Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new form of educational inequality? What we know and what we still do not know about the immigrant-native gap in Italian schools

Investigating the educational gap between students with migration background (SMB) and natives is becoming more and more important in Italy, as the immigrant student population has been constantly growing and becoming increasingly diverse in the last decade. School administrative data show that SMB face a systematic educational disadvantage compared to their native classmates. However, empirical research on educational inequalities has only recently begun to cover this topic. Going through the most relevant empirical studies thus far realized, this paper is aimed at answering two major questions. The first one asks whether research does provide corroborative evidence on the existence of an immigrant-native gap and which educational outcomes have been examined. The second question is aimed at understanding to what extent ‘traditional explanations’ of educational inequalities (i.e., socioeconomic background) account for the observed immigrant-native gap and which other new explanations have been advanced. Finally, the paper attempts to enlighten possible future directions for research, considering uncovered topics, underexploited data sources, and methodological improvements.
Contraception: Herbal and Modern Strategies

Population explosion is one of the global issues of concern. The increasing number of individuals could result in negative impact on social and economy. To overcome this problem, convenient and safe modern contraception was introduced. However, recently many researchers have conducted studies on the effectiveness of medicinal plants as contraceptive agents on human and animal models. Therefore, the studies of herbal and modern contraceptives were summarized in this review article. A total of 66 relevant articles were documented having
Multilevel Local Pattern Histogram for SAR Image Classification

In this letter, we propose a theoretically and computationally simple feature for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image classification, the multilevel local pattern histogram (MLPH). The MLPH describes the size distributions of bright, dark, and homogenous patterns appearing in a moving window at various contrasts; these patterns are the elementary properties of SAR image texture. The MLPH is a very powerful descriptor of SAR images because it captures both local and global structural information. Additionally, it is robust to speckle noise. Experiments on a TerraSAR-X data set demonstrate that MLPH significantly outperforms four other widely used features in SAR image classification.
Experimental test of the effect of imposing a penalty on buyers in a specific market structure

Using experimental economics tools this paper is testing one of the potential pitfalls in the renewable energy certificates (RECs) market in Australia. Stylised experiment highlighted that sellers' knowledge of the existence of the penalty to buyers for non compliance with mandatory requirements to have a certain number of RECs and the level of penalty in the duopoly market on supply side can push prices for unit of RECs higher than would occur in competitive market without penalty. The level of penalty was used by sellers as a "focal" point for setting the price for the unit.
Simple and parallel mediation: {A} tutorial exploring anxiety sensitivity, sensation seeking, and gender

aSchool of Psychology, University of Ottawa Abstract In this tutorial, we demonstrate how to conduct simple and parallel mediation analyses using the PROCESS macro for SPSS (Hayes, 2013). We begin by describing the principles of mediation. We then present a step-by-step tutorial describing how to test statistical assumptions and conduct a simple and a parallel mediation using data from a project exploring whether anxiety sensitivity mediates the relationship between gender and sensation seeking in a sample of 295 undergraduate students. Results of these analyses showed that anxiety sensitivity, and more specifically the belief that bodily sensations are dangerous, explains part of the relationship between gender and sensation seeking. Finally, we interpret these results as if we are presenting the findings in a research article. The tutorial serves as a concrete and need-to-know introduction to simple and parallel mediation.
Screening Tests : * Talent Identification : Testing : Testing Problems IDENTIFIERS * Gifted Disadvantaged

ABSTRACT The author reviews the key problems associated with generally accepted practices for identifying the gifted from the perspective of minority gifted students, particularly the gifted bilingual child: and presents some alternative approaches for testing. Noted among the shortcomings of testing minority students are that standardized tests are not appropriate and do not interest and motivate the examinee. Current definitions of giftedness and their utility for identification and selection arc reviewer, and the contribution of Guilford's Structure of Intellect model in expanding the definition of giftedness is pointed out. Stressed is the importance of using culture based definitions of giftedness for identification and selection-in a minority population. The author advocates inclusionism in identification (i.e., if a child manifests giftedness prima facie or gifted potential on one or more indicators of the trait, the child should be identified as gifted and a candidate for selection). (SA)
Epidemiology of Group B Streptococcus Infections among Neonates and Young Infants : A Review

