Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motivating Innovation

Motivating innovation is an important concern in many incentive problems. For example, shareholders of large corporations often need to motivate managers to pursue more innovative business strategies. This paper shows that the optimal incentive scheme that motivates innovation exhibits substantial tolerance (or even reward) for early failure and reward for long-term success. Moreover, commitment to a long-term compensation plan, job security, and timely feedback on performance are also essential ingredients to motivate innovation. In the context of managerial compensation, the optimal incentive scheme that motivates innovation can be implemented via a combination of stock options with long vesting periods, option repricing, golden parachutes, and managerial entrenchment.
The Tipping Point When Do Motivated Reasoners Become Affectively Intelligent

This paper describes a study that examines the role of affect in the voter decision-making process. Using a dynamic information board (Lau and Redlawsk, 2001), the study track voters emotional state, information searching, and candidate evaluations through a simulation of a presidential primary campaign. By manipulating the anxiety level and the amount of incongruent information a subject encounters, we can detect the influence of affect in information processing. We find evidence that affect has a non-linear relationship to candidate evaluation and are able to estimate the point at which voters cease to incorrectly update candidate evaluations because of their liking of a candidate and begin to more rationally account for negative information.
Employment During High School: Consequences for Students' Grades in Academic Courses

High school students who work intensively at paid jobs tend to have lower grades in academic courses. Prior research has not properly tested theories about the source of the relationship between student employment and grades (or other outcomes), and has not explicitly modeled the potentially reciprocal nature of this relationship. We focus on both the short- and long-term effects of adolescent employment on grades in academic courses and simultaneously consider the extent to which grades may influence employment behaviors. We find no evidence that high school employment has either short-or long-term effects on grades in academic courses or that grades in these courses influence employment activities. Pre-existing differences between more and less intensively employed students fully account for the association between employment intensity and grades in academic courses.
The Influence of Cooperative Learning Strategies on Teacher Practices, Student Perceptions of the Learning Environment, and Academic Achievement

This study describes the results of a 3-year evaluative investigation of teachers’ involvement in a cooperative goal structuring project. A specific focus is the efficacy of the project to enhance teacher use of cooperative goal structuring strategies with resultant changes in the classroom learning environment and achievement gains in reading and language arts. The results suggest that cooperative goal structuring strategies can be learned by teachers through longterm, in-service programs. Further, with prior achievement, grade level and initial cooperative environment perceptions held constant, length of teacher experience with cooperative grouping is significantly associated with both end-of-year reading achievement and student perceptions of the degree of cooperation in their learning environment. This does not hold for language arts achievement or for the hypothesis that degree of cooperation in the learning environment would directly influence student achievement.
Educators' Views of Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Readiness and Transition Practices

The transition from pre-kindergarten (center-based programs for four-year-olds) to kindergarten is a critical milestone with far-reaching consequences for children and their families because positive transition and school readiness are integrally linked as predictors of future school success. This study was conducted to explore the existing kindergarten readiness and transition practices in a local county, to examine educators' perspectives regarding factors influencing readiness and transition, and to explore their perceptions of the parents' role in these domains. A semi-structured survey was mailed out to 129 school districts and pre-kindergarten programs in the county; 86 returned them. The results indicated that kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs were equally focused on child readiness as far as development of academic skills was concerned. Compared to pre-kindergarten, kindergartens were more involved in information-sharing activities associated with school transition. The importance of the role of family as well as of the communication between family and school was noted as an area of challenge. Follow-up action and implications are discussed in light of these results.
Mitochondrial DNA Variants of Respiratory Complex I that Uniquely Characterize Haplogroup T2 Are Associated with Increased Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Background Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a chronic neurodegenerative and neovascular retinal disease, is the leading cause of blindness in elderly people of western European origin. While structural and functional alterations in mitochondria (mt) and their metabolites have been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic neurodegenerative and vascular diseases, the relationship of inherited variants in the mitochondrial genome and mt haplogroup subtypes with advanced AMD has not been reported in large prospective cohorts. Methodology/Prinicipal Findings We examined the relationship of inherited mtDNA variants with advanced AMD in 1168 people using a three-stage design on samples from 12-year and 10-year prospective studies on the natural history of age-related eye disease. In Stage I we resequenced the entire genome in 99 elderly AMD-free controls and 215 people with advanced AMD from the 12-year study. A consistent association with AMD in 14 of 17 SNPs characterizing the mtDNA T haplogroup emerged. Further analysis revealed these associations were driven entirely by the T2 haplogroup, and characterized by two variants in Complex I genes (A11812G of MT-ND4 and A14233G of MT-ND6). We genotyped T haplogroups in an independent sample of 490 cases and 61 controls from the same study (Stage II) and in 56 cases and 246 controls from the 10-year study (Stage III). People in the T2 haplogroup were approximately 2.5 times more likely to have advanced AMD than their peers (odds ratio [OR] = 2.54, 95%CI 1.36–4.80, P≤0.004) after considering the totality of evidence. Findings persisted after considering the impact of AMD-associated variants A69S and Y402H (OR = 5.19, 95%CI 1.19–22.69, P≤0.029). Conclusion Loci defining the mtDNA T2 haplogroup and Complex I are reasonable targets for novel functional analyses and therapeutic research in AMD.
Targeting Voters via the Web ‐ A Comparative Structural Analysis of Austrian and German Party Websites

