Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Remedial Civility Training.

I am an English professor, but I teach a lot of general-education courses, including a large, required survey of Western civilization. Every morning, after setting up all the multimedia components I'm going to need, I stand at the door of my 8:30 a.m. classroom in my jacket and tie and say, "Good morning" to each entering student. Only a few will say "Hi" or "Good morning" in return. About half will give me a somewhat confused nod, not quite making eye contact. The rest will not even look at me; they look at their shoes and keep walking, exuding a vaguely suspicious and hostile air. I don't believe that I catch most of those students off-guard, or that they are simply too groggy to respond appropriately. I suspect they are afraid to be polite because it will signify some kind of solidarity with authority that will harm their standing in the eyes of their peers. My theory seems to be confirmed by the affability of those same students when I greet them one-on-one in a hallway or on one of the paths between buildings. They may not be effusive in those exchanges, but they are at least civil. Whatever the explanation, I sometimes feel stung by students' rudeness. I try to make my classes interesting and relevant, and I care about their learning. I try to conduct myself in a kindly but professional manner. But, more and more, I think the student culture of incivility is a larger impediment to their success than anything they might fail to learn about Western civilization or whatever it is I am teaching. I often hear a lot of talk about the academic weaknesses of new freshmen. Even at a relatively elite college, it's not uncommon to find 18-year-olds who have problems with reading-so much so that almost no incentive can persuade some students to spend an hour with Shakespeare, Kant, or Gibbon. Writing is an even bigger problem for many students. Most have never produced anything longer than a few pages. A serious research paper-involving sources, citation, and maybe eight pages of thoughtful analysis-has become almost entirely unknown before college. The fundamental skills that used to qualify students for admission have been eroded to the point that nothing can be assumed anymore.
Adult Learners Online: Students' Experiences of Learning Online.

Throughout the world, policy-makers are demonstrating their commitment to widening participation in education by promoting alternative pathways to gaining academic qualifications. This paper reports a study which aimed to investigate the potential of online learning to overcome barriers to participating in education by socially disadvantaged adults, and to identify the factors that influenced such students’ participation and successful completion of online learning courses. Seventy-nine adults taking online learning courses with the Open University in the United Kingdom participated in a telephone survey and 15 of these students were also interviewed. Participants perceived themselves as having more easily accessed education because of the option of online learning and reported having benefited from the experience. However, online learning per se should be offered as only one potential means of attracting and retaining adult students, and further exploration into its potential for widening participation is necessary.
Timeliness and Completion Rate of Immunization among Nigerian Children Attending a Clinic-based Immunization Service

To achieve maximal protection against vaccine-preventable diseases, a child should receive all immunizations within recommended intervals. Clinic records of 512 Nigerian children were evaluated for timeliness in receiving vaccines and the completion rates of the schedule. About 30% of the children presented after four weeks of age for their first immunization; 18.9-65% of the children were delayed in receiving various vaccines compared to the recommended ages for receiving the vaccines. Only 227 (44.3%) children were fully immunized. Health education and mass mobilization of the community and health workers are recommended to improve the uptake of vaccines and to encourage timely receipt of vaccines.
Exerting Self-Control Induces a Narrow Mindset

Self-control theories have focused on various aspects of the processes involved in exerting self-control. In the present paper, we intend to add to this literature by demonstrating that exerting self-control leads one to narrow one's attention and cognition, inducing a narrow mindset. We demonstrate this in three studies. Participants who exerted self-control applied a narrower view (Study 1), applied a narrower categorization (Study 2), and used more concrete language (Study 3) than participants who did not exert self-control. Results are discussed in light of the possibility that a narrow mindset enhances performance on the self-control task at hand at the cost of poorer performance on other tasks.
Binding of Pimecrolimus and Tacrolimus to Skin and Plasma Proteins: Implications for Systemic Exposure after Topical Application

