Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sexual dimorphism and light/dark adaptation in the compound eyes of male and female Acentria ephemerella (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea: Crambidae)

In the highly sexual-dimorphic nocturnal moth, Acentria ephemerella Denis & Schiffermuller 1775, the aquatic and win- gless female possesses a refracting superposition eye, whose gross structural organization agrees with that of the fully-winged male. The possession of an extensive corneal nipple array, a wide clear-zone in combination with a voluminous rhabdom and a reflecting tracheal sheath are proof that the eyes of both sexes are adapted to function in a dimly lit environment. However, the ommatidium of the male eye has statistically significantly longer dioptric structures (i.e., crystalline cones) and light-perceiving elements (i.e., rhab- doms), as well as a much wider clear-zone than the female. Photomechanical changes upon light/dark adaptation in both male and female eyes result in screening pigment translocations that reduce or dilate ommatidial apertures, but because of the larger number of smaller facets of the male eye in combination with the structural differences of dioptric apparatus and retina (see above) the male eye would enjoy superior absolute visual sensitivity under dim conditions and a greater resolving power and ability to detect movement during the day. The arrangement of the microvilli in the rhabdom of both genders suggests that their eyes are polarization-sensitive, an ability they would share with many aquatic insects that have to recognize water surfaces. Although sexual recognition in A. ephe- merella is thought to chiefly rely on pheromones, vision must still be important for both sexes, even if the females are wingless and never leave their watery habitat. Females swim actively under water and like their male counterparts, which fly above the surface of the water, they would have to see and avoid obstacles as well as potential predators. This, together with a small incidence of winged females, we believe, could be the reason why the eyes of female A. ephemerella are less regressed than those of other sexually dimorphic moths, like for instance Orgyia antiqua. Another, but difficult to test, possibility is that male and female A. ephemerella have diverged in their behaviour and habitat preferences less long ago than other sexually dimo rphic moths.
Strictly Endogenous Growth with Non-renewable Resources Implies an Unbounded Growth Rate

Abstract Conventional endogenous growth theory relies on the assumption of constant returns to "broad capital". As Solow pointed out, the strength of this assumption is revealed by recognizing that even the slightest touch of increasing returns creates explosive growth: infinite output in finite time! But Solow's observation ignored natural resources. What happens if non-renewable resources enter the "growth engine"? In this case (strictly) endogenous growth requires the technology to be such that there is no upper bound on the sustainable per capita growth rate. This corroborates Solow's skepticism.
Wavelength conversion for WDM communication systems using four-wave mixing in semiconductor optical amplifiers

Four-wave mixing (FWM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers is an attractive mechanism for wavelength conversion in wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) systems since it provides modulation format and bit rate transparency over wide tuning ranges. A series of systems experiments evaluating several aspects of the performance of these devices at bit rates of 2.5 and 10 Gb/s are presented. Included are single-channel conversion over 18 nm of shift at 10 Gb/s, multichannel conversion, and cascaded conversions. In addition time resolved spectral analysis of wavelength conversion is presented.
Foreign Bodies in Non-Life Threatening Locations: A Risk Analysis ofNose and Ears Foreign Bodies in European Children

Children with a foreign body (FB) in either the ear or nose commonly present to the hospital. We present a retrospective series of 1186 European cases of FB in ears or nose in children younger 14 years old, classified following the International Classification of Disease (ICD931 and ICD932). Data were collected through a case report form (CRF) during three years (2000-2002) according to four main characteristics (socio-demographic, ergonomic, related to the hospital's management and to the circumstance of the injury). Overall, 610 (53%) sampled children were males. In 704 (71%) of cases, FBs were inorganic and among themabout 36% were balls, marbles or beads. The study investigates FBs featuresand injuries circumstances that are associated to prolonged hospitalization and complications. The most dangerous FBs resulted in objects with rigid or semi-rigid consistency.
Convergence of Best Entropy Estimates

Given a finite number of moments of an unknown density on a finite measure space, the best entropy estimate--that nonnegative density x with the given moments which minimizes the Boltzmann- Shannon entropy I(x):= x log x--is considered. A direct proof is given that I has the Kadec property in L--if Yn converges weakly to 37 and I(yn) converges to I(37), then yn converges to 37 in norm. As a corollary, it is obtained that, as the number of given moments increases, the best entropy estimates converge in LI norm to the best entropy estimate of the limiting problem, which is simply in the determined case. Furthermore, for classical moment problems on intervals with strictly positive and sufficiently smooth, error bounds and uniform convergence are actually obtained.
Editor's Notes

