Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Teaching ethics when working with geocoded data: a novel experiential learning approach

Abstract Research ethics are not the favourite subject of most undergraduate geography students. However, in the light of increasing mixed-methods research, as well as research using geocodes, it is necessary to train students in the field of ethics. Experiential learning is an approach to teaching that is potentially suitable for teaching ethics. The aim of this article is to discuss how the experiential learning process in a course on Ethics & GPS-tracking contributed to the ethical awareness of third-year undergraduate geography students. We conducted a qualitative study in which we held four focus group discussions with two cohorts of students (2016 and 2017). We explored the students’ views on the learning environment in relation to ethics in GPS-based and mixed-methods research. Our findings show how an informal learning environment and collaborative learning in a small group contributed to deep understanding of research ethics. These aspects of the learning environment are tied to an ethical framework that consists of three dimensions: (1) the ethics of collaborative research between staff and students; (2) the ethics of privacy raised by the geo-technology adopted in this research case study; and (3) the ethics of the research process with respect to informed consent and data storage.
Examining Factors Related to Academic Success of Military-Connected Students at Community Colleges

ABSTRACT The number of military-connected students enrolling in community colleges has increased dramatically in the past decade, and this trend is expected to continue. This research focused on examining factors that contribute to the academic success of community college students. Specifically, the purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the demographic characteristics; campus relationships; and financial, academic and personal experiences that are associated with grade point average (GPA) and intent to return for military-connected students at seven community colleges. Identifying as a Student of Color (any race or ethnicity other than White) and experience meeting professors’ academic expectations were negatively associated with cumulative GPA, and feeling academically prepared to enter the institution was significantly and positively associated with intent to return. The results provide further evidence of the relationships among demographic and academic experiences and academic success. The authors offer recommendations for serving military-connected students at community colleges.
Diagnostic Quantitative Economics Skill Test for Secondary Schools: Development and Validation Using Item Response Theory

The study developed and validated a diagnostic test to measure economics quantitative skill of secondary school students. The test consisted of 50 multiple choice test items which were constructed based on economics curriculum. Six research questions guided the study. Preliminary validation was done by two experienced teachers in secondary economics and two experts in test construction. The pilot testing was conducted to ensure grammatical checking and compatibility of the test items while test try-out on 517 students yielded the data for item analysis. Analysis were attained through Bilog MG using Item Response Theory (IRT) three-parameter logistic model (3PL) to establish item difficulty, item discrimination, and the guessing value. The empirical reliability of the test was 0.87. The difficulty and discrimination level of the items indicated that 39 items be retained while 11 items be replaced or modified. The test was found to be of good quality, valid and highly reliable. The test is ready to assess examinees quantitative skill in economics in Nigeria and other countries. Keywords: diagnostic test, quantitative economics skill, IRT (Item response theory), unidimensionality, reliability.
Antidiabetic Effect of Young and Old Ethanolic Leaf Extracts of Vernonia amygdalina: A Comparative Study

The young leaves of Vernonia amygdalina are often utilized as vegetable and for medicinal purpose compared to the old leaves. This study was designed to evaluate and compare the antidiabetic effects between ethanolic leaf extracts of old and young V. amygdalina on streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rat for four weeks. Preliminary screening of both young and old ethanolic extracts revealed the presence of the same phytochemicals except flavonoids which was only present in the old V. amygdalina. Difference in antioxidant power between the young and old leaf extracts was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Both leaf extracts produced a significant (p < 0.05) antihyperglycaemic effect. Also results from treated rats revealed increasing effect in some haematological parameters. Similarly, the higher dose (300 mg/kg) of both extracts significantly (p < 0.05) reduced serum ALT, AST, and ALP levels as compared to the diabetic control rats. Results also showed significant (p < 0.05) decrease in LDL-C and VLDL-C in the extract-treated rats with a corresponding increase in HDL-C, as compared to the diabetic control rats. Moreover histopathological analysis revealed ameliorative effect of pathological insults induced by the STZ in the pancreas, liver, and spleen, most significantly the regeneration of the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in treated rats.
Finding My Way: Perceptions of Institutional Support and Belonging in Low-Income, First-Generation, First-Year College Students

Abstract:For this qualitative case study we explored students' perceptions of institutional support and sense of belonging within the college environment. Following 10 low-income, first-generation college students out of a college access program and through their first year of college, we examined institutional support structures that have been reported to increase students' sense of academic and social belonging, including comprehensive scholarship programs, social identity-based centers and student organizations, residence hall communities, faculty relationships, academic support services, and high-impact educational experiences. In spite of the positive and stabilizing potential of these support structures, several of them simultaneously undermined students' sense of belonging.
Facial emotion processing in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging data.