Globally, prematurity, birth asphyxia, and neonatal sepsis are three leading causes of neonatal deaths. Sepsis is also a leading cause of deaths among post-neonatal or young infants [<2 months] age group [1]. Based on date of neonatal infections, the neonatal sepsis has been categorized as two types: early [EONS] and late onset neonatal sepsis [LONS] that happen within 0-6 and 7-27 days after birth, respectively [2]. Streptococcus agalactiae or Group B streptoccous [GBS] is the main microorganism that is responsible for the EONS followed by some other microorganisms including Escherichia Coli, Enterococci. Although the major responsible organisms for LONS or sepsis in ‘young infants’ are substantially different compared to the EONS, GBS is also one of the main organisms of this [3, 4]. This paper describes the epidemiological facts related to ‘GBS’, the micro-organism which causes EONS and one of the leading ‘killer’ infectious agents in neonates and young infants. In addition, it discusses the current knowledge gaps about GBS, so that the future efforts could be directed to reduce these gaps.
Social contexts and the occurrence of episodic heavy drinking

Piontek, D. , Kraus, L. , & Rist F. (2013). Social contexts and the occurrence of episodic heavy drinking. International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research, 2(2), 45-52. doi: 10.7895/ijadr.v2i2. 106 ( http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v2i2.106 ) Aims: This study aims to investigate the influence of social context variables on Episodic Heavy Drinking (EHD) among young adults. It will assess (a) whether EHD is predicted by characteristics of the specific drinking situation and drinking motives, and (b) whether the influence of drinking motives is moderated by public versus private drinking. Design/Setting: Data were collected by means of an online survey conducted at the University of Munster (Germany) in December 2008. Participants: The analytical sample consisted of 1,638 students. Instruments: Information was collected on socio-demographics, habitual drinking behavior (beverage-specific quantity and frequency within the past 30 days, EHD, drunkenness), and drinking motives (Drinking Motive Questionnaire Revised, DMQ-R). Moreover, participants described a recent drinking situation (beverage-specific quantity, drunkenness) as well as the social context related to this situation (time, place, people present, other substances used). Multivariate regression analyses were used to test the influence of context variables and their interaction with drinking motives. Findings: Drinking at a birthday or special party, during the weekend, or in a group where many people were drunk and playing drinking games increased the risk of EHD. Social and enhancement motives were associated with a higher risk for EHD, whereas conformity motives had a protective effect on heavy drinking. The effect of conformity motives was only present in public drinking situations. Conclusions: Drinking in young people is a social phenomenon related to situational influences as well as individual characteristics. In addition, there seems to be situational moderation of the impact of specific drinking motives.
Testing models of legislative decision-making with measurement error: The robust predictive power of bargaining models over procedural models

Previous studies found that models emphasising legislative procedures make less accurate predictions of decision outcomes in the EU than the compromise model, a computationally simple variant of the Nash Bargaining Solution. In this journal, Slapin (2014) argues that this and other findings may be the result of measurement error. While acknowledging the importance of measurement error, we disagree with several assumptions in Slapin’s analysis, and show that his results are driven by an unrealistic assumption about how policy preferences are distributed among EU decision makers. We construct simulated data that more accurately reflect the distributions of policy preferences found in existing empirical evidence and suggested by theory, and demonstrate that measurement error is unlikely to have biased previous findings. If real-world decision-making took place according to the procedural model, then it would have made the most accurate predictions, even with data containing large amounts of measurement error. While this strengthens our confidence in previous studies’ findings, we explain why we should not discard procedural models.
The Reputational Basis of Public Accountability

This article proposes a reputation‐based approach to account for two core puzzles of accountability. The first is the misfit between behavioral predictions of the hegemonic political science framework for talking about accountability, namely, principal–agent, and empirical findings. The second puzzle is the unrivaled popularity of accountability, given evidence that supposedly accountability‐enhancing measures often lead to opposite effects. A “reputation‐informed” theoretical approach to public accountability suggests that accountability is not about reducing informational asymmetries, containing “drift,” or ensuring that agents stay committed to the terms of their mandate. Accountability—in terms of both holding and giving—is about managing and cultivating one's reputation vis‐a‐vis different audiences. It is about being seen as a reputable actor in the eyes of one's audience(s), conveying the impression of competently performing one's (accountability) roles, thereby generating reputational benefits.
EFFECT OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC FERTILIZERS ON QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE OF GUAVA ( PSIDIUM GUAJAVA L . ) CV .