For decades, contributors to the evaluation literature have called for research on evaluation (RoE). Worthen (1990) stated that these calls began in the early 1970s with Stufflebeam, Worthen, Sanders, and others. Cousins and Earl (1995), Alkin (2003), and Henry and Mark (2003) reiterated the calls for more systematic inquiry into RoE. Smith (1993) suggested that studies of evaluation practice can lead to descriptive theories. Stufflebeam and Shinkfield (2007) suggested a number of RoE topics that might be examined empirically, and Mark (2008) listed numerous ways that the results of such research might help improve the terms of debate about evaluation theory, methods, practice, and the general profession. Accordingly, in this issue of New Directions for Evaluation (NDE), we seek to broaden the field’s understanding of RoE in practice, with a focus on empirical RoE. The clamor for RoE for so many years might suggest that funding agencies would have responded with programs for conducting studies. With a few exceptions, however, no substantial efforts have been made to fund RoE. Notable exceptions include federally funded work conducted at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory and at the University of California at Los Angeles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as well as the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Evaluative Research and Evaluation Capacity Building in the early 2000s. NSF is continuing to fund RoE in its Promoting Research in Innovative Methodologies for Evaluation program; the Faster Forward Fund, described in the Editor-in-Chief’s statement for this issue, is funding small RoE projects, as well. Despite a dearth of formal programs to support RoE, evaluators and researchers who examine evaluation continue to add to the RoE literature. Evaluators often report how they conducted evaluations and what they accomplished in them. Some evaluators add RoE tasks to their studies; for example, they might report their successes or failures in trying out a novel way of conducting an evaluation (Brandon, 2012). Evaluators also publish instruments that they have developed and validated within studies. Considering the full collection of RoE studies, we define RoE as systematic empirical inquiry resulting in original findings or in reexaminations of existing data about the practice, methods, or profession of program evaluation. RoE inquiries address the inputs into evaluations, the contexts within which evaluations are conducted, the full range of methods and activities of evaluations, evaluation’s proximal or distal effects, or the professional issues that evaluators encounter. The inquiries include case studies, reflective narratives, studies about evaluation methods, literature
Does Intuition Cause Cooperation?

Recently, researchers claimed that people are intuitively inclined to cooperate with reflection causing them to behave selfishly. Empirical support for this claim came from experiments using a 4-player public goods game with a marginal return of 0.5 showing that people contributed more money to a common project when they had to decide quickly (i.e., a decision based on intuition) than when they were instructed to reflect and decide slowly. This intuitive-cooperation effect is of high scientific and practical importance because it argues against a central assumption of traditional economic and evolutionary models. The first experiment of present study was set up to examine the generality of the intuitive-cooperation effect and to further validate the experimental task producing the effect. In Experiment 1, we investigated Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) workers' contributions to a 4-player public goods game with a marginal return of 0.5 while we manipulated the knowledge about the other players' contribution to the public goods game (contribution known vs. contribution unknown), the identity of the other players (humans vs. computers randomly generating contributions) and the time constraint (time pressure/intuition vs. forced delay/reflection). However, the results of Experiment 1 failed to reveal an intuitive-cooperation effect. Furthermore, four subsequent direct replications attempts with AMT workers (Experiments 2a, 2b, 2c and Experiment 3, which was conducted with naïve/inexperienced participants) also failed to demonstrate intuitive-cooperation effects. Taken together, the results of the present study could not corroborate the idea that people are intuitively cooperative, hence suggesting that the theoretical relationship between intuition and cooperation should be further scrutinized.
Post-Investment Migration of Canadian Venture Capital-Backed New Technology-Based Firms

Numerous innovative Canadian new technology-based firms migrate abroad when local venture capitalists exit. This article aims to determine how common this type of exit is, and to understand the motivations behind and the consequences of these migrations. We use a mixed-methodology approach, combining quantitative and qualitative evidence. At the market level, we find that nearly half of successful venture capital exits from Canadian firms result in migration. Using a pattern matching approach with 14 cases, we show that these migrations are motivated mainly by strategic considerations in the context of a small country with few strategic partners and a small market for innovative products. Acquired firms become truncated companies with declining activities. Only a small proportion of bought-out entrepreneurs reinvest in the local economy. This phenomenon probably has strong negative effects on the creation of new large technological firms and clusters.
Understanding Repeat Purchase Intentions And Uncertainty In The Context Of Online Shopping

