Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Investigation into Apprenticeship Completion and Retention in Northern Ireland: A Social Exchange Perspective

This paper investigates effective strategies for enhancing completion rates of apprentices and their retention after completing their training. The study was cross sectional and qualitative, involving semi&#8208;structured interviews with managers and four focus groups involving current and completed apprentices from within the engineering sector. The findings revealed that the factors that can enhance intentions of completing an apprenticeship were perceived organisation support (POS) factors such as apprentice pay, recognition and employer support. Leader Member Exchange (LMX) factors such as support from trainers and supervisors, would increase their intentions to complete an apprenticeship and stay on with an organisation after training. The key Percieved Organisational Support factors that would enhance intentions to stay with the organisation after completion were post apprenticeship pay, career progression and challenging and interesting work. Participants with high Perceived Organisational Support and Leader&#8208;Member Exchange, had higher intentions of completing an apprenticeship and staying with the employer after completion and vice versa. This research added to the literature on apprenticeships as it analysed the factors influencing current and completed apprentices&#8217; intentions to discontinue or complete an apprenticeship and stay with or leave their employer after completion through the lens of social exchange theory (SET) (Blau, 1964). This is unlike previous studies that emphasised motivation theory. Social Exchange Theory was supported as both employers and apprentices weighed the costs and benefits of their relationship which impacted on their completion and retention choices. The implication of this study is that employers should develop effective strategies for enhancing completion and retention rates to reap the full benefits from apprenticeships.
Coherent intertwiner solution of simplicity constraint in all dimensional loop quantum gravity

We propose a new treatment of the quantum simplicity constraints appearing in the general ${SO(D+1)}$ formulation of loop quantum gravity for the ${(1+D)}$-dimensional space-time. Instead of strongly imposing the constraints, we construct a specific form of weak solutions by employing the spin net-work states with specific ${SO(D+1)}$ coherent intertwiners. These states weakly satisfy the quantum simplicity constraint via the vanishing expectation values, and the quantum Gaussian constraints can be imposed strongly. Remarkably, those specific ${SO(D+1)}$ coherent intertwiners used to construct our solutions have natural interpretations of the $D$-dimensional polytopes, commonly viewed as basic units of the discrete spatial geometry. Therefore, while the strong imposition of the quantum simplicity constraints leads to an over-constrained solution space, our weak solution space for the constraints may contain the correct semiclassical degrees of freedom for intrinsic geometry of the spatial hypersurfaces. Moreover, some concrete relations are established between our construction and other existing approaches in solving the simplicity constraints in all dimensional loop quantum gravity, providing valuable insights into this unresolved important issue.
Detecting X‐ray filaments in the low‐redshift Universe with XEUS and Constellation‐X

We propose a possible way to detect baryons at low redshifts from the analysis of X-ray absorption spectra of bright AGN pairs. A simple semi-analytical model to simulate the spectra is presented. We model the diffuse warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) component, responsible for the X-ray absorption, using inputs from high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations and analytical prescriptions. We show that the number of O VII absorbers per unit redshift with column density larger than 10 1 3 . 5 cm - 2 - corresponding to an equivalent width of ∼1 km s - 1 -that will possibly be detectable by XEUS, is ≥30 per unit redshift. Constellation-X will detect ∼6 O VII absorptions per unit redshift with an equivalent width of 10 km s - 1 . Our results show that, in a ACDM universe, the characteristic size of these absorbers at z ∼0.1 is ∼1 h - 1 Mpc. The filamentary structure of WHIM can be probed by finding coincident absorption lines in the spectra of background AGN pairs. We estimate that at least 20 AGN pairs at separation ≤20 arcmin are needed to detect this filamentary structure at the 3σ level. Assuming observations of distant sources using XEUS for exposure times of 500 ks, we find that the minimum source flux to probe the filamentary structure is ∼2 x 10 - 1 2 erg cm - 2 s - 1 in the 0.1-2.4 keV energy band. Thus, most pairs of these extragalactic X-ray bright sources have already been identified in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. Re-observation of these objects by future missions could be a powerful way to search for baryons in the low-redshift Universe.
An Empirical Study of Consumer Switching from Traditional to Electronic Channels: A Purchase-Decision Process Perspective

This paper examines the relationship between purchase decisions and channel-switching intentions. A theoretical model that explains channel-switching intentions was tested with a sample of 337 consumers. The results show a 52 percent tendency to switch from off-line to on-line across four product categories: books, airline tickets, wine, and stereo systems. The order of the switching tendency was consistent with the products' search and experience attributes. Logistic regression analysis across product categories shows that differences in channel-risk perceptions, price-search intentions, evaluation effort, and waiting time have a significant impact on consumer switching from off-line to online shopping. Consumers who purchase on-line perceive significantly lower channel risk, search effort, evaluation effort, and waiting (delivery) time on-line than off-line and express significantly higher price-search intentions on-line than off-line. Consumers attracted to off-line channels also perceive lower search-cost and higher price-search intentions online than off-line, but their perceived on-line search effort and price-search intentions are significantly lower than for consumers attracted to on-line channels. These results support the important influence of the examined factors on channel switching. They also suggest that demographics may not be an effective basis for market segmentation.
Observation of the GZK Cutoff by the HiRes Experiment

