Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Public Access to Computers and the Internet on the Connectedness of Rural Malaysians

This chapter reports the findings of research conducted in 2010 on the connectedness of rural Malaysians who accessed computers and the Internet through the rural Internet centers (RICs) established by the Malaysian government in 2000 and 2003. We examine the impact of the RICs on users’ sense of social connectedness, defined as the feeling of belongingness and being linked and related to a network, community, or group that one trusts and interacts with. Our study’s findings give credence to the RIC initiative. Users use RIC facilities and services to connect with family, friends, and acquaintances, with new people external to their social circle, and (albeit to a much lesser degree) with government. Users perceive a heightened sense of connectedness and feel that this connectedness has had a positive impact in their lives. There appears to be room to expand the impact of RIC telecenters so that they foster greater collaboration and help nurture the development of positive social capital. Some of the possibilities for expanding impact are identified.
PENGARUH KOMITMEN ORGANISASIONAL DAN BUDAYA ORGANISASI TERHADAP KEPUASAN SERTA PRESTASI KERJA DOSEN TETAP YAYASAN PERGURUAN TINGGI SWASTA DI PROVINSI KEPULAUAN RIAU

The study was done due to examine and analyze the influence of organizational commitment and organization culture through lecturers’ job satisfaction and performance. Job satisfaction is functioned as mediate and dependent variables. Lecturers’ performance is functioned as a dependent variable. There are two variables functioning as independent ones, namely, organizational commitment and organization culture. The study found out that organizational commitment has no significant influenced to the job satisfaction, organization culture has significant influenced to the job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organization culture have no significant influenced to the performance, and job satisfaction has significant influenced to the performance. The study used 123 permanent lecturers of University Foundation on Riau Island Province as the respondents and used cencus method. The data was collected by using questionaires and analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using AMOS 16 program
Effect of different prokinetic agents and a novel enterokinetic agent on postoperative ileus in rats

BACKGROUND/AIM The effects of different prokinetic agents, the motilide erythromycin and the substituted benzamides metoclopramide and cisapride, were investigated in a rat model of postoperative ileus. These effects were compared with that of granisetron, a 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT3) receptor antagonist, and a novel enterokinetic agent, prucalopride, a 5-HT4 receptor agonist. METHODS Different degrees of inhibition of gastrointestinal transit, measured by the migration of Evans blue, were achieved by skin incision, laparotomy, or laparotomy plus mechanical stimulation of the gut. RESULTS Metoclopramide decreased the transit after laparotomy with or without mechanical stimulation, whereas cisapride increased it after all three operations. Granisetron had no effect on the transit after the three operations when given alone. Prucalopride tended to increase the transit after laparotomy with or without mechanical stimulation when given alone. However, statistical significance was only reached when prucalopride was combined with granisetron. Erythromycin, a motilin receptor agonist, did not improve postoperative ileus in the rat. CONCLUSIONS Cisapride, but not metoclopramide or erythromycin, is able to improve postoperative ileus in the rat. The results suggest that a combination of 5-HT3 receptor antagonist and 5-HT4 receptor agonist properties may be required to obtain a beneficial effect on surgery induced ileus in the rat. Furthermore, they indirectly indicate that stimulation of the excitatory mechanisms is not able to overcome the inhibitory influence of the neural reflex pathways activated during abdominal surgery.
Supplemental Antioxidants to Enhance Fertility in Dairy Cattle

It is one of the paradoxes of biology that oxygen, which is required for energy production in aerobic organisms, is also very toxic. Many biological reactions generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) that strip electrons from biological molecules such as fatty acids, proteins and DNA. Exposure of cells to ROS can lead to disruptions in membrane structure, reduced activity of enzymes and other proteins, and genetic mutations. Given their potential harm, it is no surprise that a variety of systems exist to limit the consequences of ROS production. Antioxidants eliminate ROS through direct or enzymatically-catalyzed reactions while other molecules reverse oxidative damage caused by ROS. The magnitude of adverse changes in physiology caused by an increase in ROS generation depend not simply on the amount of ROS produced but rather on the balance between concentrations of ROS and antioxidant systems.
Imaginative Role-Playing as a Medium for Moral Development: Dungeons & Dragons Provides Moral Training

