Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examination of the Effect of the GEMS Program on Problem Solving and Science Process Skills of 6 Years Old Children

The aim of this study is to determine the problem solving skills and science process skills of six year-old children who attended kindergarten and whether or not there is a difference in problem solving skills and science process skills of children receiving and not receiving the education with GEMS program. In the study using the experimental model with pre-test, post-test and control group, the sample group consisted of a total of 25 children including 11 children in experimental group and 14 children in control group who attended the preschool education. The “GEMS Program” was applied throughout a school year after applying pre-test to the children in the experimental group. In the scope of the study, “General Information Form” to obtain the data about the children and their families, “Parental Evaluation Form” including the evaluation of the parents about their children, “Problem Solving Scale in Science Education (PSSSE)” to determine the problem solving skills of the children and “Science Processes Observation Form (SPOF)” to measure the science process skills of the children were used. According to the results of the study, while a statistically significant difference was observed between the Problem Solving Scale in Science Education mean scores of the children in the experimental group who participated in the GEMS Education Program and of the children in control group, no statistically significant difference was observed between the mean scores obtained by the children in the experimental group from Science Processes Observation Form and the mean scores of the children in the control group.
Close to Me? The Influence of Affective Closeness on Space Perception

Recent data show that psychosocial factors affect visual perception. We tested this hypothesis by investigating the relationship between affective closeness and the perception of apertures between two people. People feel discomfort when they are near someone they are not affectively close to. Therefore, we predict that they will be less likely to perceive that they can pass between two people not affectively close to them. Participants had to imagine passing through the aperture between two life-size classmate pictures. We found that the closer participants felt to their classmates, the more they felt able to pass between them. This provides the first evidence of a relationship between affective closeness and the perception of aperture between two people, suggesting that psychosocial factors constrain space perception.
Numerical Simulation of Induction Hardening of Torsion Bar

In order to improve the fatigue performance of torsion bar, induction surface hardening is performed. The aim of the present study is to compare the experimental residual stress fields measured by X-ray diffraction with those predicted from finite element modeling of the whole induction surface hardening process. Temperature and residual stress distributions are affected by the component geometry, the material behavior and the induction treatment parameters. Based on the residual stress distribution and the fatigue loading, cracks can nucleate from the surface or below the hardened layer. Therefore, it is very important to determine the residual stress distribution and optimize the process, especially for safety critical engineering components. Results of present study show that the improvement of fatigue performance is due to development of both hard microstructure and compressive residual stress at the surface layer of torsion bar during induction hardening.
The Influence of Status on Decisions to Help

Abstract Schemas influence interpersonal judgments in ways that can affect behavior toward members of various social categories. In this study, the “wrong number” technique was used to examine the effect of social status on U.S. subjects' decisions to help. The independent variables were the help requester's occupational status (lawyer, gas station attendant, or unspecified) and the helper's socioeconomic status (high or low median neighborhood income). Overall, 62.1% of the subjects helped by making a phone call. Although frequency of help was not affected by the helper's status, X 2(1, N = 240) = 0.64, p > . 05, it was affected by the requester's status. Lawyers and requesters with unspecified occupational status received help significantly more often than gas station attendants, X 2(2, N = 240) = 14.90, p < . 05. This finding did not support a “similarity effect” in helping.
Institutional Interaction in Global Environmental Governance: The Case of the Cartagena Protocol and the World Trade Organization

The competitive quest of the Cartagena Protocol and the WTO for authority to regulate international trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) exemplifies a typical interaction between international institutions with diverging objectives. This article first develops a conceptual framework for the analysis of institutional interaction that emphasizes disaggregation of complex interaction situations into separate cases of clearly directed inter-institutional influence. These cases can follow different causal mechanisms. Second, applying this framework to the interaction between the Cartagena Protocol and the WTO reveals that existing commitments have driven parties toward a step-wise delimitation of the institutions' jurisdictions. Although the WTO acquired a firstmover advantage by structuring the regulatory field, the Cartagena Protocol showed surprising strength in exploiting the remaining room for maneuver. The structure of international governance thus steers institutions with differing objectives toward a jurisdictional balance that, while reflecting existing power relations, limits the potential for conflict and frames available policy choices.
Foraminiferal assemblage and stable isotopic change across the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary in the subtropical North Atlantic

