Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Building Citizen Trust towards E-Government Services: Do High Quality Websites Matter?

E-governments are increasingly becoming a familiar fixture in virtual landscapes. Yet, the lack of citizen trust brought on by the novelty and uncertainty of online transactions has inhibited the widespread acceptance for public e-services. Ascribing to the perspective of technology as a social actor with whom the customer interacts and transacts, we put forward a research model that accentuates the pivotal role of e-government service quality as a salient driver of citizens' trustworthiness beliefs towards e-government Web sites, which in turn promotes the corresponding adoption of public e-services. E-government service quality, as conceptualized in this study, borrows from the popularized SERVQUAL constructs in deriving prescriptive design principles to guide the development of e-government Web sites. Data collected from a sample of 647 e-government service participants substantiates all 14 hypothesized relationships, thereby suggesting that high quality e- government Web sites do matter in building citizen trust towards public e-services.
The Effect of an Out-of-School Enrichment Program on the Academic Achievement of High-Potential Students From Low-Income Families

High-potential students from low-income families are at an academic disadvantage compared with their more affluent peers. To address this issue, researchers have suggested novel approaches to mitigate gaps in student performance, including out-of-school enrichment programs. Longitudinal mixed effects modeling was used to analyze the growth of elementary students from low-income families on a Midwestern state achievement test in mathematics and English/language arts performance after attendance at an enrichment camp in the Midwest (n = 137). The results of the analysis showed that camp attendance had a positive effect on the state standardized scores in both math (β = 11.370, SE = 3.846) and English/language arts (β = 8.294, SE = 3.874) of these students.
Effect of interscalene brachial plexus block on heart rate variability

Background Interscalene brachial plexus block (ISB) may be followed by cardiovascular instability. Until date, there is no clear picture available about the underlying mechanisms of ISB. In this study, we aimed to determine the changes in heart rate variability (HRV) parameters after ISB and the differences between right- and left-sided ISBs. Methods We prospectively studied 24 patients operated for shoulder surgery in sitting position and divided them into two respective groups: R (right-sided block = 14 pts) and L (left-sided block = 10 pts). HRV data were taken before and 30 min after the block. Ropivacaine without ephedrine was used for the ISB through an insulated block needle connected to a nerve stimulator. Statistical analysis implemented chi-square, Student's and t-paired tests. Skewed distributions were analyzed after logarithmic transformation. Results All the studied patients had successful blocks. Horner's syndrome signs were observed in 33.3% of the patients (R = 5/14, L = 3/10; [P = 0.769]). There were no significant differences in pre-block HRV between the groups. The application of ISB had differential effect on HRV variables: R-blocks increased QRS and QTc durations and InPNN50, while a statistical decrease was seen in InLF. L-blocks did not show any significant changes. These changes indicate a reduced sympathetic and an increased parasympathetic influence on the heart's autonomic flow after R-block. Conclusions Based on the obtained results we conclude that ISB, possibly through extension of block to the ipsilateral stellate ganglion, alters the autonomic outflow to the central circulatory system in a way depending on the block's side.
A high diversity hybrid ensemble of classifiers

Ensemble has been proved a successful approach for enhancing the performance of single classifiers. But there are two key factors influencing the performance of an ensemble directly: accuracy of each single member and diversity between the members. There have been many approaches used in the literature to create the mentioned diversity. In this paper we add a novel approach, in which classifier type variance is utilized along with feature subset diversification to create a high diversity ensemble of different classifiers and an optimization is conducted on the initial population using a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. The results of experiment over some standard datasets exhibit the outperformance of the suggested approach in comparison to existing ones in specific situations.
Robust Stability Analysis of Teleoperation by Delay-Dependent Neutral LMI Techniques