This study investigates the use of imaginative role-play games to sponsor positive development in young adult moral reasoning. Twelve college students participated in six approximately 4-hour gaming sessions using a customized game system based on Dungeons & Dragons™ (D&D, 1974, 4th ed.). The games contained embedded social/moral dilemmas (e.g., whether to torture a prisoner for information) that participants encountered and had to work through as a group. Significant growth in moral development, as measured with the Defining Issues Test and the Self-Understanding Interview was demonstrated in the gaming groups, but was not replicated in two control groups, who did not participate in the gaming sessions. This suggests that imaginative role-play gaming structures can function as an engaging, interactive “moral training ground,” a medium that promotes moral development, and highlights the difference between antisocial and prosocial violence.
How to promote conservation behaviours: the combined role of environmental education and commitment

Abstract This study tested the influence of both environmental education (EE) and commitment interventions among teenagers for promoting energy and water conservation at home. Conservation behaviours were measured in two ways – directly and through questionnaires – prior to and after the interventions. Results indicate (1) EE participants may have saved more energy than non-participants and (2) those signing a public commitment saved more energy and water than those who did not. Results from the questionnaire measures demonstrated the importance of EE for promoting ecological self-identity and a personal norm for energy conservation. Based on these results the use of commitment interventions in EE initiatives for promoting conservation behaviours among teenagers is proposed.
Embodied victims: An archaeology of the ‘ideal victim’ of restorative justice

This article seeks to provide a historical-critical framework to reconstruct and discuss how the crime victim is portrayed within theoretical literature, policy and legal documents on restorative justice, with an emphasis on England and Wales. It first centres on a description of the most deep-rooted and wide-ranging discourses on the victim’s characteristics within restorative justice. Once these features have been organized into an ‘ideal’ model, the article traces the conditions which fed into its development, that is, the cultural context within which this model has emerged. The overall goal is not to test the ‘ideal victim’ within restorative justice, but rather to explore how this methodological tool, within a historical and critical approach, might help to shed light on some taken-for-granted assumptions of restorative justice and their legal, policy and practical implications, thus contributing to the critical assessment of this acclaimed “new frontier” of contemporary penality.
Efficiency trade-offs in two-tier web search systems

Search engines rely on searching multiple partitioned corpora to return results to users in a reasonable amount of time. In this paper we analyze the standard two-tier architecture for Web search with the difference that the corpus to be searched for a given query is predicted in advance. We show that any predictor better than random yields time savings, but this decrease in the processing time yields an increase in the infrastructure cost. We provide an analysis and investigate this trade-off in the context of two different scenarios on real-world data. We demonstrate that in general the decrease in answer time is justified by a small increase in infrastructure cost.
Test of Science Process Skills of Biology Students towards Developing of Learning Exercises

This is a descriptive study aimed to determine the academic achievement on science process skills of the BS Biology Students of Northern Negros State College of Science and Technology, Philippines with the end view of developing learning exercises which will enhance their academic achievement on basic and integrated science process skills. The data in this study were obtained using a validated questionnaire. Mean was the statistical tool used to determine the academic achievement on the above mentioned science process skills; t-test for independent means was used to determine significant difference on the academic achievement of science process skills of BS Biology students while Pearson Product Moment of Correlation Coefficient was used to determine the significant relationship between basic and integrated science process skills of the BS Biology students. A 0.05 level of significance was used to determine whether the hypothesis set in the study will be rejected or accepted. Findings revealed that the academic achievement on basic and integrated science process skills of the BS Biology students was average. Findings revealed that there are no significant differences on the academic performance of the BS Biology students when grouped according to year level and gender. Findings also revealed that there is a significant difference on the academic achievement between basic and integrated science process skills of the BS Biology students. Findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between academic achievement on the basic and integrated science process skills of the BS Biology students.
Integration of Kohlbergian information in punishment : Moral judgment

Une tâche nouvelle de jugement moral est proposee en vue de rapprocher l'approche classique du jugement moral, en termes de stades, et l'approche theorie de l'integration de l'information. Dans cette tâche, les participants doivent juger du degre de punition a infliger a quelqu'un en fonction des informations qui leur sont communiquees et qui sont censees traduire les pensees de l'acteur alors qu'il commet l'acte non moral. Le contenu de ces pensees est redige pour refleter directement les stades de developpement. Contrairement a la theorie de Kohlberg les informations relatives a plus d'un stade a la fois influent sur le jugement de punition ; celles-ci semblent integrees par application d'une regle de moyenne. Une analyse factorielle montre l'existence de deux facteurs. Cette nouvelle approche est consideree comme un outil puissant pour l'etude du jugement moral d'un point de vue theorique aussi bien qu'applique.
The curse of dimensionality in Voting Advice Applications: reliability and validity in algorithm design