BACKGROUND People with schizophrenia have difficulty with emotion perception. Functional imaging studies indicate regional brain activation abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia when processing facial emotion. However, findings have not been entirely consistent across different studies. METHODS Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses were conducted to examine brain activation during facial emotion processing in patients with schizophrenia, controls, and patients compared with controls. Secondary meta-analyses were performed to assess the contribution of task design and illness chronicity to the results reported. RESULTS When processing facial expressions of emotions, both patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls activated the bilateral amygdala and right fusiform gyri. However, the extent of activation in these regions was generally much more limited in the schizophrenia samples. When directly compared with controls, the extent of activation in bilateral amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus and fusiform gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, and lentiform nucleus was significantly less in patients. Patients with schizophrenia, but not controls, activated the left insula. A relative failure to recruit the amygdala in patients occurred regardless of whether the task design was explicit or implicit, while differences in fusiform activation were evident in explicit, not implicit, tasks. Restricting the analysis to patients with chronic illness did not substantially change the results. CONCLUSIONS A marked underrecruitment of the amygdala, accompanied by a substantial limitation in activation throughout a ventral temporal-basal ganglia-prefrontal cortex "social brain" system may be central to the difficulties patients experience when processing facial emotion.
Atherosclerosis and the two faces of endothelial nitric oxide synthase.

Nitric oxide is a principal factor involved in the antiatherosclerotic properties of the endothelium.1 2 3 NO interferes in vitro with key events in the development of atherosclerosis, such as monocyte and leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium4 5 6 7 as well as platelet–vessel wall interaction.8 9 10 NO also decreases endothelial permeability and reduces vessel tone, thus decreasing flux of lipoproteins into the vessel wall.11 12 Finally, NO has been shown to inhibit vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration in vitro as well as in vivo.13 14 15 16 In agreement with these findings, inhibition of the NO-producing enzyme NOS III caused accelerated atherosclerosis in experimental models.17 Major risk factors for atherosclerotic vascular disease, such as hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, hypertension, and smoking, have been associated with impaired NO activity.18 19 20 21 22 In vivo, the activity of the l-arginine–NO pathway is a balance between the synthesis and breakdown of NO. At present, there are several reasons to believe that NO synthesis could indeed be impaired in hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis. In these conditions, there appears to be an uncoupling of the receptor-Gi complex.23 The exact mechanism is not known, but a very intriguing hypothesis is that the altered lipid composition of the cell membrane may play a role in this phenomenon. Although there is some controversy regarding the effect of oxidized LDL on the transcription of the enzyme, there is evidence of reduced transcription and enhanced breakdown of NOS transcripts with increasing concentrations of oxidized LDL.24 Long-term stimulation with oxidized LDL may also lead to a decrease in the amount of the NOS protein through induction of cytokines.25 Finally, hypercholesterolemia is associated with increased circulating concentrations of ADMA, an endogenous inhibitor of NOS. This has been demonstrated …
Constructing meaning: Material products of a creative activity engage the social brain

Symbolic artifacts present a challenge to theories of neurocognitive processing due to their dual nature: they are both physical objects and vehicles of social meanings. While their physical properties can be read of the surface structure, the meaning of symbolic artifacts depends on their embeddedness in cultural practices. In this study, participants built models of LEGO bricks to illustrate their understanding of abstract concepts. Subsequently, they were scanned with fMRI while presented to photographs of their own and others’ models. When participants attended to the meaning of the models, we observed activations associated with social cognition and semantics. In contrast, when attending to the physical properties, we observed activations related to object recognition and manipulation. Furthermore, when contrasting own and others’ models, we found activations in areas associated with autobiographical memory and agency. Our findings support a view of symbolic artifacts as neurocognitive trails of human social interactions.
Can Relationship Banking Survive Competition

