases and in 3.6% of controls (odds ratio, 5.3 (1.1-24.2)). The median concentrations of serum (P < 0. 01) and red-cell (P < 0.05) folate were significantly higher, and vitamin B6 concentrations appeared to be significantly lower (P < 0. 05), in cases compared with controls. No significant difference was observed between groups for vitamin B12. These preliminary data offer evidence that maternal hyperhomocysteinemia may be a risk factor for having nonsyndromic orofacial cleft offspring.
Neural correlates of attentional bias for smoking cues: modulation by variance in the dopamine transporter gene

Cigarette‐dependent smokers automatically and involuntarily orient attention toward smoking cues (SCs). This attentional bias is clinically significant, as it may contribute to relapse. Thus, identifying neural and genetic correlates of attentional bias is critical for improving interventions. Our previous studies show that the dopamine transporter (DAT) SLC6A3 genotype exerts profound effects on limbic responses to SCs. One potential mechanism underlying these effects is greater attentional bias for SCs. Here, we explored associations between attentional bias for SCs and neural responses to SCs among ‘sated’ smokers genotyped for the SLC6A3 polymorphism. Pseudo‐continuous arterial spin‐labeled perfusion functional magnetic resonance imaging images were acquired during SC exposure in 35 smokers genotyped for the SLC6A3 variable number of tandem repeats polymorphism (n = 16, 9‐repeats; n = 19, 10/10‐repeats). Participants completed a visual dot‐probe attentional bias task, which contained pictures of smoking and non‐smoking pictures, to examine whether genetic variation in DAT influences attentional bias and to investigate relationships between attentional bias and neural responses to SCs. Although attentional bias to smoking pictures was not significantly different between 9‐repeats and 10/10‐repeats, 9‐repeats showed a positive correlation between attentional bias and increased SC‐induced brain activity in the amygdala, whereas 10/10‐repeats showed an inverse correlation in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). In group comparisons, 9‐repeats exhibited positive correlations between attentional bias and SCs in the mOFC and amygdala, relative to 10/10‐repeats. Findings suggest that genetic variation in the DAT gene influences brain responses associated with attentional bias; thus, providing additional support for a SC‐vulnerable endophenotype.
The Arabidopsis U12-Type Spliceosomal Protein U11/U12-31K Is Involved in U12 Intron Splicing via RNA Chaperone Activity and Affects Plant Development[C][W]

Correct splicing of U12 introns is essential for constitutive and regulated gene expression in eukaryotes. This study provides evidence that U11/U12-31K, a U12-type spliceosomal protein in Arabidopsis thaliana, is an RNA chapereone that is indispensible for proper U12 intron splicing and for normal growth and development of plants. U12 introns are removed from precursor-mRNA by a U12 intron-specific spliceosome that contains U11 and U12 small nuclear ribonucleoproteins. Although several proteins unique to the U12-type spliceosome have been identified, the manner by which they affect U12-dependent intron splicing as well as plant growth and development remain largely unknown. Here, we assessed the role of U11/U12-31K, a U12-type spliceosomal protein in Arabidopsis thaliana. T-DNA–tagged homozygote lines for U11/U12-31K could not be obtained, and heterozygote mutants were defective for seed maturation, indicating that U11/U12-31K is essential for the normal development of Arabidopsis. Knockdown of U11/U12-31K by artificial microRNA caused a defect in proper U12 intron splicing, resulting in abnormal stem growth and development of Arabidopsis. This defect in proper splicing was not restricted to specific U12-type introns, but most U12 intron splicing was influenced by U11/U12-31K. The stunted inflorescence stem growth was recovered by exogenously applied gibberellic acid (GA), but not by cytokinin, auxin, or brassinosteroid. GA metabolism-related genes were highly downregulated in U11/U12-31K knockdown plants. Importantly, U11/U12-31K was determined to harbor RNA chaperone activity. We propose that U11/U12-31K is an RNA chapereone that is indispensible for proper U12 intron splicing and for normal growth and development of plants.