The distant and impersonal nature of e-commerce (EC) and the unpredictability of the Internet infrastructure generate an implicit uncertainty around online transactions. Moreover, customer repeat purchasing is critical to the e-commerce vendor’s survival and success. However, few studies explain online repeat purchase from an uncertainty perspective. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual model to examine the sources of uncertainty and types of uncertainty in an online transaction, which affect online repeat purchase intentions. We drew on uncertainty and online repeat purchase literature to formulate a conceptual model that identifies the sources of uncertainty, and three types of uncertainty (seller uncertainty, product uncertainty and environmental uncertainty) are respectively proposed as formative second-order constructs. The proposed structural model is empirically tested with data from 554 experienced online shoppers, and then analyzed using Structure Equation Model (SEM). The results show that seller uncertainty and environmental uncertainty have a negative effect on repeat purchase intentions. Implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.
A complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise

In this paper an algorithm based on the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) is presented. The key idea on the EEMD relies on averaging the modes obtained by EMD applied to several realizations of Gaussian white noise added to the original signal. The resulting decomposition solves the EMD mode mixing problem, however it introduces new ones. In the method here proposed, a particular noise is added at each stage of the decomposition and a unique residue is computed to obtain each mode. The resulting decomposition is complete, with a numerically negligible error. Two examples are presented: a discrete Dirac delta function and an electrocardiogram signal. The results show that, compared with EEMD, the new method here presented also provides a better spectral separation of the modes and a lesser number of sifting iterations is needed, reducing the computational cost.
Risk profiling and the DOSPERT scale : an approach using prospect theory

Understanding how people behave and react when faced with risky situations is a key component of financial advisory. In this work we propose a Portuguese translation of Weber et al. (2002) DOSPERT psychometric scale, and find evidence that suggests this scale is a step to obtain an equivalent (and easier to calculate) measure of prospect theory’s loss aversion. We start by validating our translated version of the scale with a Portuguese population before moving on to the comparison of the scale’s results with the loss aversion coefficient. Finally we report the influence of several personal characteristics on people’s risk coefficient.
Pharmacological modulation of functional connectivity in neuropsychological disorders

Autism Study: A decrease in interaction between brain regions is observed in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is believed to be related to restricted neural network access in ASD. Propranolol, a beta-adrenergic antagonist, has revealed benefit during performance of tasks involving flexibility of access to networks, a benefit also seen in ASD. Our goal was to determine the effect of propranolol on functional connectivity in ASD during a verbal decision making task as compared to nadolol, thereby accounting for the potential spurious fMRI effects due to peripheral hemodynamic effects of propranolol. Ten ASD subjects underwent fMRI scans after administration of placebo, propranolol or nadolol, while performing a phonological decision making task. Comparison of functional connectivity between pre-defined ROIpairs revealed a significant increase with propranolol compared to nadolol, suggesting a potential imaging marker for the cognitive effects of propranolol in ASD. Cocaine Withdrawal Study: Recent research revealed decreased access to semantic and associative networks in acute cocaine withdrawal. In autism, such behavioral outcomes
Predictors of IVF outcome by three-dimensional ultrasound.

BACKGROUND Our study was designed to evaluate whether ovarian antral follicle number, ovarian volume, stromal area and ovarian stromal blood flow are predictive of ovarian response and IVF outcome. A total of 56 women with normal basal serum FSH concentrations who had no history of ovarian surgery, no ovarian and/or uterine pathology, were non-smokers and undergoing their first IVF cycle using a standard long GnRH agonist protocol were examined. METHODS Total ovarian antral follicle number, total ovarian volume, total stromal area and mean flow index (FI) of the ovarian stromal blood flow were determined by three-dimensional (3D) and power Doppler ultrasound after pituitary suppression. Pretreatment 3D ultrasound ovarian measurements were compared with subsequent ovulation induction parameters [peak estradiol (E2) on HCG administration day and number of oocytes] and cycle outcome (fertilization and pregnancy rates). RESULTS The total antral follicle number achieved the best predictive value for favourable IVF outcome, followed by ovarian stromal FI, peak E2 on HCG administration day, total ovarian volume, total ovarian stromal area and age. Using these six parameters, we were able to predict a favourable IVF outcome in 50% (11/22) of patients and poor outcome in 85% (29/34) of patients. CONCLUSIONS Three-dimensional ultrasound facilitates determination of the antral follicle number, ovarian volume calculation, evaluation of the ovarian stroma and analysis of the intensity of ovarian stromal blood flow in a short time without increasing the patient's discomfort.
Principals' Communication Inside Schools: A Contribution to School Improvement?