ABSTRACT The proliferation of Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) offers voters a simplified means by which to estimate their alignment with the candidates contesting a given election. But are the outputs generated by such applications both reliable and valid? While they differ greatly in design and degree of sophistication, most VAAs share a distinctive element that serves as their defining feature: an aggregation algorithm. Aggregation algorithms are the source of a VAA's legitimacy and yet no formal framework for their evaluation has as yet been agreed upon. We posit a dimensionality reduction technique as a corrective to recognised shortcomings in the dominant approaches to VAA design. We then test our model within a proposed framework for evaluating the validity and reliability of VAA algorithms.
Investigating Semantic Alignment in Character Learning of Chinese as a Foreign Language: The Use and Effect of the Imagery Based Encoding Strategy

For learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL), character learning is frustrating. This research postulated that this difficulty may mainly come from a lack of semantic understanding of character-denoted meanings. Language theories support that when a learner’s semantic meaning increases, the orthographic structures that represent the underlying meanings also improve. This study aimed to reveal CFL learners’ cognitive abilities and processes in visual-semantic learning of Chinese characters. Particularly, this study investigated the process by which English-speaking adolescent CFL learners, at the beginning to intermediate level, made mental images of character-denoted meanings to visually encode and retrieve character forms. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from image making questionnaires, writing, and reading tests, after learning characters in three commonly-used teaching methods (i.e., English, pictorial, and verbal). The data were analyzed based on a triangulation of the literature from Neuro-Semantic Language Learning Theory, scientific findings in cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. The study found that participants’ semantic abilities to understand character-denoted meanings emerged, but were still restricted in familiar orthographic forms. The use of the imagery strategy as a semantic ability predicted better performances, most evidently in writing; however, the ability in using the
Internationalizing Higher Education: The Effect of Country-of-Origin on the Evaluation of Service Quality

As the higher education industry in Asia is prospering, attracting students internationally is becoming more competitive for countries in the region, particularly in Malaysia. The establishment of foreign universities in Malaysia has contributed to healthy competition in the higher education sector as these foreign universities provide potential students with more choices for degrees according to the university country-of-origin (COO). Inevitably, service quality offered by a university is among the most important determinants on a student’s behavioral intention. Hence, this paper aims to explore the relationship between a university country-of-origin, university service quality and its effect on university students’ behavioral intention (word-of-mouth and eventually intention for further study). Data is analyzed using an independent sample t-test and bivariate analysis. Contrary to previous research, results show that there are no significant differences between service quality, word-of-mouth and intention for further study and the university COO. Justification and implications of the study are discussed.
Effect of Enriched Environment Rearing on Impairments in Cortical Excitability and Plasticity after Prenatal Alcohol Exposure

The daily ingestion of alcohol by pregnant mammals exposes the fetal brain to varying levels of alcohol through the placental circulation. Here we focus on the lingering impact on cortical function of 6.5% alcohol administered in a liquid diet to pregnant rats throughout gestation, followed by 3 alcohol-free months before brain function was analyzed in the offspring. Both spontaneous activity of the neurons in the barrel cortex and the level of response to test stimuli applied to the whiskers remained reduced by >75% after alcohol exposure. Whisker pairing, a type of cortical plasticity induced by trimming all but two whiskers in adult rats, occurred in <1 d in controls, but required 14 d to reach significance after alcohol exposure. These long-term neuronal deficits are present in all layers of cortex and affect neurons with both fast and slow action potentials. Plasticity is first seen in the total sample of neurons at 14 d; however, by 7 d, neurons in layer II/III already show plasticity, with no change in layer IV neurons, and a reverse shift occurs toward the inactive whisker in layer V neurons. Analysis of NMDA receptor subunits shows a persistent, ∼30–50% reduction of NR1, NR2A, and NR2B subunits at postnatal day 90 in the barrel field cortex. Exposing the prenatal alcohol-exposed rats to enriched rearing conditions significantly improves all measured cortical functions but does not restore normal values. The results predict that combinations of interventions will be necessary to completely restore cortical function after exposure of the fetal brain to alcohol.
Immediate and extended intersubjectification in language change : beyond the opposition between “theory-theory” and “simulation-theory”