Pimecrolimus and tacrolimus are calcineurin inhibitors used for the topical treatment of atopic dermatitis. Although structurally similar, they display specific differences including higher lipophilicity and lower skin permeation of pimecrolimus. The aim of the present study was to understand the reason for the differences in skin permeation; in addition, plasma protein binding of the two drugs was analyzed side by side as a basis for comparison of systemic exposure to free drug. Permeation of pimecrolimus and tacrolimus through a silicon membrane was found to be similar; therefore, we assumed that differences in skin permeation could be caused by differences in affinity to skin components. To test this hypothesis, we investigated binding of pimecrolimus and tacrolimus to a preparation of soluble human skin proteins. One binding protein of approximately 15 kDa, probably corresponding to macrophilin12, displayed a similar binding capacity for pimecrolimus and tacrolimus. However, less specific, nonsaturating binding to other proteins was approximately 3-fold higher for pimecrolimus. Because of the high local drug concentration after topical administration, the unspecific, high-capacity binding is probably dominating the permeation through skin. In plasma both drugs bound predominantly to lipoproteins, which may affect disposition differently from albumin binding. The unbound fraction of pimecrolimus in human plasma was approximately 9-fold lower compared with that of tacrolimus (0.4 ± 0.1 versus 3.7 ± 0.8%). In conclusion, these results provide an explanation for the observed lower systemic exposure to pimecrolimus than to tacrolimus after topical application and suggest that differences in systemic exposure to free drug might be even more pronounced.
Miskitu Women and their Social Contribution to the Regional Politics of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua

This article addresses elements that are central for building a genealogy of contemporary Miskitu indigenous women's participation in various realms, such as the Contra War, the peacemaking process, the popular consultation for Law 28, and the process of autonomy. This narrative brings to the forefront Miskitu women in a continuum of political settings and agendas that inform their agency during a time period that has two political poles: the armed conflict of the 1980s and the slow achievement of autonomy. This article conveys the message that Miskitu women's social and political activism has been central to regional politics, though the institutionalization of autonomy has advanced without properly including indigenous women as political representatives and/or citizens that are in need of special protection against systemic violence.
Tie Strength and Value Creation in the Buyer-Supplier Context: A U-Shaped Relation Moderated by Dependence Asymmetry

This study integrates two disparate genres within tie-strength literature into one model to investigate the mechanisms for value creation in the buyer-supplier context. This research brings together the opposite ends of the tie-strength continuum: the “weak ties,” which are instrumental in tapping into novel ideas and emerging technologies, and the “strong ties,” which promote joint resource investments and capability development. By doing so, we bring salience to the existence of “intermediate ties” (i.e., the ties of moderate strength) and their implications for value creation. Even though the intermediate ties are likely most common in the buyer-supplier context, they have been given short shrift in the literature. We predict a U-shaped relation, where weak ties and strong ties are more effective than intermediate ties in value creation. Furthermore, we explore the moderating role of dependence asymmetry. Our hypotheses are tested using survey data from a major global automaker and its North American suppliers. The results demonstrate that both the weak and strong buyer-supplier ties lead to higher value creation, whereas intermediate ties do not increase value creation. Also, the study illustrates that, overall, asymmetric buyer-supplier ties show diminished value creation, and this moderating effect is particularly pronounced for intermediate ties.
Workplace bullying, employee performance and behaviors : The mediating role of psychological well-being

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether two factors of affective psychological well-being, job satisfaction, and work-related depression, play a role in mediating the relationship between workplace bullying as a social stressor at work and three forms of employee performance or behaviors: task performance, individual-targeted citizenship behavior (OCB-I), and interpersonal counterproductive work behavior (CWB-P). Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopted a cross-sectional survey research design which captured a sample of 262 employees across a number of organizations in a small developing country in the Caribbean region. Findings – The findings revealed that job satisfaction alone partially mediated the relationship between workplace bullying and task performance, whereas work-related depression alone partially mediated the relationship between workplace bullying and OCB-I. Both job satisfaction and work-related depression partially mediated the relationship between workplace bully.
Measurement error and time aggregation: a closer look at estimates of output-labor elasticities

This paper analyzes the effect of time aggregation on estimates of the elasticities of output with respect to employment and to average hours of work. The main goal is to get accurate estimates of production function parameters. Low frequency data generate better estimates of output-employment elasticity while high frequency data generate better estimates of output-average hours elasticity. This result comes from the fact that time aggregation increases (decreases) the bias in the estimate of the elasticity with respect to average hours (employment). Estimations of these elasticities at different data frequencies and numerical simulations illustrate this point. In addition, this estimation methodology shows that the elasticity of output with respect to employment is bigger than the elasticity of output with respect to average hours, as theory predicts, contradicting an established result in the literature.
The role of inhibitory control in task switching