The growth of parties' web-based activities over the last decade has led to a more sophisticated use of websites, and Web campaigns are increasingly embedded in a general political marketing strategy. This study investigates the extent to which political parties use the Internet to attract different target groups of voters. The online audience can be seen as one mass or as carefully defined target segments, for example relating to party affiliation, age or gender. The paper analyzes the occurrence of online targeting on political parties websites during the most recent Austrian and German National Elections (2008/2009). Comparison within and between countries reveals similarities between parties that are more striking than differences at a general level, but it also identifies that catch-all parties and client parties apply different targeting patterns. Client parties address the general public just as much as different target groups, whereas catch-all parties tailor their websites to a greater extent to specific target segments.
Gender Differences in Monitoring and Deviant Peers as Predictors of Delinquent Behavior Among Low-Income Urban African American Youth

Juvenile delinquency is an ongoing social problem particularly among low-income urban youth who are regularly exposed to numerous risk factors. Although much research has been conducted in this area, the most at-risk youth have been largely neglected. This study examines the role of peer deviance in mediating the influence of adult monitoring on male and female adolescents’ delinquent behavior, using multisource, multimethod data with an emphasis on differing impacts across the two genders. Results suggest that the level of peer deviance partially mediates the impact of monitoring on delinquent behavior, even after controlling for previous levels of delinquency. However, girls’ delinquency appear to be more influenced by peers than their perceptions of monitoring. Conversely, boys’ delinquent behavior is associated with daily immediate monitoring, not peer behaviors. These results are discussed in the context of particular issues facing low-income urban African American families.
Countrywide Survey Shows Very High Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum Multilocus Resistance Genotypes in Cambodia

ABSTRACT Cambodia is located in an area of resistance to multiple antimalarials and has been the first country to implement the systematic use of an artesunate-mefloquine combination as first-line treatment for Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Little is known, however, about the prevalence of resistance mutations within the natural parasite populations, impeding rational drug policy in this context. Using direct sequencing of PCR products, we have analyzed sequence polymorphism of the dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase, dihydropteroate synthetase, and multidrug resistance 1 genes in a large number of clinical P. falciparum isolates collected in various areas of Cambodia. This highlighted a 100% prevalence of haplotypes with multiple mutations in the target genes of antifolates after more than a decade without use of antifolates for malaria therapy. A high prevalence of mutations in Pfmdr1, including mutations associated with decreased in vitro susceptibility to mefloquine and quinine, was also observed. In addition, novel, low-frequency mutations were detected in Pfmdr1. Our findings show an alarming rate of multilocus resistance genotypes in Cambodia, requiring diligent surveillance and imposing limitations on possible future drug combinations.
Pretesting as Determinant of Attitude Change in Evaluation Research

Two experiments were done to study the biasing effects of a pretest on subsequent posttest results. The problem of the first experiment was the evalua tion of a programmed textbook used by psychology freshmen. It used a separate-sample pretest-posttest design and showed that a pretest containing mostly negative statements on programmed instruction confounded posttest results. The second experi ment, using a different treatment, studied the pre test effects of positive or negative statements. The positive version counteracted the development of negative feelings towards the treatment. The negative version did not show a similar sensitizing effect. This was considered a consequence of the rather controversial character of the treatment and the obligatory participation of subjects. The nega tive statements perhaps confirmed existing at titudes. Three suggestions to control for pretest sen sitization effects were given: (1) use research de signs with control conditions; (2) separate the pre test phase from the posttest phase; and (3) give more emphasis to designs without pretests.
RESEARCHING VOCABULARY THROUGH A WORD KNOWLEDGE FRAMEWORK