This paper provides a usage-based study on the diachronic and conceptual relationship between mindreading (or theory of mind) and language change. A particular emphasis is given to the two models known in cognitive neurosciences as ‘theory-theory’ (TT) and ‘simulation-theory’ (ST). While the former holds that people somehow acquire a general ‘theory’ of the mental domain (a sort of 'folk-psychology' analogous to their theories of the physical world) the latter addresses mindreading as a simulation process (cf. Goldman 2006). The present study suggests that ST and TT might coexist along a conceptual continuum running from a more representational and imaginative form of mindreading process to a more inferential and generalised one. As ST presents many affinities with linguistic constructions marking the awareness of a specific addressee, TT appears to be comparatively more compatible with the semantics of intersubjectified constructions encoding a more extended form of awareness of the other persona(s’) mind(s). The former phenomenon is defined in language as immediate intersubjectivity (I-I), while the latter is identified as extended intersubjectivity (E-I) (cf. Tantucci 2013). I-I and E-I constitute two different stages along a general diachronic cline of change of a linguistic construction or lexeme.
Web register control algorithm for roll-to-roll system based printed electronics

in the paper, a review for web register control technology is presented. Based on the development of nonlinear control theory, a web register control algorithm is proposed for roll-to-roll system based printed electronics by using the non-linear feedback controller. The optimal gain of obtained controller is determined by using the modified genetic algorithm. The simulation results employed in Matlab/Simulink show the stability and high precision of the proposed algorithm.
Antibacterial Susceptibility Patterns and Cross-Resistance of Methicillin Resistant and Sensitive Staphyloccus Aureus Isolated from the Hospitalized Patients in Shiraz, Iran

Nosocomial infections caused by methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRSA) pose a serious problem in many countries. This study aimed to determine the antibacterial susceptibility patterns of methicillin sensitive and resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from the hospitalized patients. Totally 356 isolates of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) including 200, 137 and 19 corresponding to MSSA, MRSA, and intermediate MRSA strains, respectively were isolated. Antibacterial susceptibility patterns of the isolates to 14 antibiotics were examined using Kirby-Bauer method. MICs of 15 antibiotics to 156 MRSA isolates were determined by E test method. Cross-resistances of MRSA isolates (137+19) to the other tested antibiotics were also determined. S.aureus with high frequencies were isolated from the blood, sputum and deep wound samples. All of 200 MSSA isolates were sensitive to oxacillin, vancomycin, tecoplanin, rifampin, linezolid, quinupristin/dalfopristin, mupirocin and fusidic acid. A gradient of reduced susceptibility of MSSA to cephalexin, co-trimoxazole, ciprofloxacin, clindamycin, tetracycline, erythromycin and gentamicin were evident. MRSA isolates were sensitive to vancomycin, tecoplanin, linezolid, quinupristin/dalfopristin, mupirocin and fusidic acid, while reduced susceptibility of them to rifampin, co-trimoxazole, clindamycin, cephalexin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin and gentamicin were observed. MRSA isolates exhibited a high range of cross-resistance to the eight tested antibiotics. Overall, co-trimoxazole, ciprofloxacin, clindamycin, tetracycline, erythromycin and gentamicin showed low activity against MSSA and MRSA isolates which may indicate they are not suitable to be used in clinical practices. To preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics, rational prescription and concomitant application of preventive measures against the spread of MRSA are recommended.
Somatostatin Secreted by Islet δ-Cells Fulfills Multiple Roles as a Paracrine Regulator of Islet Function

OBJECTIVE— Somatostatin (SST) is secreted by islet δ-cells and by extraislet neuroendocrine cells. SST receptors have been identified on α- and β-cells, and exogenous SST inhibits insulin and glucagon secretion, consistent with a role for SST in regulating α- and β-cell function. However, the specific intraislet function of δ-cell SST remains uncertain. We have used Sst−/− mice to investigate the role of δ-cell SST in the regulation of insulin and glucagon secretion in vitro and in vivo. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS— Islet morphology was assessed by histological analysis. Hormone levels were measured by radioimmunoassay in control and Sst−/− mice in vivo and from isolated islets in vitro. RESULTS— Islet size and organization did not differ between Sst−/− and control islets, nor did islet glucagon or insulin content. Sst−/− mice showed enhanced insulin and glucagon secretory responses in vivo. In vitro stimulus-induced insulin and glucagon secretion was enhanced from perifused Sst−/− islets compared with control islets and was inhibited by exogenous SST in Sst−/− but not control islets. No difference in the switch-off rate of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion was observed between genotypes, but the cholinergic agonist carbamylcholine enhanced glucose-induced insulin secretion to a lesser extent in Sst−/− islets compared with controls. Glucose suppressed glucagon secretion from control but not Sst−/− islets. CONCLUSIONS— We suggest that δ-cell SST exerts a tonic inhibitory influence on insulin and glucagon secretion, which may facilitate the islet response to cholinergic activation. In addition, δ-cell SST is implicated in the nutrient-induced suppression of glucagon secretion.