Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Where did the Smart Money go ? Evidence on fund-selection ability amongst UK investors

Studies have shown mixed results in testing fund-selection ability amongst investors as a possible explanation to the mutual fund puzzle proposed by Gruber (1996). While most studies focus on the US mutual fund market, Keswani & Stolin (2008) propose that the smart money effect is empirically evident in the UK market, using data on funds from 1991-2000. This study aims to evaluate their hypothesis on the latest dataset from 2000 – 2010, for two important reasons. Firstly, most of the growth in the fund industry had taken place over the last decade, and hence the smart money effect as the explanation for this growth should be prominent during this period. Secondly, a regulatory shock to the fund industry took place in 1997 that effectively increased competition within the industry. Increased competition usually benefits the consumer, through both direct and indirect channels. In this case, the investor can be expected to witness increased performance, reduced fees and better governance in funds, causing a stronger smart money effect. However, the results in this study contradict these expectations. Possible explanations for this include excessive risk-taking by fund managers and increased search costs for investors, amongst other reasons. 1 Correspondence to: Imtiaz ul Haq, 5.11, MBS West, Off Booth Street East, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK M15 6PB.Email: imtiaz.ulhaq@postgrad.mbs. ac.uk, Tel: (44)-735602201.
Detection is unaffected by the deployment of focal attention

There has been much debate regarding how much information humans can extract from their environment without the use of limited attentional resources. In a recent study, Theeuwes et al. (2008) argued that even detection of simple feature targets is not possible without selection by focal attention. Supporting this claim, they found response time (RT) benefits in a simple feature (color) detection task when a target letter's identity was repeated on consecutive trials, suggesting that the letter was selected by focal attention and identified prior to detection. This intertrial repetition benefit remained even when observers were required to simultaneously identify a central digit. However, we found that intertrial repetition benefits disappeared when a simple color target was presented among a heterogeneously (rather than homogeneously) colored set of distractors, thus reducing its bottom–up salience. Still, detection performance remained high. Thus, detection performance was unaffected by whether a letter was focally attended and identified prior to detection or not. Intertrial identity repetition benefits also disappeared when observers were required to perform a simultaneous, attention-demanding central task (Experiment 2), or when unfamiliar Chinese characters were used (Experiment 3). Together, these results suggest that while shifts of focal attention can be affected by target salience, by the availability of excess cognitive resources, and by target familiarity, detection performance itself is unaffected by these manipulations and is thus unaffected by the deployment of focal attention.
atTic110 Is Essential for the Assembly and Function of the Protein Import Machinery of Plastids W

The translocon at the inner envelope membrane of chloroplasts (Tic) plays a central role in plastid biogenesis by coordinating the sorting of nucleus-encoded preproteins across the inner membrane and coordinating the interactions of preproteins with the processing and folding machineries of the stroma. Despite these activities, the precise roles of known Tic proteins in translocation, sorting, and preprotein maturation have not been deﬁned. In this report, we examine the in vivo function of a major Tic component, Tic110. We demonstrate that Arabidopsis thaliana Tic110 (atTic110) is essential for plastid biogenesis and plant viability. The downregulation of atTic110 expression results in the reduced accumulation of a wide variety of plastid proteins. The expression of dominant negative mutants of atTic110 disrupts assembly of Tic complexes and the translocation of preproteins across the inner envelope membrane. Together, these data suggest that Tic110 plays a general role in the import of nuclear-encoded preproteins as a common component of Tic complexes.
A low-power 64-point pipeline FFT/IFFT processor for OFDM applications

4G and other wireless systems are currently hot topics of research and development in the communication field. Broadband wireless systems based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) often require an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce multiple subcarriers. In this paper, we present the efficient implementation of a pipeline FFT/IFFT processor for OFDM applications. Our design adopts a single-path delay feedback style as the proposed hardware architecture. To eliminate the read-only memories (ROM's) used to store the twiddle factors, the proposed architecture applies a reconfigurable complex multiplier and bit-parallel multipliers to achieve a ROM-less FFT/IFFT processor, thus consuming lower power than the existing works. The design spends about 33.6K gates, and its power consumption is about 9.8mW at 20MHz.
Varieties of Gossip in a Spanish Rural Community1

Since publication of Gluckman's groundbreaking paper in I963, anthropologists interpreting gossip have split into two camps. The first camp, following Gluckman, is functionalist and approaches the subject from the perspective of methodological holism. It views gossip as a spontaneous collective sanction, as public opinion enforcing conformity to community norms. For Gluckman and his followers, gossip is a group-binding, boundary-maintaining mechanism (Gluck
Mitigating Security Risks for End User Computing Application (EUCA) Data