This study examines how two types of word knowledge, word associations and grammatical suffix knowledge, change over time both receptively and productively. Ninety-five secondary and postsecondary Japanese students were tested on three word associations and inflectional and derivational suffixes for each of 20 verbs, once near the beginning of their academic year and once near the end. The results showed their average vocabulary gain was 330 words. The students showed rather poor knowledge of the allowable suffixes for the verbs, especially the derivative suffixes. Likewise, the subjects did not show very good mastery of the verbs' word associations. Even for verbs rated as known, the students as a group were able to produce only about 50% of the word associations possible on the test as judged by native speaker norms. Word association knowledge and suffix knowledge were shown to correlate with each other and with total vocabulary size. The subjects overall had from 19 to 25 percentage points more receptive knowledge than productive knowledge.
Cities as battlefields: understanding how the Nation of Islam impacts civic engagement, environmental racism, and community development in a low income neighborhood

This article challenges social (dis)organization theory by investigating the impact of religious culture on civic engagement. Using qualitative data 1 from ‘Bridge View,’ a historically African‐American neighborhood in San Francisco experiencing environmental racism, this article asks: (1) How does the Nation of Islam (NOI) affect social organization in a low‐income community? And (2) How does the metropolitan distribution of wealth, opportunity, and resources play out in urban space? The findings suggest that the NOI has often had to replace important public institutions responsible for providing social services in low‐income communities—police protection, community welfare, and education. These findings suggest that we need to rethink the relationship between race, culture, structure, and political mobilization and incorporate a more fluid conceptualization of culture into social (dis)organization theory.
On the role of experience in ethical decision making at work

Previous research has produced contradictory results on whether and how “experience” relates to ethical decision making in the workplace. Maintaining that these divergent findings result from underspecified and inconsistent treatments of experience in the business ethics literature, we build theory around experience and its connection to ethical decision making. To this end, we draw upon and advance research on ethical expertise, defined as the degree to which one is knowledgeable about and skilled at applying moral values within a given work context. We also unpack the nature and consequences of two forms of ethical expertise, convergent and divergent. Building on this foundation—and seeking to reconcile the contradictory results around experience and ethical decision making—we theorize factors associated with the acquisition of ethical expertise in the workplace. We conclude by discussing the implications of our theorizing for business ethics scholarship and expertise research.
Perception of Speech Rate of Dutch and Italian Utterances

The speech signal contains many linguistic and prosodic cues which determine the perception of speech rate. We investigated which cues could optimally explain rate judgements of short Dutch and Italian utterances. For this, the correlation between an objective measure of speech rate (linguistic syllables per second, phonetic syllables per second, or phonetic segments per second) and perceived speech rate has been evaluated for rate judgements of normal, monotone, and unintelligible utterances. The effect of language background on speech rate perception was also studied, by using Dutch and Italian listeners.
Effects of Extreme-Priced Products on Consumer Reservation Prices

We show that an extremely high-priced product featured among more moderately priced prod- ucts within a catalog can increase the reservation price for a moderately priced target product as well as the category as a whole. We investigate how this increase is influenced by the degree of relatedness between the extreme-priced product and the target as well as the situational and temporal proximity (contiguity) in their presentation. Consistent with our conceptualization, we find that the presence of an extreme cue leads to greater changes in target reservation price when the extreme-priced referent and target are more related and are contiguously presented. Furthermore, the impact of an extreme-priced product's relatedness on reservation price ap- pears to be greater when the contiguity between the extreme-priced product and the target prod- uct is high versus when it is low.
Multiple target tracking using hidden Markov models

The application of hidden Markov models (HMM) to the problem of tracking multiple targets is discussed. The tracker generates multiple discrete Viterbi tracks and automatically accounts for track iteration, termination, and ambiguous measurements. The tracker is not smoothing-based, as are most existing systems such as Kalman and PDA (probabilistic data association) trackers, but is discrete in the sense of the finite state Viterbi algorithm. Simulation shows that in some cases it is possible to avoid the route of data association and directly compute the maximum likelihood mixed track. <<ETX>>
Inclusion in Virginia

This case study describes the educational experiences of students with learning disabilities (LD) who were included full-time in general education classes in one elementary school in Virginia. Data for two students with LD were collected through observations, interviews, and record reviews. The students were observed in reading, mathematics, and science classes. Interviews were conducted with the principal, the special education supervisor, one special education teacher, two general education teachers, two students, and two parents. The review of student records provided information on achievement levels, referral information, and IEP goals. Descriptions of the context for inclusion, the model of inclusion, the role of special education teachers, and students' educational experiences were included in the case report.
Green modulation in dense Wireless Sensor Networks