We develop a model of the banking firm that is intended to reflect contemporary trends in the evolution of banks. In particular, we focus on the effects of both interbank and capital market competition on the role of banks in funding corporations. In our model, banks can choose to provide loans that are similar to capital market funding (transaction loans) or loans that involve unique bank-specific services (relationship loans). Borrowers can choose one of these two types of bank loans or directly access the capital market. Our key result is that, contrary to what many believe, a bank’s optimal response to increased competition is to expand relationship lending relative to its transaction lending. The behaviour of the absolute level of relationship lending with respect to increasing competition is non-monotone. Initially, an elevation in competition leads to an increase in the expected level of relationship lending, but then the expected level of relationship lending falls as competition rises further. Moreover, the viability of relationship banking depends significantly on the reputational quality of banks.
A New Look at the Multidimensional Inverse Scattering Problem

As a prototype of an evolution equation we consider the Schr\"odinger equation i (d/dt) \Psi(t) = H \Psi(t), H = H_0 + V(x) for the Hilbert space valued function \Psi(.) which describes the state of the system at time t in space dimension at least 2. The kinetic energy operator H_0 may be propotional to the Laplacian (nonrelativistic quantum mechanics), H_0 = \sqrt{-\Delta + m^2} (relativistic kinematics, Klein-Gordon equation), the Dirac operator, or . , while the potential V(x) tends to 0 suitably as |x| to infinity. We present a geometrical approach to the inverse scattering problem. For given scattering operator S we show uniqueness of the potential, we give explicit limits of the high-energy behavior of the scattering operator, and we give reconstruction formulas for the potential. Our mathematical proofs closely follow physical intuition. A key observation is that at high energies translation of wave packets dominates over spreading during the interaction time. Extensions of the method cover e.g. Schr\"odinger operators with magnetic fields, multiparticle systems, and wave equations.
Conditional cooperation and voluntary contributions to public goods

This discussion paper led to a publication in 'Journal of Economics' 102(1) 23-39. We compare a partners condition where the same small group of subjects plays arepeated public good game to astrangers condition where subjects play this game in changing group formations.Subjects in the partners conditioncontribute from the first period on significantly more to the public good thansubjects in the strangers condition. In thestrangers condition, contributions show a continual decay, while in the partnerscondition, contributions fluctuate on ahigh level until they decrease in the final periods. We interpret subjects'behavior in terms of conditional cooperationwhich is characterized by both future-oriented and reactive behavior.
Fractional integral equations and state space transforms

We introduce a class of stochastic differential equations driven by fractional Brownian motion (FBM), which allow for a constructive method in order to obtain stationary solutions. This leads to a substantial extention of fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes. Structural properties of this class of new models are investigated. Their stationary densities are given explicitly.
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Prevalence in Special Populations and Associated Risk Factors: A Report From a Tertiary Hospital

Background With the advent of highly effective anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) drugs, efforts to identify infected cases, high-risk groups, and associated risk factors have become the focus of current control measures. Objectives To determine the prevalence of the HCV antibody among diabetics and patients with lymphoproliferative disorders (LPD) who presented to the outpatient clinics of a university hospital and its associated risk factors Patients and Methods Consecutively consenting patients who had been previously diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and LPD at the outpatient department of the Lagos State University teaching hospital were recruited. A case record form was used to extract their demographics and physical examination findings as well as any risk factors for HCV infection; blood was also drawn to run a serological assay for the HCV antibody. All data were collated and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20. Student T-test, Chi square, and logistic regression were some of the inferential statistics used in addition to descriptive statistics. Results In all, 438 patients (405 diabetics and 33 patients with LPD) were recruited. Their ages ranged from 17 - 87 years with a mean + Standard deviation of 59.61 + 11.859 years. The prevalence of hepatitis C among the diabetic subgroup was 0.7%, while the antibody was present in 9.1% of the LPD patients. The occurrence of the HCV antibody was, however, not significantly associated with age, sex, educational level, or marital status (P > 0.05). Having multiple sexual partners was identified as the only significant risk factor for hepatitis C (OR = 9.148; P = 0.017). Conclusions This survey suggested that a higher HCV prevalence exists in this population than is currently reported in the general population, and having sex with multiple partners was a risk factor for HCV infection.
Life-Cycle Traits of Paraleucilla magna, a Calcareous Sponge Invasive in a Coastal Mediterranean Basin