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is an economically important commercial fruit crop of tropical and sub-tropical climates. Its cultivation is getting popularity due to increasing international trade, better nutritional contents and processing of its value added products. This is a well known fact that increases in productivity of fruit removes large amounts of essential nutrients from the soil. Without proper management, continous fruit production reduces nutrient reserves in the soil. Another issue of great concern is the sustainability of soil productivity, as land began to be intensively exhausted depletion decreases quality fruit production and soil fertility and leads to soil degradation. On the other hand, continous use of inorganic fertilizers as source of nutrient in imbalanced proportion is also a problem, causing inefficiency, damage to the environment and in certain situations, harms the plants themselves and also to human being who consumes them. (Shanker et al., 2002). Therefore, integrated nutrient management is the most appropriate approach for managing the nutrient input. This calls for moving away from chemical agriculture and embracing organic matter management, which improves all soil properties and brings nitrogen through organic manures. Organic manures like farmyard manure is bulky organic manure, which is a storehouse of major nutrients apart from containing considerable amount of macro and micronutrients, Secondly, the use of organic manures increase the organic matter content of the soil by increasing the water holding capacity.
Carbon Emission Intensity, Economic Development and Energy Factors in 19 G20 Countries: Empirical Analysis Based on a Heterogeneous Panel from 1990 to 2015

The increasing global climate problem caused by excessive carbon emissions results in global carbon emission reduction governance becoming a top priority and requires close international coordination. Group of Twenty (G20) is gradually becoming the leading agency of global carbon emission reduction governance, but the unbalanced development among G20 countries has hindered the full play of G20’s role. Thus, this paper aims to examine the interrelationships among economic development mode, economic development level, and energy factors including energy use efficiency and structure in 19 G20 countries over the period 1990–2015. Considering the panel heterogeneity and the endogeneity of variables, a series of heterogeneous panel analysis techniques are employed in this paper. The empirical findings suggest that for the panel, the improvement of energy use efficiency and the optimization of energy use structure can help to achieve a low-carbon development mode, implying that some international agreements such as the Copenhagen Accord and Paris Agreement on Climate Change are necessary, binding, and effective. However, for individuals, energy factors and development level influence development mode differently across countries, revealing that each country should formulate specific policies that are consistent with its own actual situation. Finally, this paper discusses the role that G20 can play in the global carbon emissions reduction governance, which provides a reference for global low-carbon and sustainable development.
Exogenous Calcium Enhances the Photosystem II Photochemistry Response in Salt Stressed Tall Fescue

Calcium enhances turfgrass response to salt stress. However, little is known about PSII photochemical changes when exogenous calcium was applied in salinity-stressed turfgrass. Here, we probe into the rearrangements of PSII electron transport and endogenous ion accumulation in tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreber) treated with exogenous calcium under salt stress. Three-month-old seedlings of genotype “TF133” were subjected to the control (CK), salinity (S), salinity + calcium nitrate (SC), and salinity + ethylene glycol tetraacetic acid (SE). Calcium nitrate and ethylene glycol tetraacetic acid was used as exogenous calcium donor and calcium chelating agent respectively. At the end of a 5-day duration treatment, samples in SC regime had better photochemistry performance on several parameters than salinity only. Such as the Area (equal to the plastoquinone pool size), N (number of QA- redox turnovers until Fm is reached), ψE0, or δRo (Efficiencdy/probability with which a PSII trapped electron is transferred from QA to QB or PSI acceptors), ABS/RC (Absorbed photon flux per RC). All the above suggested that calcium enhanced the electron transfer of PSII (especially beyond QA-) and prevented reaction centers from inactivation in salt-stressed tall fescue. Furthermore, both grass shoot and root tissues generally accumulated more C, N, Ca2+, and K+ in the SC regime than S regime. Interrelated analysis indicated that ψE0, δRo, ABS/RC, C, and N content in shoots was highly correlated to each other and significantly positively related to Ca2+ and K+ content in roots. Besides, high salt increased ATP6E and CAMK2 transcription level in shoot at 1 and 5 day, respectively while exogenous calcium relieved it. In root, CAMK2 level was reduced by Salinity at 5 day and exogenous calcium recovered it. These observations involved in electron transport capacity and ion accumulation assist in understanding better the protective role of exogenous calcium in tall fescue under salt stress.
Cluster ensemble selection based on a new cluster stability measure

Many stability measures, such as Normalized Mutual Information NMI, have been proposed to validate a set of partitionings. It is highly possible that a set of partitionings may contain one or more high quality clusters but is still adjudged a bad cluster by a stability measure, and as a result, is completely neglected. Inspired by evaluation approaches measuring the efficacy of a set of partitionings, researchers have tried to define new measures for evaluating a cluster. Thus far, the measures defined for assessing a cluster are mostly based on the well-known NMI measure. The drawback of this commonly used approach is discussed in this paper, after which a new asymmetric criterion, called the Alizadeh--Parvin--Moshki--Minaei criterion APMM, is proposed to assess the association between a cluster and a set of partitionings. We show that the APMM criterion overcomes the deficiency in the conventional NMI measure. We also propose a clustering ensemble framework that incorporates the APMM's capabilities in order to find the best performing clusters. The framework uses Average APMM AAPMM as a fitness measure to select a number of clusters instead of using all of the results. Any cluster that satisfies a predefined threshold of the mentioned measure is selected to participate in an elite ensemble. To combine the chosen clusters, a co-association matrix-based consensus function by which the set of resultant partitionings are obtained is used. Because Evidence Accumulation Clustering EAC can not derive the co-association matrix from a subset of clusters appropriately, a new EAC-based method, called Extended EAC EEAC, is employed to construct the co-association matrix from the chosen subset of clusters. Empirical studies show that our proposed approach outperforms other cluster ensemble approaches.
Title Associations of oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers with chemically-characterized air pollutant exposures in an elderly cohort Permalink