The Cenomanian/Turonian boundary interval (CTBI) at Site 1050 (30869N, 768149W) was investigated to characterize climatic and oceanographic changes during the Oceanic Anoxic Event that was associated with it (OAE 2). Because of unusually good foraminiferal preservation for sediments of this age, we have obtained an unaltered oxygen and carbon isotope profile and an accompanying record of planktic and benthic foraminifer abundance changes across the OAE 2 interval. Biostratigraphic, sedimentologic, and chemostratigraphic analyses indicate that more than 0.5 m.y. between the onset and tail end of OAE 2 are missing. This explains why organicrich sediments are absent from the Site 1050 sequence and why the planktic and benthic carbon isotope shifts are minor ( ;0.8‰) compared with the most complete OAE 2 sections. While planktic species diversity shows relatively minor change across the OAE 2 interval, extinction of the rotaliporids and Globigerinelloides bentonensis, a shift to Heterohelix-dominated assemblages, and increased abundance of helvetoglobotruncanids at the onset of OAE 2 cause a dramatic change in the planktic foraminifer assemblage composition. The rotaliporid extinction occurs at the level where middle bathyal temperatures are estimated to have increased from 15 to 198C, which is warmer than any other time during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. This deep water warming may have caused a breakdown in the vertical structure of the water column, and could explain the extinction of deeper dwelling planktic species, including Rotalipora and G. bentonensis. On the other hand, sea surface temperature estimates based on planktic foraminiferal d 18 O values (corrected for salinity) remain steady throughout the CTBI, varying between 23 to 268C. The presence of volcaniclastic sediments within the OAE 2 interval at Site 1050 is consistent with previous suggestions that the CTBI was a time of anonymously high rates of CO2 flux into the atmosphere and oceans during a major phase of explosive volcanic activity and large igneous province emplacement in the Caribbean and other regions worldwide. Further investigation of the CTBI is needed to establish whether increased pCO2 can be accepted as the primary forcing mechanism for the middle Cretaceous ‘‘supergreenhouse’’.
Working Paper No . 2010 / 75 Misuse of Institutions Lessons from Transition

The paper explores a phenomenon often observed in transition economies, when newly established institutions are misused, i.e., applied or resorted to for reasons which have little in common with their intended or anticipated purpose. In such incidences institutions become sources of private gains and lose their value-creation role and capacity. We offer a typology of institutional misuse (illustrated by examples from Russian transition), discuss its consequences, and explore reasons why governments and societies fail to serve as institutions’ guardians. Implications misused institutions for economic and political reforms are analysed.
Statistical analysis of honeybee survival after chronic exposure to insecticides

Studies concerning long‐term survival of honeybees raise the problem of the statistical analysis of mortality data. In the present study, we used a modeling approach of survival data of caged bees under chronic exposure to two pesticides (imidacloprid and deltamethrin). Our model, based on a Cox proportional hazard model, is not restricted to a specific hazard functional form, such as in parametric approaches, but takes into account multiple covariates. We consider not only the pesticide treatment but also a nuisance variable (variability between replicates). Moreover, considering the occurrence of social interactions, the model integrates the fact that bees do not die independently of each other. We demonstrate the chronic toxicity induced by imidacloprid and deltamethrin. Our results also underline the role of the replicate effect, the density‐dependent effect, and their interactions with the treatment effect. None of these parameters can be neglected in the assessment of chronic toxicity of pesticides to the honeybee.
A new stacked NPC converter: 3L-topology and control

In this paper a new three-level (3L) voltage source converter is presented. This new topology called Stacked Neutral Point Clamped (3L-SNPC) increases the apparent switching frequency compared with other 3L structures (3L-Stacked Cells, 3L-Neutral Point Clamped and 3L-Active NPC). This advantage leads to a better balancing of total losses in power switches under all specified operating conditions (low or high modulation index). The topology has more degrees of freedom and allows a parallel conversion. The load current passes simultaneously or alternatively through two parallel paths, depending on PWM strategy. In the paper three PWM strategies are proposed and their switching states and commutations are analyzed. The total losses in power switches are calculated and compared to the most popular 3L structures. Experimental and simulation results are illustrated in the paper to confirm the operation of the proposed topology.
Dimensional Effect of Transformational leadership on Cross Functional Team Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Currently, the uses of cross functional teams are increasing day by day to gain the competitive advantage and for effectively use the combined efforts of manpower skills in the organizations. Organizations assured the beliefs that diversified skills can be more effective in combined form if transformational leadership is approached in their team. Hence, the present research is taken to investigate the transformational leadership dimensional effect on cross functional team organizational citizenship behavior. Data were collected from 81 team members and 19 team leaders from various cross functional teams in service sector organizations i.e. hospitals, hotels, banks, educational institutions and others. The finding discloses that transformational leadership found positively and significantly related to organizational citizenship behavior. But none of the dimensions of transformational leadership found significantly related with sportsmanship in study.
Developmental Cell Death Is Enhanced in the Cerebral Cortex of Mice Lacking the Brain Vesicular Monoamine Transporter