This paper studies the robust stability of teleoperation systems based on the 2-channel force-force (FF) control architecture, modelled by frequency domain or passivity techniques. More precisely, delay-dependent conditions are given as LMIs derived from Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals. We show that the teleoperation systems are stable under specic LMI conditions. This stability is guaranteed in the presence of admissible uncertainty and neutral-type dierential-delay ed equations, that is, with time-varying delays in the states and their derivative. To evaluate the theoretical analysis, some numerical simulations are presented.
Microstructure Investigation on Metal Hydride Alloys by Electron Backscatter Diffraction Technique

The microstructures of two metal hydride (MH) alloys, a Zr7Ni10 based Ti15Zr26Ni59 and a C14 Laves phase based Ti12Zr21.5V10Ni36. 2Cr4.5Mn13. 6Sn0.3Co2. 0Al0.4, were studied using the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique. The first alloy was found to be composed of completely aligned Zr7Ni10 grains with a ZrO2 secondary phase randomly scattered throughout and a C15 secondary phase precipitated along the grain boundary. Two sets of orientation alignments were found between the Zr7Ni10 grains and the C15 phase: (001)Zr7Ni10A//(110)C15 and [100]Zr7Ni10A//[0 1 ¯ 1]C15, and (01 1 ¯ )Zr7Ni10B//( 1 ¯ 00)C15 and [100]Zr7Ni10B//[313]C15. The grain growth direction is close to [313]Zr7Ni10B//[ 1 ¯ 11]C15. The second alloy is predominated by a C14 phase, as observed from X-ray diffraction analysis. Both the matrix and dendrite seen through a scanning electron microscope arise from the same C14 structure with a similar chemical composition, but different orientations, as the matrix with the secondary phases in the form of intervening Zr7Ni10/Zr9Ni11/(Zr,Ni)Ti needle-like phase coated with a thin layer of C15 phase. The crystallographic orientation of the C15 phase is in alignment with the neighboring C14 phase, with the following relationships: (111)C15//(0001)C14 and [1 1 ¯ 0]C15//[11 2 ¯ 0]C14. The alignments in crystallographic orientations among the phases in these two multi-phase MH alloys confirm the cleanliness of the interface (free of amorphous region), which is necessary for the hydrogen-storage synergetic effects in both gaseous phase reaction and electrochemistry.
A semantic search agent approach: finding appropriate semantic Web services based on user request term(s)

This paper proposes a searching mechanism to discover semantic Web services satisfying user requirements. The increase in Web services and lack of semantic base in search mechanisms of UDDI make it difficult for users to find a required Web service. It is proposed to develop a semantic search agent (SSA) to discover required Web services from Web. The system uses OWL-S for describing semantics of Web services and discovers suitable semantic Web services through these semantic descriptions. OWL-S allows semantic description of Web services and hence, the semantic search agent is able to understand predefined concepts of semantic Web services, extract necessary information and decide on the requirement of a service for a user. The semantic search agent interacts with user and semantic Web services. The system proposes to combine complimentary aspects of two research topics (smart Web query engine and matchmaking algorithm of OWL-S/UDDI matchmaker) to facilitate the provision of Web services to a user
Meeting our standards for educational justice: Doing our best with the evidence

The United States considers educating all students to a threshold of adequate outcomes to be a central goal of educational justice. The No Child Left Behind Act introduced evidence-based policy and accountability protocols to ensure that all students receive an education that enables them to meet adequacy standards. Unfortunately, evidence-based policy has been less effective than expected. This article pinpoints under-examined methodological problems and suggests a more effective way to incorporate educational research findings into local evidence-based policy decisions. It identifies some things educators need to know and do to determine whether available interventions can play the right casual role in their setting to produce desired effects. It examines the value and limits of educational research, especially randomized controlled trials, for this task.
Interpersonal Competitiveness - A Study Of Simulation Game Participants’ Behaviour