Background: Exposure to air pollution has been associated with cardiorespiratory morbidity and mortality. However, the chemical constituents and pollution sources underlying these associations remain unclear. Method: We conducted a cohort panel study involving 97 elderly subjects living in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Airway and circulating biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation were measured weekly over 12 weeks and included, exhaled breath condensate malondialdehyde (EBC MDA), fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), plasma oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL), and plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6). Exposures included 7-day personal nitrogen oxides (NOx), daily criteria-pollutant data, five-day average particulate matter (PM) measured in three size-fractions and characterized by chemical components including transition metals, and in vitro PM oxidative potential (dithiothreitol and macrophage reactive oxygen species). Associations between biomarkers and pollutants were assessed using linear mixed effects regression models. Results: We found significant positive associations of airway oxidative stress and inflammation with traffic-related air pollutants, ultrafine particles and transition metals. Positive but nonsignificant associations were observed with PM oxidative potential. The strongest associations were observed among PM variables in the ultrafine range (PM o0.18 mm). It was estimated that an interquartile increase in 5-day average ultrafine polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was associated with a 6.3% (95% CI: 1.1%, 11.6%) increase in EBC MDA and 6.7% (95% CI: 3.4%, 10.2%) increase in FeNO. In addition, positive but nonsignificant associations were observed between oxLDL and traffic-related pollutants, ultrafine particles and transition metals while plasma IL-6 was positively associated with 1-day average traffic-related
Lifetime prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia

Abstract There have been long questions about the relationship of schizophrenia to other mental disorders. Lifetime DSM-III-R diagnoses of mood and anxiety disorders in twins with clinically diagnosed schizophrenia (n = 24) and their non-affected co-twins (n = 24) were compared with twins from pairs without schizophrenia (n = 3327) using a sample from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. Schizophrenic probands had significantly elevated rates of all included disorders (bipolar disorder, major depression, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and PTSD) compared with controls (P < 0.01). The odd ratios comparing co-twins of schizophrenic probands with controls was greater than three for every disorder, but did not attain statistical significance. A similar pattern was observed when analyses were restricted to only monozygotic twins (n = 12). Consistent with other studies, schizophrenics appeared to have higher rates of a range of mental disorders. Our results suggest that schizophrenia per se represents a risk factor for other psychiatric disorders, but the absence of significantly elevated risk among non-schizophrenic co-twins suggested that family environmental and/or genetic factors that contribute to risk of schizophrenia do not increase the risk of mood and anxiety disorders to the same extent that the risk of these other disorders is increased by the presence of schizophrenia. Twin Research (2000) 3, 28–32.
Are dietary diversity scores related to the socio-economic and anthropometric status of women living in an urban area in Burkina Faso?

Abstract Objectives To study dietary diversity and its relationship with socio-economic and nutritional characteristics of women in an urban Sahelian context. Design A qualitative dietary recall was performed over a 24-h period. Dietary diversity scores (DDS = number of food groups consumed) were calculated from a list of nine food groups (DDS-9) or from a list of 22 food groups (DDS-22) which detailed both micronutrient- and energy-dense foods more extensively. Body mass index (BMI), mid upper-arm circumference and body fat percentage were used to assess the nutritional status of the women. Setting and subjects Five hundred and fifty-seven women randomly selected in two districts of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Results The mean DDS-9 and DDS-22 were 4.9 ± 1.0 and 6.5 ± 1.8 food groups, respectively. In the high tertile of DDS-22, more women consumed fatty and sweetened foods, fresh fish, non-fatty meat and vitamin-A-rich fruits and vegetables. The DDS-9 was not associated with the women’s socio-economic characteristics whereas the DDS-22 was higher when the women were younger, richer and had received at least a minimum education. Mean BMI of the women was 24.2 ± 4.9 kg m–2 and 37% of them were overweight or obese (BMI ≥ 25 kg m–2). Neither the DDS-9 nor the DDS-22 was associated with the women’s anthropometric status, even though there was a trend towards fewer overweight women in the lowest tertile of DDS-22. Conclusion In this urban area, the qualitative measurement of dietary diversity is not sufficient to identify women at risk of under- or overweight.