The High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment has observed the GZK cutoff. HiRes' measurement of the flux of cosmic rays shows a sharp suppression at an energy of 6 x 10^{19} eV, exactly the expected cutoff energy. We observe the ``ankle'' of the cosmic ray spectrum as well, at an energy of 4 x 10^{18} eV. We describe the experiment, data collection, analysis, and estimate the systematic uncertainties. The results are presented and the calculation of a five standard deviation observation of the GZK cutoff is described.
Occluded Character Restoration Using Active Contour with Shape Priors

Broken or partially visible characters is common phenomenon in historical documents. It stems from various factors, such as overlaid text or degradation. Restoring such characters is necessary for document analysis applications. This paper presents a new approach for restoring underlaying Hebrew broken characters that were partially occluded by Arabic text in a palimpsest. We apply text recognition on the fragments of the Hebrew letters and select the k candidate letters that match best the fragments of the Hebrew letters. We then complete the broken Hebrew characters using active contour with the k candidates as shape priors. We use a modified geodesic active contour, which we tailored to occluded text restoration. It is initialized on the fragments of the Hebrew text, then it undergoes an expansion phase and a contraction phase via the occluding Arabic text to form the restored Hebrew character. We measure the distance between the completed character and its corresponding priors and choose the shape with the minimal distance as the reconstructed character. Experimental results are presented. On average 68% of the characters were correctly reconstructed.
Functional and structural deficits in brain regions subserving face perception in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE Schizophrenia impairs many cognitive functions, including face perception. Veridical face perception is critical for social interaction, including distinguishing friend from foe and familiar from unfamiliar faces. The main aim of this study was to determine whether patients with schizophrenia show less activation in neural networks related to face processing, compared with healthy subjects, and to investigate the relationships between this functional abnormality and anatomical abnormalities in the fusiform gyrus shown with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHOD Twenty male chronic schizophrenia patients and 16 healthy comparison subjects matched with the patients for age, gender, handedness, and parental socioeconomic status underwent high-spatial-resolution MRI. Event-related potentials elicited by images of faces, cars, and hands were recorded in a separate session. RESULTS Compared to the healthy subjects, the patients with schizophrenia showed bilateral N170 amplitude reduction in response to images of faces but not to images of other objects. The patients also had smaller bilateral anterior and posterior fusiform gyrus gray matter volumes, compared to the healthy subjects. In addition, right posterior fusiform gyrus volume was significantly correlated with N170 amplitude measured at the right posterior temporal electrode site in response to images of faces in the schizophrenia patients but not in the healthy comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS The results provide evidence for deficits in the early stages of face perception in schizophrenia. The association of these deficits with smaller fusiform gyrus volume in patients with schizophrenia, relative to healthy subjects, suggests that the fusiform gyrus is the site of a defective anatomical substrate for face processing in schizophrenia.
Hrm - Well-Being At Work Relation. A Case Study

Studies in human resource management (HRM) field require for more focus on employees related objectives. A recommended way to answer this request is to focus on employees’ well-being at work. The relation between HRM and well-being at work started to be recently analysed in this new shape, even though some other forms started to be researched more than 25 years ago. However the focus was on quantitative analysis, while the contextual, qualitative research was somehow neglected (with respect to those studies that approached this matter). This paper aims at covering this gap and exploring the HRM-well-being at work relation considering contextual factors that may influence this link. Among the contextual factors considered are human resource (HR) principles, HR function position and role into the organisation on one side (internal factors) and external factors like labour market, business competition, economic factors, on the other side. A mixed-method research (qual. −> Quant, sequential design) was conducted into one national, 100% Romanian capital organisation, in order to find out which HR interventions can raise the work related well-being. The findings support the need for taking into consideration the contextual approach, as the qualitative research may bring the answer to the well-known ‘why’ question.
Effects of placebos without deception compared with no treatment: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction Placebos have long provided a robust control for evaluating active pharmacological preparations, but frequently demonstrate a variable therapeutic effect when delivered in double-blinded placebo-controlled trials. Delivery of placebos as treatment alone has been considered unethical, as it has been thought that deception is essential for their effect. However, recent evidence suggests that clinical benefit can be derived from placebos delivered without deception (unblinded/open-label) manner. Here, we present a protocol for the first systematic review and meta-analysis of studies of the effects of non-deceptive placebos compared with no treatment. Methods and analysis This protocol will compare the effect of placebos delivered non-deceptively to no treatment. It will also assess the methods of delivery used for non-deceptive placebos. Studies will be sought through relevant database searches and will include those within disease settings and those among healthy controls. To be included, trials must include both non-deceptive (open-label) placebo and no treatment groups. All data extraction and analysis will be conducted by two independent reviewers. The analysis will evaluate any differences in outcome measures between the non-deceptive placebo and no treatment groups. Outcome measures will be the clinically-relevant outcomes detailed in the primary papers. The delivery methods, such as verbal instructions, which may provide positive expectations and outcomes, of non-deceptive placebos will also be assessed. Each study will be comprehensively assessed for bias. Subgroup analyses will identify any discrepancies among heterogeneous data. Ethics and dissemination This review does not require ethical approval. The completed review will be widely disseminated by publication and social media where appropriate. This protocol has been registered on PROSPERO (2015:CRD42015023347).
Dendritic BC1 RNA in translational control mechanisms