Neurotransmitters have emerged as important players in the control of programmed cell death in the cerebral cortex. We report that genetic depletion of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine in mice lacking the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2 KO mice) causes an increase in cell death in the superficial layers of the cingulate and retrosplenial cortices during early postnatal life (postnatal days 0–4). Electron microscopy and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated biotinylated UTP nick end labeling indicated that this represents a form of apoptosis. Caspase-3 and -9 are over activated in the VMAT2 KO cortex and Bcl-XL is downregulated, whereas the apoptosis-inducing factor caspase-8 and FasL/FasR pathway are not involved. Partial inhibition of serotonin or/and catecholamine synthesis by pharmacological treatments or genetic reduction of serotonin neuron number in mice lacking the transcription factor Pet-1 (pheochromocytoma 12 E26 transformation-specific) did not modify the cell death ratios in the cerebral cortex. However, when monoamine oxidase type A was invalidated in the VMAT2 KO background (VMAT2-MAOA DKO mice), increases in 5-HT levels coincided with a reduction of cell death and a normalization of Bcl-XL expression. trkB signaling is not implicated in the anti-apoptotic effects of MAOA inhibition because BDNF mRNA levels were unchanged in VMAT2-MAOA DKO mice and because the massive cell death in the cerebral cortex of trkB KO mice is also reverted by genetic invalidation of the MAOA gene. Finally the broad 5-HT2 receptor agonist (−)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine hydrochloride prevented the increase in cell death of VMAT2 KO mice. Altogether, these results suggest that high levels of serotonin, acting through 5-HT2 receptors, have neuroprotective action on cortical neurons by controlling Bcl-XL mRNA levels and that this action is independent of trkB signaling.
Dissemination of Methicillin-Susceptible CC398 Staphylococcus aureus Strains in a Rural Greek Area

A large collection of Staphylococcus aureus including a. 745 clinically significant isolates that were consecutively recovered from human infections during 2012–2013, b. 19 methicillin-susceptible (MSSA), randomly selected between 2006–2011 from our Staphylococcal Collection, c. 16 human colonizing isolates, and d. 10 strains from colonized animals was investigated for the presence and the molecular characteristics of CC398. The study was conducted in Thessaly, a rural region in Greece. The differentiation of livestock-associated clade from the human clade was based on canSNPs combined with the presence of the φ3 bacteriophage and the tetM, scn, sak, and chp genes. Among the 745 isolates, two MRSA (0.8% of total MRSA) and thirteen MSSA (2.65% of total MSSA) were found to belong to CC398, while, between MSSA of our Staphylococcal Collection, one CC398, isolated in 2010, was detected. One human individual, without prior contact with animals, was found to be colonized by a MSSA CC398. No CC398 was identified among the 10 S. aureus isolated from animals. Based on the molecular markers, the 17 CC398 strains were equally placed in the livestock-associated and in the human clades. This is the first report for the dissemination of S. aureus CC398 among humans in Greece.
Time to pregnancy: results of the German prospective study and impact on the management of infertility.

BACKGROUND The likelihood of spontaneous conception in subsequent cycles is important for a balanced management of infertility. Previous studies on time to pregnancy are mostly retrospective and biased because of exclusion of truly infertile couples. The study aim was to present a non-parametric estimation of cumulative probabilities of conception (CPC) in natural family planning (NFP) users illustrating an ideal of human fertility potential. METHODS A total of 346 women was observed who used NFP methods to conceive from their first cycle onwards. The couples practising NFP make optimal use of their fertility potential by timed intercourse. The CPC were estimated for the total group and for couples who finally conceived by calculating Kaplan-Meier survival rates. RESULTS A total of 310 pregnancies occurred among the 346 women; the remaining 36 women (10.4%) did not conceive. Estimated CPC for the total group (n = 340 women) at one, three, six and 12 cycle(s) were 38, 68, 81 and 92% respectively. For those who finally conceived (truly fertile couples, n = 304 women), the respective pregnancy rates were 42, 75, 88 and 98% respectively. Although the numbers of couples in both groups were similar, the impact of age on time to conception, as judged by the Wilcoxon test, was less in the truly fertile than in the total group. CONCLUSIONS Most couples conceive within six cycles with timed intercourse. Thereafter, every second couple is probably either subfertile or infertile. CPC decline with age because heterogeneity in fecundity increases. In the subgroup of truly fertile couples, an age-dependent decline in CPC is statistically less obvious because of high homogeneity, even with advancing age.
Structural Repetition in Question Answering: A Replication and Extension of Levelt and Kelter (1982)