Abstract This paper reports on an empirical study of how structure, culture, and message content affected communications between principals and teachers in one Swedish school. The study revealed that communication within this school merely transmitted the information necessary for conducting daily work, which resulted in predictable behaviors, rather than stimulating learning and encouraging challenging dialogue about significant pedagogical and school improvement issues.
Effects of Service Quality on Customers Satisfaction on Botswana’s Mobile Telecommunications Industry

Botswana’s telecommunications sector has shown significant growth over the years. This is evidenced by the increase in the number of mobile operators, coupled with a drastic increase in the number of consumers. Notwithstanding this, the mobile sector is challenged to continually find ways to ascertain that their products and services meet customers’ expectations, in order to provide improved quality of service and ensure customer satisfaction. This study therefore, examines the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in the mobile sector and compares levels as well as analyse the determinants of service quality. The SERVQUAL model was adopted for this study, through which twelve dimensions of service quality were explored and measured. Principal component analysis was employed to compute the customer satisfaction and service quality indices. The regression results showed that, across all mobile operators; Assurance, Credibility, Security and Tangibles are the major dimensions that are significantly and positively related to customer satisfaction. Therefore, service providers need to focus on issues of assurance, credibility, security and tangibles among others, to increase satisfaction levels among their customers.
Lunar impact basins: New data for the western limb and far side (Orientale and South Pole‐Aitken Basins) from the first Galileo flyby

Compositional aspects of impact basin materials can be analyzed using multispectral image data acquired by the Galileo solid state imaging (SSI) experiment during the December 1990 lunar encounter. These data provide important information on the spectral properties of the western lunar limb and parts of the far side. The SSI images cover the wavelength range 0.4–1.0 μm, allowing measurement of spectral slope and estimation of the strength of the 1 μm absorption due to iron in the mafic minerals olivine and pyroxene. Among deposits of the 930-km-diameter Orientale basin, exterior ejecta comprising the Hevelius Formation is relatively homogeneous and spectrally similar to mature Apollo 16 soils, suggesting an upper crustal source. The centrally located Maunder Formation is distinct from the younger mare basalts but comparable to the Hevelius Formation in its spectral reflectance properties, supporting an interpretation as basin impact melt. The Montes Rook Formation, located in an annulus between the Maunder and the Hevelius, shows a slightly stronger mafic absorption and may be the deepest crustal material excavated. The distal Orientale deposits show local mafic enhancements (in the Schiller-Schickard and Mendel-Rydberg regions) interpreted to represent pre-Orientale mare deposits, or cryptomaria, intermixed with overlying basin ejecta. In this case, maria of sizes comparable to those presently observed were widespread in this region before the Orientale impact. Mixing-model analyses are consistent with the ballistic erosion and sedimentation model for ejecta emplacement in the distal regions beyond the continuous ejecta deposit. On the southern lunar farside, a huge area with an enhanced mafic absorption corresponds to the interior and rim of the pre-Nectarian South Pole-Aitken impact basin, 2000–2500 km in diameter. The anomaly is interpreted to be due to several factors, including excavation into the more mafic lower crust, and the presence of extensive early volcanic fill (cryptomare), similar to that seen in ancient basins such as Smythii and Australe. These results show that although basin-forming events are an important factor in producing lateral heterogeneities in crustal composition, and in modifying preexisting deposits (such as cryptomaria), the majority of material in even the largest basins was excavated from crustal levels. Our results suggest a gradational vertical crustal stratigraphy consisting of an uppermost mixed crustal layer of anorthosite, basin ejecta, and cryptomaria deposits (generally corresponding to the megaregolith), an upper crustal layer of anorthosite, and a lower more noritic layer. Many of the basic questions remaining from this study could be addressed by global high-resolution geochemical and mineralogical data obtained by polar orbiting spacecraft.
Structural geology of a classic thrust belt earthquake : the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake Taiwan ( M w Z 7 . 6 )

We document the structural context of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake (MwZ7.6) in western Taiwan, which is one of the best-instrumented thrust-belt earthquakes. The main surface break and large slip (3–10 m) is on two segments of the shallow otherwise aseismic beddingparallel Chelungpu–Sanyi thrust system, which shows nearly classic ramp-flat geometry with shallow detachments (1–6 km) in the Pliocene Chinshui Shale and Mio-Pliocene Kueichulin/Tungkeng Formations. However, rupture is complex, involving at least six faults, including a previously unknown deeper thrust (8–10 km) on which the rupture began. We compare the coseismic displacements with a new 3D map of the Chelungpu–Sanyi system. The displacements are spatially and temporally heterogeneous and well correlated with discrete geometric segments of the 3D shape of the fault system. Geodetic displacement vectors are statistically parallel to the nearest adjacent fault segment and are parallel to large-scale oblique fault corrugations. The displacement magnitudes are heterogeneous at several scales, which requires in the long term other non-Chi-Chi events or significant aseismic deformation. The Chelungpu thrust has a total displacement of w14 km but the area of largest Chi-Chi slip (w10 m) is on a newly propagated North Chelungpu Chinshui detachment (w0.3 km total slip) which shows abnormally smooth rupture dynamics. q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.