Translational control at the synapse is thought to be a key determinant of neuronal plasticity. How is such control implemented? We report that small untranslated BC1 RNA is a specific effector of translational control both in vitro and in vivo. BC1 RNA, expressed in neurons and germ cells, inhibits a rate-limiting step in the assembly of translation initiation complexes. A translational repression element is contained within the unique 3′ domain of BC1 RNA. Interactions of this domain with eukaryotic initiation factor 4A and poly(A) binding protein mediate repression, indicating that the 3′ BC1 domain targets a functional interaction between these factors. In contrast, interactions of BC1 RNA with the fragile X mental retardation protein could not be documented. Thus, BC1 RNA modulates translation-dependent processes in neurons and germs cells by directly interacting with translation initiation factors.
The Heat kernel approach for calculating the effective action in quantum fie

A short informal overview about recent progress in the calculation of the effective action in quantum gravity is given. I describe briefly the standard heat kernel approach to the calculation of the effective action and discuss the applicability of the Schwinger - De Witt asymptotic expansion in the case of strong background fields. I propose a new ansatz for the heat kernel that generalizes the Schwinger - De Witt one and is always valid. Then I discuss the general structure of the asymptotic expansion and put forward some approximate explicitly covariant methods for calculating the heat kernel, namely, the high-energy approximation as well as the low-energy one. In both cases the explicit formulae for the heat kernel are given.
The Complex X-Ray Morphology of NGC 7618: A Major Group-Group Merger in the Local Universe?

We present results from a short Chandra ACIS-S observation of NGC 7618, the dominant central galaxy of a nearby (z = 0.017309, d = 74.1 Mpc) group. We detect a sharp surface brightness discontinuity 14.4 kpc north of the nucleus subtending an angle of 130° with an X-ray tail extending ~70 kpc in the opposite direction. The temperature of the gas inside and outside the discontinuity is 0.79 ± 0.03 and 0.81 ± 0.07 keV, respectively. There is marginal evidence for a discontinuous change in the elemental abundance (Zinner = 0.65 ± 0.25, Zouter = 0.17 ± 0.21 at 90% confidence), suggesting that this may be an "abundance" front. Fitting a two-temperature model to the ASCA GIS spectrum of the NGC 7618/UGC 12491 pair shows the presence of a second, much hotter (T =~ 2.3 keV) component. We consider several scenarios for the origin of the edge and the tail, including a radio lobe/IGM interaction, nonhydrostatic "sloshing," equal-mass merger and collision, and ram pressure stripping. In the last case, we consider the possibility that NGC 7618 is falling into UGC 12491 or that both groups are falling into a gas-poor cluster potential. There are significant problems with the first two models, however, and we conclude that the discontinuity and tail are most likely the result of ram pressure stripping of the NGC 7618 group, as it falls into a larger dark matter potential.
A user space EtherCAT master architecture for hard real-time control systems

Recently, the open-source EtherCAT master developed by the IgH company, has been enhanced with the introduction of the EtherCAT library, which allows to develop control applications in user space. This feature makes it possible to build complex applications that need to use the floating point unit or existing user space libraries. Unfortunately, the EtherCAT library does not seem to be able to guarantee a high degree of determinism. In this paper, first the real-time performance of the user space implementation of the EtherCAT master is evaluated and compared with the one that can be obtained by implementing the same control application at the kernel level. Then, we propose an alternative hard real-time approach based on RTAI, that allows to exploit all the advantages of user space development, with a negligible impact on performance.
Short-Term Musical Training and Pyschoacoustical Abilities