Interpersonal Competitiveness refers to the urge of the individual to accomplish something in any form of human endeavour, and sometimes, prevent others from reaching that goal in that process. This study examined the construct of interpersonal competitiveness (IC) with reference to similar constructs generated in earlier research. It recognised IC as an adaptive characteristic trait of individuals who wish to win in interpersonal situations. A Competitiveness Index of 20 items was administered to 391 students at the end of business simulation games played at three business schools. Factor analysis of the data generated five IC factors, viz., measured aggression, proactivity, intrinsic motivation, winning orientation, and verbal aggression. Interpersonal Competitiveness was found to be an amalgam of willingness and courage to attack, ability to act earlier than others, and an innate eagerness for action, irrespective of material discomforts, gains or rewards. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.
AI Memo AIM-2003-019 Permutation Tests for Classification

We introduce and explore an approach to estimating statistical significance of classification accuracy, which is particularly useful in scientific applications of machine learning where high dimensionality of the data and the small number of training examples render most standard convergence bounds too loose to yield a meaningful guarantee of the generalization ability of the classifier. Instead, we estimate statistical significance of the observed classification accuracy, or the likelihood of observing such accuracy by chance due to spurious correlations of the high-dimensional data patterns with the class labels in the given training set. We adopt permutation testing, a non-parametric technique previously developed in classical statistics for hypothesis testing in the generative setting (i.e., comparing two probability distributions). We demonstrate the method on real examples from neuroimaging studies and DNA microarray analysis and suggest a theoretical analysis of the procedure that relates the asymptotic behavior of the test to the existing convergence bounds.
An analysis of single-stock futures trading in the U.S.

This paper presents an overview of how single stock futures (SSF) have developed since their introduction in the United States. We present a number of reasons why individual investor interest in SSF may not have reached its potential. Individual investors should note SSF volumes are very low and implied interest rates indicate that SSF settlement prices often have little relation to their respective underlying stock's closing prices. We present evidence of a number of non-dividend paying companies with underlying stock prices that closed above the settlement prices of their respective SSF, contradicting the carry arbitrage model. © 2005 Academy of Financial Services. All rights reserved. JEL classifications: G1; G11; G14
HCV Viral Decline at Week 2 of Peg-IFN-Alpha-2a/RBV Therapy as a Predictive Tool for Tailoring Treatment in HIV/HCV Genotype 1 Co-Infected Patients

Background Optimizing HCV genotype 1 therapy in terms of response prediction and tailoring treatment is undoubtedly the cornerstone of treating HIV co-infected patients in clinical practice. Accordingly, our aim was to analyze the predictive value of HCV viral decline for sustained virological response (SVR), measured at a time point as early as week 2 of therapy with pegylated interferon alpha-2a plus ribavirin (Peg-IFN/RBV). Methods Previously untreated HIV/HCV genotype 1 co-infected patients were included in this study. The HCV RNA titer was measured at week 2 after starting treatment with Peg-IFN/RBV. The likelihood of reaching SVR when HCV RNA viral titers declined at week 2 was evaluated relative to predictive baseline factors. Results A total of 192 HIV/HCV genotype-1 co-infected patients were enrolled in the study and began therapy. One hundred and sixty-three patients completed a full course of Peg-IFN/RBV treatment for 2 weeks and 59 of these (36.2%) reached SVR. An HCV RNA viral load decline of ≥1.5 log IU/mL at week 2 had the maximum positive predictive value for SVR (83.3%; 95% CI: 68.5%–92.9%) and was identified as the strongest independent predictive factor for reaching SVR across all baseline predictive factors. Conclusions HCV viral decline at week 2 had a high predictive value for identifying patients with a high and low likelihood of reaching SVR using dual therapy, regardless of strong predictive baseline factors. This finding may be useful for developing a predictive tool to help tailor HCV genotype 1 therapy in HIV co-infected patients.
Distant Effects of a Recurving Tropical Cyclone on Rainfall in a Midlatitude Convective System: A High-Impact Predecessor Rain Event*