Previous research on task switching has been confounded by inhibitory control mechanism and there has been debate on the source of switch costs and how and when the inhibitory control occurs during task switching. In order to circumvent this problem, the thesis aimed to investigate the role of inhibition in task switching by examining switch costs, alternating switch costs and congruency effect in three tasks when two preparation intervals (short and long) are given. Task switching experiments in the present study captured both flexibility (changes in task) and anticipatory control (preparation interval between cue and target) and provided the measurement for inhibitory control, 'backward inhibition' by alternating switch cost. Backward inhibition was manifest in longer reaction times (and/or more errors) to alternating switch trials (ABA) than to double switch trials (CBA). Reaction time and error in the present study also reflected whether the task in the current trials were easy when it requires the same response as the task in the previous trials, i.e., whether the required response were congruent. The results in the thesis provided the strong evidence for switch costs as one of cognitive control mechanism and it was reduced by the long preparation interval through all the experiments. When the cues were arbitrarily matched for each task, switch costs were increased, suggesting that high working memory load and the effort for interpretation of the cues might cause more additional process during switching tasks. On the other hand, the change of the cue type was insensitive to backward inhibition since there were no significant differences on the size of alternating switch costs. The results imply that the occurrence of backward inhibition is more prone to the type of task you perform and level of congruency.
The perception of undergraduate students towards accountants and the role of accountants in driving organizational change

Purpose – This study aims to bridge the research gap on the perception of accountants, intention to pursue an accounting career and the role of accountants in driving organizational change among undergraduates in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approach – The study sample comprises 279 undergraduate students from a business school in Malaysia. The constructs of the study are leadership, ethical values, professionalism and role of accountants as drivers of change. Exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha are used to assess validity and reliability. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression are employed for hypotheses testing.Findings – The study found that students perceive accountants positively in leadership, professionalism and ethical values. However, only leadership and professionalism exert a significant positive influence on the role of the accountant as a driver of change. Ethical values was not only insignificant but had a negative relationship.Practical implications – The study su.
Improving Post-Hospitalization Transition Outcomes through Accessible Health Information Technology and Caregiver Support: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective The goal of this trial is to evaluate a novel intervention designed to improve post-hospitalization support for older adults with chronic conditions via: (a) direct tailored communication to patients using regular automated calls post discharge, (b) support for informal caregivers outside of the patient’s household via structured automated feedback about the patient’s status plus advice about how caregivers can help, and (c) support for care management including a web-based disease management tool and alerts about potential problems. Methods 846 older adults with common chronic conditions are being identified upon hospital admission. Patients are asked to identify a “CarePartner” (CP) living outside their household, i.e., an adult child or other social network member willing to play an active role in their post-discharge transition support. Patient-CP pairs are randomized to the intervention or usual care. Intervention patients receive automated assessment and behavior change calls, and their CPs receives structured feedback and advice via email and automated calls following each assessment. Clinical teams have access to assessment results via the web and receive automated reports about urgent health problems. Patients complete surveys at baseline, 30 days, and 90 days post discharge; utilization data is obtained from hospital records. CPs, other caregivers, and clinicians are interviewed to evaluate intervention effects on processes of self-care support, caregiver stress and communication, and the intervention’s potential for broader implementation. The primary outcome is 30-day readmission rates; other outcomes measured at 30 days and 90 days include functional status, self-care behaviors, and mortality risk. Conclusion This trial uses accessible health technologies and coordinated communication among informal caregivers and clinicians to fill the growing gap between what discharged patients need and available resources. A unique feature of the intervention is the provision of transition support not only for patients but also for their informal caregivers.
Learning Neural Markers of Schizophrenia Disorder Using Recurrent Neural Networks

Smart systems that can accurately diagnose patients with mental disorders and identify effective treatments based on brain functional imaging data are of great applicability and are gaining much attention. Most previous machine learning studies use hand-designed features, such as functional connectivity, which does not maintain the potential useful information in the spatial relationship between brain regions and the temporal profile of the signal in each region. Here we propose a new method based on recurrent-convolutional neural networks to automatically learn useful representations from segments of 4-D fMRI recordings. Our goal is to exploit both spatial and temporal information in the functional MRI movie (at the whole-brain voxel level) for identifying patients with schizophrenia.
A novel echo-hiding scheme with backward and forward kernels

