Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enacting the lean startup methodology: The role of vicarious and experiential learning processes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the instructions of the lean startup methodology influence entrepreneurs. It explores what happens when such instructions are enacted by entrepreneurs in the context of a “prescriptive accelerator”. The goal is to shine a light onto the mechanisms by which these instructions are acquired and then utilised by entrepreneurs and to outline in some detail the implications of adhering to the lean startup methodology. Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs an in-depth phenomenological semi-structured interview design. Two rounds of interviews were conducted, one at the beginning and one at the end of the programme with the CEOs and founders of 11 entrepreneurial ventures, totalling 22 interviews. The analysis of the interviews resulted in five second-order themes that are discussed in light of the processes of experiential and vicarious learning. Findings – The findings suggest that through two distinct modes of vicarious and experiential learning, the instructions of the lean startup methodology are acquired, internalised and consequently put into practice by entrepreneurs. The paper further highlights the modifications to entrepreneurs’ governing variables and action strategies, as well as the resulting consequences of these modifications. This provides insights into possible outcomes of following the lean startup methodology in the context of a prescriptive accelerator where a strong focus on adhering to a systematic entrepreneurial methodology is a characteristic feature. Originality/value – This paper contributes to our understanding of the under-studied and novel phenomena of the lean startup methodology and prescriptive accelerators. It complements the prevailing understanding of entrepreneurial learning as being largely experiential by accounting for the vicarious learning processes that occur in pedagogical settings such as prescriptive accelerators. It therefore shows that prescriptive accelerators provide unique learning situations where the combination of vicarious and experiential learning impacts the business development activities. Further, it provides a model of entrepreneurs’ theory of action as the outcome of the interactions between the lean startup methodology and the two modes of vicarious and experiential learning.
Childhood Diarrhea Determinants in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cross Sectional Study of Tiko-Cameroon

Introduction : Diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under five years globally. Nearly one in five child deaths, about 1.5 million each year, are due to diarrhea. It kills more young children than Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), malaria and measles combined. World Health Organization has accordingly underlined the need for epidemiological surveys of infantile diarrhea in all geographical areas. The main research objectives were to estimate the prevalence of diarrhea and identify factors associated with diarrheal diseases in Tiko city in Cameroon. Method : The present study was a cross-sectional community household survey which was conducted in Tiko town from 1st to 31st of August 2012. With the use of a questionnaire, a total of 602 households that had at least one child under five years of age were interviewed. Mothers/caregivers were questioned on the morbidity of diarrhea and the logistic regression model was employed to examine the determinants of childhood diarrhea. Both univariable and multivariable data analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.0. Results : The results of this study showed that the prevalence of diarrhea was 23.8% and children under 24 months were highly affected. We found children using the main toilet and other types of toilet facilities such as bushes, diaper, and streams (OR: 0.194; p < 0.001, 95% CI) and usage of narrow-mouth container for storage of drinking water (OR: 0.492; p < 0.001, 95% CI) less likely to suffer from diarrhea. In contrast, higher rates of diarrhea prevalence were seen in children from households with two or more siblings (OR: 1.222; p < 0.001, 95% CI) and whose mothers/caregivers never had the knowledge of safe sources of drinking water (OR: 1.849; p < 0.01, 95% CI). Conclusion : Childhood diarrhea is a public health problem in Tiko city. Hence, interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence should take into consideration the integration of family planning activities in the prevention of childhood diarrhea and the deployed of health personals to educate the community to adopt a hygienic behavior. Future research on the topic should be qualitative inquiry to complement the quantitative nature of this study.
Forecasting U.s. Unemployment Rate a Midas Approach with Initial Claims as Leading Indicator

1 Abstract This thesis studies Mixed Data Sampling (MIDAS) and its applicability on forecasting the U.S unemployment rate (both quarterly and monthly) using different leading indicators. Both a basic MIDAS model and an AR-MIDAS model are evaluated using two different weighting functions, the Beta lag and the exponential Almon lag. Their forecasting accuracy are compared to the ones of an AR(1) and an ADL(1,1) model. The data used covers a time period from 1970 to 2012. Our results show that initial claims is the best indicator and that MIDAS works best for horizons up to twelve months ahead when forecasting the monthly unemployment rate, and one quarter ahead when forecasting quarterly unemployment rate.
Hierarchical Bayesian Analysis and the Preston-Tonks-Wallace Model