Along with traditional applications that record, process, and report financial transactions, virtually all organizations use End User Computing Applications (EUCAs) such as Microsoft (MS) Excel spreadsheets, MS Access databases, Business Intelligence (BI) Reports, and MS Word documents for data storage, calculations, and reporting. These EUCAs are important components of the financial reporting process and are “data feeders” to ERP applications such as SAP®, Oracle Financials®, and PeopleSoft®. EUCAs are also key elements in supporting processes like Quote to Collect, Procure to Pay, Planning/Budgeting, and Financial Reporting. In this paper, we investigate the components of a typical EUCA, define the risks associated with reliance on such systems, and provide solutions that can be deployed to partially address the standard security concerns (e.g., confidentiality, integrity, availability). The need to mitigate the risks of sensitive information assets is in direct alignment the objectives of mission assurance and operational resilience for private sector organizations.
Metagenomic Analysis of Hadopelagic Microbial Assemblages Thriving at the Deepest Part of Mediterranean Sea, Matapan-vavilov Deepe Mi_2827 1..16

The marine pelagic zone situated > 200 m below the sea level (bls) is the largest marine subsystem, comprising more than two-thirds of the oceanic volume. At the same time, it is one of the least explored ecosystems on Earth. Few large-scale environmental genomics studies have been undertaken to examine the phylogenetic diversity and functional gene repertoire of planktonic microbes present in mesopelagic and bathypelagic environments. Here, we present the description of the deep-sea microbial community thriving at > 4900 m depth in Matapan-Vavilov Deep (MVD). This canyon is the deepest site of Mediterra-nean Sea, with a deepest point located at approximately 5270 m, 56 km SW of city Pylos (Greece) in the Ionian Sea (36°34.00N, 21°07.44E). Comparative analysis of whole-metagenomic data revealed that unlike other deep-sea metagenomes, the prokaryotic diversity in MVD was extremely poor. The decline in the dark primary production rates, measured at 4908 m depth, was coincident with overwhelming dominance of copiotrophic Alteromonas macleodii 'deep-ecotype' AltDE at the expense of other prokary-otes including those potentially involved in both autotrophic and anaplerotic CO 2 fixation. We also demonstrate the occurrence in deep-sea metage-nomes of several clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats systems.
Current Star Formation in the Ophiuchus and Perseus Molecular Clouds: Constraints and Comparisons from Unbiased Submillimeter and Mid-Infrared Surveys. II.

We present a census of the population of deeply embedded young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud complex based on a combination of Spitzer Space Telescope mid-infrared data from the “Cores to Disks” (c2d) legacy team and JCMT/SCUBA submillimeter maps from the COMPLETE team. We have applied a method developed for identifying embedded protostars in Perseus to these data sets and in this way construct a relatively unbiased sample of 27 candidate embedded protostars with envelopes more massive than our sensitivity limit (about 0.1 M☉). As in Perseus, the mid-infrared sources are located close to the center of the SCUBA cores and the narrowness of the spatial distribution of mid-infrared sources around the peaks of the SCUBA cores suggests that no significant dispersion of the newly formed YSOs has occurred. Embedded YSOs are found in 35% of the SCUBA cores—fewer than in Perseus (58%). On the other hand the mid-infrared sources in Ophiuchus have less red mid-infrared colors, possibly indicating that they are less embedded. We apply a nearest neighbor surface density algorithm to define the substructure in each of the clouds and calculate characteristic numbers for each subregion—including masses, star formation efficiencies, fraction of embedded sources, etc. Generally the main clusters in Ophiuchus and Perseus (L1688, NGC 1333, and IC 348) are found to have higher star formation efficiencies than small groups such as B1, L1455, and L1448, which on the other hand are completely dominated by deeply embedded protostars. We discuss possible explanations for the differences between the regions in Perseus and Ophiuchus, such as different evolutionary timescales for the YSOs or differences, e.g., in the accretion in the two clouds.
Language anxiety in the immigrant context: Sweaty palms?