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of short-term perceptual training of music on some psycho-acoustical measures. The study was carried out in three phases. In first the phase pre-training evaluation was done which included raga identification and various psycho acoustical tests. Psycho-acoustical tests included measurement of differential limen of frequency and intensity, duration discrimination, gap detection, modulation detection, backward masking and duration pattern test. In the second phase, auditory perceptual training was given for raga identification and in the third phase post- training evaluation was done though same tests as mentioned in pre-training phase. A total of 10 normal hearing adults (7 males, 3 females) in the age range of 18-25 years participated in the study. The results revealed that all the subjects performed significantly better on raga identification after training. However; there was no significant difference in psycho-acoustical measures in pre and post-training.
Brain MRI Findings in Children 2 - 4 Years Old with Autism

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a range of clinical presentations, from mild to severe, that is now classified in a broader class of disease called ‘‘autism spectrum disorders’’ (ASD). The aim of this study was to investigate Brain MRI findings in children (2-4 years old) with autism. The sample of the study included 40 autistic children aged 2 to 4 years whose disease was confirmed by a fellow psychiatrist based on the diagnostic criteria of autism spectrum disorders DSM IV-R. Having explained the study to parents and after obtaining their consent, a questionnaire was completed and a three-dimensional brain MRI was performed for each patient in the radiology department of Ghaem or Imam Reza hospitals. From among the 40 patients, 25 patients had a history of convulsion. Among the other patients, 4 patients (10%) suffered from simple febrile convulsion (simple FC), 2 cases from complex febrile convulsion (complex FC), 6 cases (15%) from TCG and 3 (7.5%) from Landau– Kleffner syndrome (LKS). Of the 15 patients with a history of convulsion disorders, 5 patients (12.5%) used phenobarbital, 4 patients (10%) took valproate and 2 patients (5%) were treated with multi-drug regimen. Although, we did not measure white matter connections, lesions in such neuroanatomic pathways may be causal factors of behavioral and emotional dysfunctions in autistic patients. Finally, it is also important to understand how WMH severity changes over time.
Intraspecific variation in testis size of small mammals: implications for muscle mass

Intraspecific variation in testis size is usually interpreted in the context of sperm competition, yet an unconsidered consequence of increased testis size may be an increase in the production of testosterone, which can affect the growth of muscle mass. After muscle mass is corrected for body size, male small mammals have more muscle mass than females, which suggests that it may be a sexually selected trait. An enhanced musculature may have fitness consequences with respect to male mate-searching activities and malemale competition for access to females. We tested the prediction that males with large testes have more muscle mass (measured as lean dry mass) by examining testis size and body composition in three species of small mammals (bushy-tailed wood rat (Neotoma cinerea), deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), and red-backed vole (Clethrionomys gapperi)) from the Kananaskis Valley, Alberta. In all three species, males with relatively large testes had relatively more lean dry mass than males with relati.
Fuzzy Content-Based Image Retrieval for Oceanic Remote Sensing

The detection of mesoscale oceanic structures, such as upwellings or eddies, from satellite images has significance for marine environmental studies, coastal resource management, and ocean dynamics studies. Nevertheless, there is a lack of tools that allow us to retrieve automatically relevant mesoscale structures from large satellite image databases. This paper focuses on the development and validation of a content-based image retrieval system to classify and retrieve oceanic structures from satellite images. The images were obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer sensor. The study area is about W2° - 21°, N19° - 45°. This system conducts labeling and retrieval of the most relevant and typical mesoscale oceanic structures, such as upwellings, eddies, and island wakes located in the Canary Islands area and in the Mediterranean and Cantabrian seas. Our work is based on several soft computing technologies such as fuzzy logic and neurofuzzy systems.
The Investigation of the Relationship between Happiness Levels of the Faculty of Sports Sciences and the Levels of Life Satisfaction and Optimism

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between happiness levels of university students with levels oflife satisfaction and optimism. The study sample consists of 318 freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior studentsrandomly selected from the departments of Physical Education and Sports Teaching, Coaching Education, SportsManagement, and Recreation Education of Faculty of Sports Sciences, Erciyes University, Turkey.Happiness Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Life Orientation Scale, as well as “Personal Information Form”prepared by the researcher were used as the data collection tools for the purpose of this research.The data obtained from Personal Information Form, Happiness Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and LifeOrientation Scale was analyzed statistically with SPSS 20.0 package program. Personal information and inventorytotal scores, as well as factor scores for the candidates, are given by determining the frequency (f) and percentage (%)values. To determine the relationship between the scores obtained from the scales, Pearson Product MomentCorrelation Analysis (r), and to determine whether obtained scores are predicting each other or not, multipleregression analysis (β) were applied.As a result, happiness was found to have a high-level positive relation with life satisfaction and optimism.Considering the psychological aspects of the curriculum applied to prospective teachers, increasing the level ofhappiness will contribute to educating more qualified teachers.