We utilize data from Hopkinson-bar experiments and quasi-static compression experiments to characterize uncertainties for parameters governing the Preston-Tonks-Wallace (PTW) [1] plastic deformation model for a variety of materials. This particular plastic deformation model is designed to be valid over a range of input conditions, which include strain, strain rate and temperature. However, because of variations between experimental samples, measurement variation, as well as slight inadequacies in the model, no single parameter setting gives a good match to all of the experimental data for a given material. These deficiencies need to be taken into account when assessing the uncertainties in the model parameters. In this paper, we use a Bayesian hierarchical model to account for the variations in the experimental data. This modeling approach results in parameter estimates for each material, along with uncertainty estimates, which are the main focus of this paper. The results are summarized in the table below. Parameter Al Be DU Ta U-6Nb θ 0.0364 0.0268 0.0465 0.0124 0.0974 (0.011) (0.00756) (0.0219) (0.00558) (0.0497) κ 0.415 0.197 0.136 0.711 0.503 (0.137) (0.112) (0.064) (0.156) (0.113) −log(γ) 10.3 11.2 14.7 11.5 6.32 (4.0) (5.74) (3.03) (1.77) (4.16) y0 0.0113 0.00165 0.00534 0.00939 0.00665 (0.00323) (0.000248) (0.000766) (0.00129) (0.00351) y∞ 0.0058 0.000938 0.00236 0.00136 0.000724 (0.000239) (0.000283) (0.000934) (0.00028) (0.000522) s0 0.0295 0.0169 0.0123 0.0168 0.0707 (0.0118) (0.00978) (0.00327) (0.00554) (0.0228) s∞ 0.00781 0.00337 0.00485 0.00295 0.00646 (0.000411) (0.00148) (0.00165) (0.00062) (0.000495)
Structural Impairments of Hippocampus in Coal Mine Gas Explosion-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Investigations on hippocampal and amygdalar volume have revealed inconsistent results in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Little is known about the structural covariance alterations between the hippocampus and amygdala in PTSD. In this study, we evaluated the alteration in the hippocampal and amygdalar volume and their structural covariance in the coal mine gas explosion related PTSD. High resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed on coal mine gas explosion related PTSD male patients (n = 14) and non-traumatized coalminers without PTSD (n = 25). The voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method was used to test the inter-group differences in hippocampal and amygdalar volume as well as the inter-group differences in structural covariance between the ipsilateral hippocampus and amygdala. PTSD patients exhibited decreased gray matter volume (GMV) in the bilateral hippocampi compared to controls (p<0.05, FDR corrected). GMV covariances between the ipsilateral hippocampus and amygdala were significantly reduced in PTSD patients compared with controls (p<0.05, FDR corrected). The coalminers with gas explosion related PTSD had decreased hippocampal volume and structural covariance with the ipsilateral amygdala, suggesting that the structural impairment of the hippocampus may implicate in the pathophysiology of PTSD.
Weighted Strichartz estimates for radial Schr

We prove global weighted Strichartz estimates for radial solutions of linear Schr\"odinger equation on a class of rotationally symmetric noncompact manifolds, generalizing the known results on hyperbolic and Damek-Ricci spaces. This yields classical Strichartz estimates with a larger class of exponents than in the Euclidian case and improvements for the scattering theory. The manifolds, whose volume element grows polynomially or exponentially at infinity, are characterized essentially by negativity conditions on the curvature, which shows in particular that the rich algebraic structure of the Hyperbolic and Damek-Ricci spaces is not the cause of the improved dispersive properties of the equation. The proofs are based on known dispersive results for the equation with potential on the Euclidean space, and on a new one, valid for C^1 potentials decaying like 1/r^2 at infinity.
Training Reveals the Sources of Stroop and Flanker Interference Effects

In the field of cognitive control, dimensional overlap and pathway automaticity are generally believed to be critical for the generation of congruency effects. However, their specific roles in the generation of congruency effects are unclear. In two experiments, with the 4∶2 mapping design, we investigated this issue by examining the training-related effects on congruency effects (the Stroop interference effect and the Flanker interference effect in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively) normally expressed as incongruent minus congruent difference and on their subcomponents (the stimulus interference and response interference). Experiment 1 revealed that the stimulus interference in the Stroop task, wherein the task-relevant (printed color of word) and the task-irrelevant (semantics of word) dimensions of the stimuli were processed in different pathways, was present during early training but was virtually eliminated at the late stage of training. This indicates that the two dimensions overlap at the early stage but separate at the late stage. In contrast, Experiment 2 showed that the response interference in a variant of the Flanker task, wherein the task-relevant (central color word printed in black font) and the task-irrelevant (flanking color words printed in black font) dimensions of the stimuli were processed in the same pathway, was enhanced after training. This indicates that the enhanced automaticity of irrelevant-dimension processing induces stronger response competition, which therefore results in the larger response interference. Taken together, the present study demonstrates that (1) dimensional overlap is necessary for the generation of congruency effects, (2) pathway automaticity can affect the size of congruency effects, and (3) training enhances the degree of automatic processing in a given pathway.
Application of feedback principles to marking proformas increases student efficacy, perceived utility of feedback and likelihood of use