Aims and objectives: This is a proof-of-concept study designed to evaluate the level of language anxiety among immigrants by assessing autonomic arousal associated with heritage language anxiety and majority language anxiety among three generations of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. It examines the possible relationship between physiology, bilingual speech, language background variables and language anxiety. Design: Two measures of electrodermal activity – skin conductance level (SCL) and skin conductance response (SCR) – were recorded during a video-retelling task in six experimental phases: baseline (2×), free (bilingual) mode (2×), monolingual heritage-language (Turkish) mode, and monolingual majority-language (Dutch) mode. Participants (n=30) ranked their level of language anxiety after the Turkish monolingual mode and Dutch monolingual mode. A Likert scale-based questionnaire was used to gather information on language background variables (i.e. age of acquisition, oral language proficiency and frequency of language use). Findings: Third-generation bilinguals, to a greater extent than first- and second-generation bilinguals, demonstrated greater autonomic arousal during the Turkish monolingual mode than during the Dutch one. Participants’ SCLs/SCRs in monolingual modes were strongly correlated with their self-reports on heritage and majority language anxiety. Higher levels of SCLs/SCRs in the Turkish monolingual mode were negatively correlated with participants’ Turkish oral proficiency levels and frequency of daily use of Turkish. The correlations between SCLs/SCRs in the Dutch monolingual mode and participants’ Dutch oral proficiency levels and frequency of daily use of Dutch, on the other hand, were low to non-significant. These findings suggest that language anxiety is also related to social and psychological factors, rather than only self-perceived low language proficiency. Implications: The outcome confirms the presence of language anxiety in immigrant contexts. An interdisciplinary approach that applies physiological measures together with social factors and self-reports can shed further light on language anxiety. Originality: The study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of language anxiety in immigrant contexts and provides evidence for the relationship between anxiety, bilingual speech and autonomic arousal.
Teaching Thinking Skills in Teacher Education

ABSTRACT: The thinking skills policy in Malaysia is motivated by the aspiration of the 2020 Vision that was published in 1991. The vision states explicitly that Malaysia will become a fully developed nation by the year 2020. So, teaching the thinking skills has also been given a high priority in educational policy. However, many teachers are ill-equipped with the ability to teach thinking skills. Therefore, as the producer of current and future teacher, teacher education programme should emphasize thinking skills teaching. This study aimed at identifying the extent to which teacher educators provide an exemplary practice of thinking skills teaching to student teachers. Specifically, this study investigates whether teacher educators provide the opportunity to student teachers to engage in teaching and learning that emphasized the integration of thinking skills. This study was conducted at one teacher education programme in Malaysia. All final year student teacher (60) were selected as the samples. A set of questionnaire used as an instrument. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Science and the findings were reported in the form of frequency and percentage. The findings indicate the lack integration of various forms of thinking skills in teaching and learning activities. The traditional approach of a one-way communication technique was more dominant compare to the teaching technique that promotes thinking skills. Hence, this study has several practical implications for teacher education programme for producing future teachers with the ability to implement thinking skills policy in schools. KEY WORDS: Thinking skills, educational policy, teacher education, teacher educator, student-teacher, teaching and learning activities, and ability to implement thinking skills policy. About the Authors: Christina Andin @ Nur Qistina , Abdul Said Ambotang and Musirin Mosin are the Lecturers at the Faculty of Psychology and Education UMS (Malaysia University of Sabah), 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. For academic interests, the authors can be contacted via their e-mails at: christina@ums.edu. my , said@ums.edu. my , and m_musirin@yahoo.com How to cite this article? Nur Qistina, Christina Andin @, Abdul Said Ambotang & Musirin Mosin. (2015). “Teaching Thinking Skills in Teacher Education” in EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies , Vol.8(1) August, pp.31-44. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda Masagi Press and UMP Purwokerto, ISSN 1979-7877. Chronicle of the article: Accepted (May 14, 2015); Revised (June 29, 2015); and Published (August 25, 2015).
Interactive scene prediction for automotive applications

In this work, a framework for motion prediction of vehicles and safety assessment of traffic scenes is presented. The developed framework can be used for driver assistant systems as well as for autonomous driving applications. In order to assess the safety of the future trajectories of the vehicle, these systems require a prediction of the future motion of all traffic participants. As the traffic participants have a mutual influence on each other, the interaction of them is explicitly considered in this framework, which is inspired by an optimization problem. Taking the mutual influence of traffic participants into account, this framework differs from the existing approaches which consider the interaction only insufficiently, suffering reliability in real traffic scenes. For motion prediction, the collision probability of a vehicle performing a certain maneuver, is computed. Based on the safety evaluation and the assumption that drivers avoid collisions, the prediction is realized. Simulation scenarios and real-world results show the functionality.
Development of a scale to measure symptoms of anxiety and depression in the general UK population: the psychiatric symptom frequency scale.

OBJECTIVES: The psychiatric symptom frequency (PSF) scale was developed to assess symptoms of anxiety and depression (i.e. affective symptoms) experienced over the past year in the general population. This study aimed to examine the distribution of PSF scores, internal consistency, and factor structure and to investigate relationships between total scores for this scale and other indicators of poor mental health. PARTICIPANTS: The Medical Research Council national survey of health and development, a class stratified cohort study of men and women followed up from birth in 1946, with the most recent interview at age 43 when the PSF scale was administered. MAIN RESULTS: The PSF scale showed high internal consistency between the 18 items (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88). Ratings on items of the scale reflected one predominant factor, incorporating both depression and anxiety, and two additional factors of less statistical importance, one reflecting sleep problems and the other panic and situational anxiety. Total scores were calculated by adding 18 items of the scale, and high total scores were found to be strongly associated with reports of contact with a doctor or other health professional and use of prescribed medication for "nervous or emotional trouble or depression," and with suicidal ideas. CONCLUSIONS: The PSF is a useful and valid scale for evaluating affective symptoms in the general population. It is appropriate for administration by lay interviewers with minimal training, is relatively brief, and generates few missing data. The total score is a flexible measure which can be used in continuous or binary form to suit the purposes of individual investigations, and provides discrimination at lower as well as upper levels of symptom severity.
Hard Instances of Algorithms and Proof Systems