ABSTRACT We report an effort to replicate and extend Levelt and Kelter’s (1982) Experiment 3. In their study, experimenters phoned businesses and asked, At what time does your shop close? or What time does your shop close? Participants were more likely to produce prepositional responses (At 7 o’clock) to questions containing a preposition than to questions that did not. Across three experiments, we replicated Levelt and Kelter’s method, and included a number of other communicative contexts (asking questions by phone, in person, or by text message, and asking people both known and unknown to the experimenter). Our efforts produced mixed results. Across experiments, and within each communicative context, we found the predicted pattern of results (more prepositional responses following prepositional questions). Although this pattern was not statistically reliable in our individual experiments, it was significant in an analysis conducted across all of our experiments. Overall, our results suggest that the structural repetition effect observed by Levelt and Kelter is replicable, but is weaker than the effect reported in the original paper.
Satisfied after all? Working trajectories and job satisfaction of foreign-born female domestic and care workers in Italy

ABSTRACT Foreign-born women frequently find their first job in the domestic sector. This is usually considered a stepping-stone, but it is rather a definitive condition. We analyse the working trajectory of foreign-born women with a first job in domestic work using sequence analysis and studying their association with job satisfaction by means of logistic regression models. The data were collected as part of the Foreigners’ Job Trajectories project conducted by the ISMU Foundation in Italy in 2009. We found that, after all, domestic and care workers can be satisfied with their job if basic decent working conditions are guaranteed. Particular attention is paid to the high rate of job satisfaction for women with a trajectory from live-out to live-in jobs. Possible explications for job satisfaction are extensively discussed focusing on economic drivers, the agency of domestic workers, and the emotive dimension of domestic and care works.
Predicting human similarity judgments with distributional models: The value of word associations.

Most distributional lexico-semantic models derive their representations based on external language resources such as text corpora. In this study, we propose that internal language models, that are more closely aligned to the mental representations of words could provide important insights into cognitive science, including linguistics. Doing so allows us to reflect upon theoretical questions regarding the structure of the mental lexicon, and also puts into perspective a number of assumptions underlying recently proposed distributional text-based models. In particular, we focus on word-embedding models which have been proposed to learn aspects of word meaning in a manner similar to humans. These are contrasted with internal language models derived from a new extensive data set of word associations. Using relatedness and similarity judgments we evaluate these models and find that the word-association-based internal language models consistently outperform current state-of-the art text-based external language models, often with a large margin. These results are not just a performance improvement; they also have implications for our understanding of how distributional knowledge is used by people.
Odds ratio analysis in women with endometrial cancer

Introduction Despite the progress in diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumours, the effects of treatment are insufficient. Reduction of the risk of cervical, ovarian, and endometrial cancer is possible by introducing preventative actions. Aim of the study The aim of the thesis is the analysis of selected risk factors that may affect the increase or decrease in the odds ratio of developing endometrial cancer. Material and methods The study was conducted among patients of the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Hospital of Poznań University of Medical Sciences in the years 2011-2013. The research included a total of 548 female respondents aged between 40 and 84 years. Women responded to questions assessing elements of lifestyle such as consumption of alcohol, smoking, and eating certain groups of foods. Results The respondents consuming fruits and vegetables several times a week have a reduced risk of odds ratio and the OR is 0.85; 95% CI: 0.18-4.09, compared to the women who rarely consume vegetables and fruits. Consumption of whole-wheat bread several times a week reduces the risk of developing the cancer, OR = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.14-2.47, compared to women not consuming wholegrain bread at all. Respondents who consumed red meat, such as veal, pork, and lamb in the amount of 101-200 g per day have an increased risk of developing the disease: OR = 2.16; 95% CI: 1.09-4.28, compared to women not consuming red meat at all. Conclusions A diet rich in fruit and vegetables, onions, garlic, whole grains, and beans should be introduced in order to reduce the risk of endometrial cancer. The consumption of red meat and white pasta should be reduced or even eliminated.
Interval estimators for the population mean for skewed distributions with a small sample size

In finite population sampling, it has long been known that, for small sample sizes, when sampling from a skewed population, the usual frequentist intervals for the population mean cover the true value less often than their stated frequency of coverage. Recently, a non-informative Bayesian approach to some problems in finite population sampling has been developed, which is based on the 'Polya posterior'. For large sample sizes, these methods often closely mimic standard frequentist methods. In this paper, a modification of the 'Polya posterior', which employs the weighted Polya distribution, is shown to give interval estimators with improved coverage properties for problems with skewed populations and small sample sizes. This approach also yields improved tests for hypotheses about the mean of a skewed distribution.