Pedagogical and psychological literature identifies numerous factors contributing to feedback effectiveness, including type, frequency and specificity (e.g. Gibbs & Simpson, 2004). Despite this wealth of research, feedback practice at universities is often reported as problematic or poor by students (National Student Survey; Williams & Kane, 2008, 2009) despite lecturers perceiving their feedback as useful (Carless, 2006; Maclellan, 2001). The present research employed a quantitative counterbalanced experimental design to compare the perceived utility of a pedagogically informed feedback proforma, designed to provide detailed, timely and constructive feedback to standard practice. Results suggest that the presentation of feedback is important to students; more functional and comprehensible feedback increases the likelihood of students using the feedback provided, and can reduce likely marking time per script without compromising perceived feedback quality. Further to this, post-submission feedback proformas increase students’ confidence in their ability to complete the assignment when provided alongside the assignment title. In summary, the research supports the application of principles of feedback in the provision of summative feedback to enhance students’ likelihood of use, perceived value of the feedback received, and confidence.
Minimal typings in atomic subtyping

This paper studies the problem of simplifying typings and the size-complexity of most general typings in typed programming languages with atomic subtyping. We define a notion of minimal typings relating all typings which are equivalent with respect to instantiation. The notion of instance is that of Fuh and Mishra [13], which supports many interesting simplifications. We prove that every typable term has a unique minimal typing, which is the logically most succinct among all equivalent typings. We study completeness properties, with respect to our notion of minimality, of well-known simplification techniques. Drawing upon these results, we prove a tight exponential lower bound for the worst case dag-size of constraint sets as well as of types in most general typings. To the best of our knowledge, the best previously proven lower bound was linear.
Paeoniflorin reduced BLP-induced inflammatory response by inhibiting the NF-κB signal transduction in pathway THP-1 cells

Sepsis is a severe illness in which the bloodstream is overwhelmed by bacteria. Despite effective antibiotic treatment, the mortality of septic shock remains high. In this study, we examined a potential usage of paeoniflorin, anti-inflammatory component for the treatment of sepsis. We established an inflammatory cell line by stimulating human THP-1 cell line with bacterial lipoprotein (BLP), which resulted in an activation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) p65 dependent-signal pathway, and in consequence, an increase in tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin (IL)-6 expression. With this model, we studied the effect of paeoniflorin on the expression of NF-κB and Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) mediated signal transduction. Our data indicated that paeoniflorin directly inhibited activation of NF-κB p65, thereby reduced the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 in the BLP stimulated THP-1 cells. Paeoniflorin was also found to inhibit IκB phosphorylation and degradation. However, no significant differences in TLR2 and myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) expression were observed; therefore, these signaling molecules may not have much anti-inflammatory effect in our cellular model. As such, our current study provided a molecular base for the potential use of paeoniflorin in therapeutic treatment of sepsis induced by bacterial lipoprotein.
Comparing type counts: The case of women, men and -ity in early English letters

This work is a case study of applying nonparametric statistical methods to corpus data. We show how to use ideas from permutation testing to answer linguistic questions related to morphological productivity and type richness. In particular, we study the use of the suffixes -ity and -ness in the 17th-century part of the Corpus of Early English Correspondence within the framework of historical sociolinguistics. Our hypothesis is that the productivity of -ity, as measured by type counts, is significantly low in letters written by women. To test such hypotheses, and to facilitate exploratory data analysis, we take the approach of computing accumulation curves for types and hapax legomena. We have developed an open source computer program which uses Monte Carlo sampling to compute the upper and lower bounds of these curves for one or more levels of statistical significance. By comparing the type accumulation from women’s letters with the bounds, we are able to confirm our hypothesis.
URGENSI BUDAYA ORGANISASI BAGI KEMAJUAN LEMBAGA PENDIDIKAN ISLAM

Abstract : Cultural organizations have a strategic role to encourage and enhance the effectiveness of the organization's performance, both in the short and long term. Organizational culture acts as a social glue that binds fellow members of the organization together in a common vision and purpose. Key w ords : Cultural Organizations, Islamic Educational Institution . Abstrak : Budaya organisasi memiliki peran strategis untuk mendorong dan meningkatkan efektifitas kinerja organisasi, baik dalam jangka pendek maupun dalam jangka panjang. Budaya organisasi bertindak sebagai perekat sosial yang mengikat sesama anggota organisasi bersama-sama dalam visi dan tujuan bersama. Kata Kunci : Budaya Organisasi, Lembaga Pendidikan Islam
Multiple Signatures of Positive Selection Downstream of Notch on the X Chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster

To identify genomic regions affected by the rapid fixation of beneficial mutations (selective sweeps), we performed a scan of microsatellite variability across the Notch locus region of Drosophila melanogaster. Nine microsatellites spanning 60 kb of the X chromosome were surveyed for variation in one African and three non-African populations of this species. The microsatellites identified an ∼14-kb window for which we observed relatively low levels of variability and/or a skew in the frequency spectrum toward rare alleles, patterns predicted at regions linked to a selective sweep. DNA sequence polymorphism data were subsequently collected within this 14-kb region for three of the D. melanogaster populations. The sequence data strongly support the initial microsatellite findings; in the non-African populations there is evidence of a recent selective sweep downstream of the Notch locus near or within the open reading frames CG18508 and Fcp3C. In addition, we observe a significant McDonald-Kreitman test result suggesting too many amino acid fixations species wide, presumably due to positive selection, at the unannotated open reading frame CG18508. Thus, we observe within this small genomic region evidence for both recent (skew toward rare alleles in non-African populations) and recurring (amino acid evolution at CG18508) episodes of positive selection.
CONSEQUENCES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC FEATURES ON ATTITUDES TOWARD SEEKING PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP OF UNDERGRADUATES STUDENTS

The purpose of this study was to explore the consequences of psychological and demographic features on attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help (ATSPPH) of undergraduate students. The design of this study was ex-post factor. The sample population of this study consisted of 454 (257 male and 197 female) undergraduate distance learning students selected through convenience sampling. Their mean age was 25.83 years (SD = 3.88 years). The respondents completed a questionnaire consisting of the Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help, Self-stigma of Seeking Help Scale, Social Stigma for Receiving Psychological Help Scale and Self Concealment Scale. Percentages and means, the t-test for independent samples, and multiple regressions were used for analysis. The results of this study indicated that the younger students reported significantly better ATSPPH than the older students. Male and female students were not statistically different when compared on ATSPPH. Further, there was significant independent influence of self-stigma and self-concealment and a joint influence of self-stigma, public-stigma and self-concealment on ATSPPH. Intervention designed to increase public awareness about the benefits of seeking professional services or to drastically reduce and ameliorate negative concerns about seeking psychological help will be more efficient if that intervention is focused on the factors that have been identified in this study.
Measuring and Analysing Agricultural Productivity in Kenya: A Review of Approaches

2 Measuring and analysing agricultural productivity in Kenya: a review of approaches KIPPRA IN BRIEF The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) is an autonomous institute whose primary mission is to conduct public policy research, leading to policy advice. KIPPRA's mission is to produce consistently high-quality analysis of key issues of public policy and to contribute to the achievement of national long-term development objectives by positively influencing the decision-making process. These goals are met through effective dissemination of recommendations resulting from analysis and by training policy analysts in the public sector. KIPPRA therefore produces a body of well-researched and documented information on public policy, and in the process assists in formulating long-term strategic perspectives. KIPPRA serves as a centralized source from which the government and the private sector may obtain information and advice on public policy issues. The Discussion Paper Series disseminates results and reflections from ongoing research activities of the institute's programmes. The papers are internally refereed and are disseminated to inform and invoke debate on policy issues. Opinions expressed in the papers are entirely those of the author or authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute. ABSTRACT Concern is rising about the performance of the agricultural sector in Kenya given that it is the backbone of the country's economy. The issue of particular concern is the declining productivity that has been associated with increasing poverty, food shortages and poor rural livelihoods. Although there have been attempts to analyse agricultural productivity in Kenya, a cursory examination of the existing studies reveals quite varied approaches to the measurement and analysis of productivity. Variability in the analytical methods and data employed make it difficult for policy makers, the Government, NGOs and even donors to interpret, compare and evaluate the results of such studies. The objective of this paper is to review studies that have attempted to empirically measure and analyse agricultural productivity in Kenya. The focus of the survey is on the approaches that have been used and their relevance in policy formulation. The major conclusion of the study is that although there have been attempts to analyse agricultural productivity in Kenya, the approaches, the data used, as well as the scope have largely been inadequate. This has hampered policy formulation for the development of agricultural productivity. The paper therefore identifies research gaps and proposes new directions in the measurement and analysis of agricultural …
The Effects of Event Properties on Age-Related Differences in Episodic Memory

Episodic memory (EM) is disproportionately impaired in normal healthy aging. However, experimental comparisons and literature reviews of the neural correlates of EM across lab-based and naturalistic paradigms reveal significant differences. The current study systematically manipulated the degree of naturalism by testing memory for the same content encoded in a reallife vs. laboratory context in order to investigate how memory performance interacts with the properties of the encoding context in younger and older adults. We found that the real-life event was subsequently associated with greater overall recognition accuracy, specifically for sequence information, and was associated with a greater contribution of re-experiencing to recognition. We found no significant interaction of normal aging with the event manipulation, but our older sample is currently too small to draw definitive conclusions. Overall, our results suggest that the experimental manipulation of a staged event is a viable method for studying naturalistic episodic