The calcareous sponge Paraleucilla magna, originally observed along the Brazilian coast (Atlantic Ocean), is the only allochthonous invasive species of Porifera reported in the Mediterranean Sea. A 1-year investigation of the population dynamics and life-cycle of this exotic species in the Mar Piccolo di Taranto (southern Italy, central Mediterranean Sea) has provided a good opportunity to test how environmental variations can influence its life-cycle and to ascertain what strategy can be adopted to successfully colonize a new environment. In the Mar Piccolo di Taranto, P. magna exhibits marked temporal changes in biomass. The studied specimens reproduce almost all year round, showing a seasonal pattern that peaks during warm months. This prolonged sexual activity allows P. magna to continuously produce young specimens, with repeated recruitment events taking place throughout the year, thus offsetting the seasonal mortality of adult specimens. This r-strategy enables the non-indigenous sponge to achieve a high degree of maintenance over relatively long periods (ten years at least).
Separation of anomalous and synchrotron emissions using WMAP polarization data

Context. Apart from its contribution to cosmology, the WMAP data brings new information on the Galactic interstellar medium. In particular the polarization data provide constraints on the Galactic magnetic field and the synchrotron emission, while the intensity data can be used to study the anomalous microwave emission. Aims. The main goals of this study is to use the information from both WMAP intensity and polarization data to do a separation of the Galactic components, with a focus on the synchrotron and anomalous emissions. Methods. Our analysis is made at 23 GHz where the signal-to-noise ratio is the highest and the estimate of the CMB map is less critical. Our estimate of the synchrotron intensity is based on an extrapolation of the Haslam 408 MHz data with a spatially varying spectral index constrained by the WMAP 23 GHz polarization data and a bi-symmetrical spiral model of the galactic magnetic field with a turbulent part following a –5/3 power law spectrum. Results. The 23 GHz polarization data are found to be compatible with a magnetic field with a pitch angle p = −8.5 ◦ and an amplitude of the turbulent part of the magnetic field 0.57 times the local value of the field, in agreement with what is found using rotation measures of pulsars and polarized extinction by dust. The synchrotron spectral index between 408 MHz and 23 GHz obtained from polarization data and our model of the magnetic field has a mean value of βs = −3.00 with a limited spatial variation with a standard deviation of 0.06. When thermal dust, free-free and synchrotron are removed from the WMAP intensity data, the residual anomalous emission is highly correlated with thermal dust emission with a spectrum in agreement with spinning dust models. Conclusions. Considering a classical model of the large scale Galactic magnetic field, we show that the polarization data of WMAP are in favor of a soft synchrotron intensity highly correlated with the 408 MHz data. Furthermore the combination of the WMAP polarization and intensity data brings strong evidence for the presence of unpolarized spinning dust emission in the 20–60 GHz range. In preparation for the Planck mission this joint analysis of polarization and intensity data opens new perspective on the study of the Galactic interstellar medium and on the component separation exercise.
The Monoceros radio loop: Temperature, brightness, spectral index, and distance

In this paper we estimated the temperatures and brightnesses of the Monoceros radio loop at 1420, 820 and 408 MHz. The linear spectrum is estimated for mean temperatures versus frequency between 1420, 820 and 408 MHz. The spectral index of Monoceros loop is also obtained. The brightness temperatures and surface brightnesses of the loop are computed using data taken from radio-continuum surveys at the three frequencies. The spectral index of the loop is also obtained from T-T plots between 1420–820, 1420–408, and 820–408 MHz. The obtained results confirm non-thermal origin of the Monoceros radio loop (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Daily Autonomy Supporting or Thwarting and Students’ Motivation and Engagement in the High School Science Classroom

This diary study provided the first classroom-based empirical test of the relations between student perceptions of high school science teachers’ various autonomy supporting and thwarting practices and students’ motivation and engagement on a daily basis over the course of an instructional unit. Perceived autonomy supporting practices were hypothesized to predict autonomous motivation and engagement outcomes, while perceived autonomy thwarting practices were hypothesized to predict controlled motivation and disaffection outcomes. In line with this prediction, multilevel modeling results based on regular reports of 208 high school students in 41 science classes across 6 weeks suggested that 4 perceived daily supports (choice provision, consideration for student preferences and interests, rationales for importance, and question opportunities) and 1 daily thwart (use of uninteresting activities) predicted changes in daily autonomous motivation and engagement. In contrast, changes in students’ daily controlled motivation and disaffection were predicted primarily by 3 perceived daily thwarts (controlling messages, suppression of student perspectives, and use of uninteresting activities). Results also suggested that practices interacted such that the perception of thwarts generally bolstered desirable daily relationships between perceived supports and students’ motivation and the perception of supports generally mitigated undesirable daily relationships between thwarts and motivation. Supplemental exploratory results suggested that the effects of choice and suppression of student perspectives may be heterogeneous and depend on the outcome and/or the presence of other practices. Implications of the findings are discussed.