If the class TAUT of tautologies of propositional logic has no almost optimal algorithm, then every algorithm A deciding TAUT has a hard sequence, that is, a polynomial time computable sequence witnessing that A is not almost optimal. We show that this result extends to every Πt p-complete problem with t ≥1; however, assuming the Measure Hypothesis, there is a problem which has no almost optimal algorithm but is decided by an algorithm without hard sequences. For problems Q with an almost optimal algorithm, we analyze whether every algorithm deciding Q, which is not almost optimal, has a hard sequence.
Activation of Phosphatidylinositol-Linked Dopamine Receptors Induces a Facilitation of Glutamate-Mediated Synaptic Transmission in the Lateral Entorhinal Cortex

The lateral entorhinal cortex receives strong inputs from midbrain dopamine neurons that can modulate its sensory and mnemonic function. We have previously demonstrated that 1 µM dopamine facilitates synaptic transmission in layer II entorhinal cortex cells via activation of D1-like receptors, increased cAMP-PKA activity, and a resulting enhancement of AMPA-receptor mediated currents. The present study assessed the contribution of phosphatidylinositol (PI)-linked D1 receptors to the dopaminergic facilitation of transmission in layer II of the rat entorhinal cortex, and the involvement of phospholipase C activity and release of calcium from internal stores. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of glutamate-mediated evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents were obtained from pyramidal and fan cells. Activation of D1-like receptors using SKF38393, SKF83959, or 1 µM dopamine induced a reversible facilitation of EPSCs which was abolished by loading cells with either the phospholipase C inhibitor U-73122 or the Ca2+ chelator BAPTA. Neither the L-type voltage-gated Ca2+ channel blocker nifedipine, nor the L/N-type channel blocker cilnidipine, blocked the facilitation of synaptic currents. However, the facilitation was blocked by blocking Ca2+ release from internal stores via inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3) receptors or ryanodine receptors. Follow-up studies demonstrated that inhibiting CaMKII activity with KN-93 failed to block the facilitation, but that application of the protein kinase C inhibitor PKC(19-36) completely blocked the dopamine-induced facilitation. Overall, in addition to our previous report indicating a role for the cAMP-PKA pathway in dopamine-induced facilitation of synaptic transmission, we demonstrate here that the dopaminergic facilitation of synaptic responses in layer II entorhinal neurons also relies on a signaling cascade dependent on PI-linked D1 receptors, PLC, release of Ca2+ from internal stores, and PKC activation which is likely dependent upon both DAG and enhanced intracellular Ca2+. These signaling pathways may collaborate to enhance sensory and mnemonic function in the entorhinal cortex during tonic release of dopamine.
Supplemental oxygen improves diabetic macular edema: a pilot study.

PURPOSE Diabetic macular edema (DME) is the most common cause of moderate visual disability in persons of working age in the United States. The pathogenesis of DME is poorly understood. In this study, the effect of retinal hypoxia in the development and maintenance of DME was investigated. METHODS Five patients with chronic DME despite at least one focal laser photocoagulation treatment (nine eyes) received 4 L/min of inspired oxygen by nasal cannula for 3 months. Best corrected visual acuity (VA) and retinal thickness, assessed by optical coherence tomography (OCT), were measured at baseline, during 3 months of oxygen treatment, and for 3 months after stopping oxygen. RESULTS After 3 months of oxygen therapy, nine of nine eyes with DME at baseline showed a reduction in thickness of the center of the macula. Foveal thickness (FTH) above the normal range was reduced by an average of 43.5% (range, 14%-100%), excess foveolar thickness (CEN) was reduced by an average of 42.1% (range, 13%-100%), and excess macular volume was reduced by an average of 54% (range, 35%-100%). Statistical analyses suggested that these changes were unlikely to be due to chance (P = 0.0077 by Wilcoxon signed-rank test). Three eyes showed improvement in VA by at least 2 lines, one by slightly less than 2 lines, and five eyes showed no change. Three months after discontinuation of oxygen, five of the nine eyes showed increased thickening of the macula compared with when oxygen was discontinued. CONCLUSIONS Supplemental inspired oxygen may decrease macular thickness due to DME, suggesting that retinal hypoxia is involved in the development and maintenance of DME.