Due to unique characteristics of sensor nodes, choosing an energy-efficient modulation scheme with low-complexity implementation (refereed to as green modulation) is a critical factor in the physical layer of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The main goal of this paper is to analyze and compare the energy efficiency of various sinusoidal carrier-based modulation schemes using parameters in the IEEE 802.15. 4 standard and state-of-the art technology to find the best scheme in a dense WSN over frequency-flat Rayleigh fading channel with path-loss. Experimental results show that M-ary Frequency Shift Keying (MFSK) with small order of M has significant energy saving compared to OQPSK and MQAM for short range scenarios, and could be considered as a realistic candidate in dense WSNs. In addition, MFSK has the advantage of less complexity and cost in implementation than the other schemes.
Genetic control of resistance to Mycoplasma pulmonis infection in mice

The differences in susceptibility of various inbred strains of mice to a highly pathogenic strain of Mycoplasma pulmonis CT (T2) has been known for some time. We assessed the genetic control of resistance to T2 infection. Tracheolung lavage samples and lungs of mice were assessed for T2 organisms after intratracheal injection of T2. We found that H-2b (C57BL/6 (B6) and H-2k B10.BR mice were resistant, whereas H-2b A.By, H-2k C3H/Bi, H-2k C3H/HeJ (C3H), and H-2b BALB.B mice were susceptible. We also typed individual B6C3F2 mice for H-2 and for resistance to T2 and observed that resistance to T2 infections is controlled by a single dominant gene not linked to H-2. Histologic examination revealed severe lung lesions typical of M. pulmonis infections in susceptible C3H mice, in contrast to minimal lung lesions in resistant B6 mice. No significant titers of local or systemic antimycoplasma antibodies were detected in either resistant or susceptible mice at 5 days postinfection. Macrophages taken from uninfected B6 or C3H mice failed to inhibit growth of T2 in vitro. However, macrophages from B6 mice did inhibit growth of T2 much better than C3H macrophages when harvested on day 5 of infection. Thus, there is an association between activation of macrophage bactericidal function and genetic resistance to growth of T2 organisms.
Religiosity, subjective well-being, and neuroticism

The objective of the current research was to estimate the relation between religiosity and both subjective well-being (SW-B) and neuroticism (N). A sample (N = 487) of Muslim Kuwaiti undergraduates took part in the study. Their age ranged between 18 and 31 years. They responded to six self-rating scales to assess religiosity, religious belief, physical health, mental health, happiness, and satisfaction with life, as well as the Factorial Arabic Neuroticism Scale (FANS) and the N subscale of the revised NEO. It was found that all the correlations between the six self-rating scales were significant and positive, whereas these rating scales were significantly and negatively correlated with both the FANS and N (NEO) scale. In applying the principle components analysis to the correlation matrix (8 × 8), a high-loaded and bipolar factor was extracted and labelled “Well-being and religiosity versus neuroticism. ” The main predictor of religiosity in the stepwise regression was religious belief and satisfaction with life. The present findings are comparable with the wider literature on the association between religion and SW-B among English-speaking participants as well as a Kuwaiti Muslim context. By and large, those who consider themselves as religious were healthier, enjoying SW-B, and obtained lower scores on neuroticism.
An empirical approach to designing marriage preparation programs

Individuals married 1-8 years were surveyed to assess their perceptions of the helpfulness of marriage preparation and specific aspects of their experience. Two thirds of the respondents perceived marriage preparation as a valuable experience, but the perceived value declined with the length of marriage. Aspects of marriage preparation rated most helpful included providing time for couples to learn about each other, using a team of providers, addressing the Five Cs (communication, commitment, conflict resolution, children and church), and having 8-9 sessions.
A field simulation study of the effectiveness of penalty kick strategies in soccer: late alterations of kick direction increase errors and reduce accuracy.

Abstract This field experiment investigated the relative merits of approaching the penalty kick with either a keeper-independent or keeper-dependent strategy. In the keeper-independent strategy, the shooter selects a target location in advance and disregards the goalkeeper's actions during the run-up. In the keeper-dependent strategy, the shooter makes a decision resting on the anticipation of the goalkeeper's movements during the run-up. Ten intermediate-level soccer players shot at one of two visually specified targets to the right and left side of the goal. In the keeper-independent strategy condition, participants were told that the visually specified target would not change. In the keeper-dependent strategy condition, participants were told that in half of the trials the visually specified target would change side at different times before ball contact, indicating that the direction of the kick needed to be altered. The results showed that penalty-taking performance was apt to be less than perfect in.