Abstract Recent research has identified predecessor rain events (PREs), which are mesoscale regions of heavy rainfall that occur ∼1000 km poleward and downshear of recurving tropical cyclones (TCs). PREs typically occur 24–36 h prior to the arrival of the main rain shield associated with the TC, and frequently result in damaging flooding. A distinguishing feature of a PRE is that it is enhanced by a broad region of deep tropical moisture directly associated with the TC that is transported well poleward ahead of the TC. This study will quantify the effects of the tropical moisture from one TC on a record-breaking rain and flood event over the northern Great Plains and southern Great Lakes region on 18–19 August 2007. In this event, which occurred ahead of TC Erin, a southerly stream of deep tropical moisture (precipitable water values >50 mm) moved poleward and intersected a northwest–southeast-oriented quasi-stationary baroclinic zone beneath the equatorward entrance region of an upper-level jet streak. A.
Market Efficiency and Accounting Research: A Discussion of 'Capital Market Research in Accounting' by S.P. Kothari

Much of capital market research in accounting over the past 20 years has assumed that the price adjustment process to information is instantaneous and/or trivial. This basic assumption has had an enormous influence on the way we select research topics, design empirical tests, and interpret research findings. In this discussion, I argue that price discovery is a complex process, deserving of more attention. I highlight significant problems associated with a naive view of market efficiency, and advocate a more general model involving noise traders. Finally, I discuss the implications of recent evidence against market efficiency for future capital market research in accounting.
An Empirical Examination of Reactive and Proactive Aggression Subtypes among Juvenile Delinquents

This study is an archival examination of psychological differences among court­ referred delinquent youth. There were 80 participants, with 56 males and 24 females between 13 and 17 years old. By using Ward's hierarchical cluster analysis, juvenile offenders were grouped into four predetermined clusters of reactive and proactive aggression based on high and low scores obtained on scales measuring Internalization and Externalization dimensions from the Child Behavior Checklist Youth Self-Report (CBCL-YSR) and the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI). Scales from the YSR and MACI, which were not used in forming the four clusters, along with the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents (SIP A), the Rorschach (Exner Comprehensive System and Urist Mutuality of Autonomy Scales) and demographic information obtained from the youth's medical record (e.g., number of arrests, diagnosis, chemical dependency, type of crime) were used in Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOV A) and Binary Logistic Regression Analyses to explore the mean difference scores between juvenile delinquents clustered into groups labeled "Healthier" Delinquent Youth (HDY), High-Proactive Aggression (H-PA), Neurotic Delinquent Youth (NDY), and High-Reactive Aggression (H-RA). This study was completed in order to provide a more comprehensive examination, including comparisons of objective and projective measures combined with medical records among a juvenile offending population. When examining psychological and behavioral levels of functioning among these delinquents, the H-RA group was more globally impaired than the HDY group. The H-P A group obtained lower scores than the
Effect of Tillage and Planting Date on Seasonal Abundance and Diversity of Predacious Ground Beetles in Cotton