The paper presents a novel echo-hiding method for audio watermarking. The method is quite different from previous echo-hiding methods since it presents a new echo kernel which introduces a forward kernel as well as a backward kernel. The new kernel, a combination of the backward and forward kernels, can enhance considerably the watermark detection rate. Thus, it is possible to reduce echo amplitude. The paper proves mathematically that the combination of kernels improves watermark performance. Experimental results show that the proposed watermarking scheme is much better than previous echo-hiding schemes in terms of detection rate and imperceptibility.
Information‐Processing Models of Cognitive Development

Information processing models help us to understand the data of cognitive development, to gain new insights, and to frame new and useful questions. They also bring new concepts into the fi eld from the related areas, including cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. These concepts tend to provide new ways of analyzing and understanding the processes of cognitive development. Specifi cally, information processing theories have yielded measures of cognitive complexity, which can be a major organizing theme in cognitive development, if it is found that children tend to master more complex concepts later. A dominant early approach has been the neo Piagetian models, which sought to explain the course of cognitive development, as observed by Piaget and his collaborators, in terms of the growth of information processing.
Approach to the Design of Asymmetric Coupled-Line Directional Couplers With the Maximum Achievable Impedance-Transformation Ratio

A novel approach to the design of asymmetric coupled-line impedance-transforming directional couplers with the maximum achievable impedance-transformation ratio is proposed. It is shown that the couplers in which one conductor is completely shielded from the other can be represented by two uncoupled transmission lines, which significantly simplifies the design procedure. Furthermore, the proposed approach of the directional couplers' analysis has been utilized for the derivation of a general condition describing the maximum impedance transformation ratio that can be achieved for directional couplers designed in inhomogeneous media. It has been also shown that impedance-transforming directional couplers, in which the capacitive coupling coefficient differs from the inductive coupling coefficient feature limited isolation, and that such couplers can be represented by two uncoupled lines having different electrical lengths. Subsequently, it has been shown that this isolation can be improved when the electrical lengths of the two uncoupled lines are equal, which corresponds to the equalization of capacitive and inductive coupling coefficients. The theoretical analyses have been confirmed by the measurements of two different 3-dB impedance-transforming directional couplers designed with the use of the proposed simplified approach.
The Dust of Life: America's Children Abandoned in Vietnam

The Dust of Life is a collection of vivid and devastating oral histories of Vietnamese Amerasians. Abandoned during the war by their American fathers, discriminated against by the victorious Communists, and ignored for many years by the American government, they endured life in impoverished Vietnam. Their stories are sad, sometimes tragic, but they are also testimonials to the strength of human resiliency. While unique in many respects, the Vietnamese Amerasian story also illustrates themes that are tragically universal: neglect of the human by-products of war, the destructiveness of prejudice and racism, the pain of abandonment, and the horrors of life amidst extreme poverty, hostility, and neglect.
A dynamic Mincer equation with an application to Portuguese data

This article argues in favour of a dynamic specification of the Mincer equation, where the past observed earnings play the role of additional explanatory variable for current observed earnings. A dynamic approach offers an explanation why the return to schooling in terms of observed earnings is not independent of labour-market experience, as suggested by some recent empirical evidence for the United States.
Path analysis suggests phytoene accumulation is the key step limiting the carotenoid pathway in white carrot roots

Two F2 carrot (Daucus carota L.) populations (orange rooted Brasilia x very dark orange rooted High Carotene Mass - HCM cross and the dark orange rooted cultivated variety B493 x white rooted wild carrot Queen Anne's Lace - QAL cross) with very unrelated genetic backgrounds were used to investigate intrinsic factors limiting carotenoid accumulation in carrots by applying phenotypic correlation and path analysis to study the relationships between major root carotenes, root color and several other morphological traits. Most of the correlations between traits were close and agreed in sign between the two populations. Root weight had a moderate to highly significant positive correlation with leaf length, root length and top and middle root diameter. Although phenotypic correlations failed to identify the order of the substrates and products in the carotenoid pathway the correct order of substrates and products (phytoene ® zeta-carotene ® lycopene) was identified in the causal diagram of beta-carotene for the Brasilia x HCM population. Path analysis of beta-carotene synthesis in the B493 x QAL population suggested that selection for root carotenes had little effect on plant morphological traits. Causal model of beta-carotene and lycopene in the B493 x QAL population suggested that phytoene synthesis is the key step limiting the carotenoid pathway in white carrots. Path analysis, first presented by Sewall Wright to study quantitative traits, appears to be a powerful statistical approach for the identification of key compounds in complex pathways.