Abstract A 2-year field study was conducted in the southern High Plains region of Texas to evaluate the effect of tillage system and cotton planting date window on seasonal abundance and activity patterns of predacious ground beetles. The experiment was deployed in a split-plot randomized block design with tillage as the main-plot factor and planting date as the subplot factor. There were two levels for each factor. The two tillage systems were conservation tillage (30% or more of the soil surface is covered with crop residue) and conventional tillage. The two cotton planting date window treatments were early May (normal planting) and early June (late planting). Five prevailing predacious ground beetles, Cicindela sexguttata F. , Calosoma scrutator Drees, Pasimachus spp. , Pterostichus spp. , and Megacephala Carolina L. (Coleoptera: Carabidae), were monitored using pitfall traps at 2-week intervals from June 2002 to October 2003. The highest total number of ground beetles (6/trap) was observed on 9 July 2003. Cicindela sexguttata was the dominant ground dwelling predacious beetle among the five species. A significant difference between the two tillage systems was observed in the abundances of Pterostichus spp. and C. sexguttata. In 2002. significantly more Pterostichus spp. were recorded from conventional plots (0.27/trap) than were recorded from conservation tillage plots (0.05/trap). Significantly more C. sexguttata were recorded in 2003 from conservation plots (3.77/trap) than were recorded from conventional tillage plots (1.04/trap). There was a significant interaction between year and tillage treatments. However, there was no significant difference in the abundances of M. Carolina and Pasimachus spp. between the two tillage practices in either of the two years. M. Carolina numbers were significantly higher in late-planted cotton compared with those observed in normal-planted cotton. However, planting date window had no significant influence on the activity patterns of the other species. Ground beetle species abundance, diversity, and species richness were significantly higher in conservation tillage plots. This suggests that field conditions arising from the practice of conservation tillage may support higher predacious ground beetle activity than might be observed under field conditions arising from conventional tillage practices.
Neural Activation During Emotional Face Processing in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Impaired social interaction is one of the hallmarks of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Emotional faces are arguably the most critical visual emotional stimuli and the ability to perceive, recognize, and interpret emotions is central to social interaction and communication as well as healthy development. There is however, a paucity of studies devoted to neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying emotional face processing in adolescents with ASD. Through an implicit emotional face processing task completed in the MEG, we examined spatiotemporal differences in neural activation during angry and happy emotional face processing. Results suggest atypical frontal involvement in ASD adolescents during angry and happy face processing. In particular, orbitofrontal activation in participants with ASD was found to be delayed but greater in amplitude, relative to controls.
Mechanotransduction and Metabolism in Cardiomyocyte Microdomains

Efficient contractions of the left ventricle are ensured by the continuous transfer of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from energy production sites, the mitochondria, to energy utilization sites, such as ionic pumps and the force-generating sarcomeres. To minimize the impact of intracellular ATP trafficking, sarcomeres and mitochondria are closely packed together and in proximity with other ultrastructures involved in excitation-contraction coupling, such as t-tubules and sarcoplasmic reticulum junctions. This complex microdomain has been referred to as the intracellular energetic unit. Here, we review the literature in support of the notion that cardiac homeostasis and disease are emergent properties of the hierarchical organization of these units. Specifically, we will focus on pathological alterations of this microdomain that result in cardiac diseases through energy imbalance and posttranslational modifications of the cytoskeletal proteins involved in mechanosensing and transduction.
Weakly supervised object detection using pseudo-strong labels

Object detection is an import task of computer vision.A variety of methods have been proposed,but methods using the weak labels still do not have a satisfactory result.In this paper,we propose a new framework that using the weakly supervised method's output as the pseudo-strong labels to train a strongly supervised model.One weakly supervised method is treated as black-box to generate class-specific bounding boxes on train dataset.A de-noise method is then applied to the noisy bounding boxes.Then the de-noised pseudo-strong labels are used to train a strongly object detection network.The whole framework is still weakly supervised because the entire process only uses the image-level labels.The experiment results on PASCAL VOC 2007 prove the validity of our framework, and we get result 43.4% on mean average precision compared to 39.5% of the previous best result and 34.5% of the initial method,respectively.And this frame work is simple and distinct,and is promising to be applied to other method easily.
Should and will Inter-collegiate Football Programs be Eliminated?

Abstract In a recent article in this journal, Lopez Frias and McNamee (2017) raise some concerns about an argument presented in Corlett (2014), also published in this journal. This article is a detailed response to Lopez Frias and McNamee (2017) in clarification and defense of the argument in question in Corlett (2014). The discussion concerns the questions of whether or not inter-collegiate football ought to and will be eliminated, and why or why not. More specifically, the discussion concerns the health care and medical costs to others argument for the elimination of inter-collegiate football articulated in Corlett (2014).