Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simulated conversations for assessing professional conversation competence in teacher-parent and physician-patient conversations

Simulierte Gesprache mit trainierten Schauspielern sind eine performanzorientierte Methode zur Erfassung kommunikativer Kompetenzen. In der vorliegenden Studie analysierten wir die Reliabilitat und Konstruktvaliditat eines parallel entwickelten Assessments mit simulierten Gesprachen in einem domanenubergreifenden Setting: In Lehrer-Eltern- und Arzt-Patienten-Gesprachen. Dabei untersuchten wir drei Fragestellungen: (1) ob trainierte Beobachter eine hinreichende Interrater-Reliabilitat bei der Einschatzung der Performanz der Teilnehmenden erzielen; (2) ob die Korrelationen zwischen den Ratings der Beobachter, der ein-gesetzten Schauspieler und der Selbsteinschatzung der Probanden ein erwartetes Muster aufweisen; und (3) ob sich vermutete Korrelationen zu externen Variablen (vorausgehende Kommunikationstrainings, Abiturnote, Studiensemester) nach-weisen lassen. Hierfur nahmen n = 72 Medizinstudierende und n = 96 Lehr-amtsstudierende an je zwei simulierten Gesprachen teil. Die Ergebnisse zeigten eine insgesamt zufriedenstellende Interrater-Reliabilitat (ICC = 0.71). Zudem fielen die Korrelationen zwischen den verschiedenen Ratings und den Ausenkriterien erwartungskonform aus. Diese Ergebnisse liefern Hinweise fur die Reliabilitat und Konstruktvaliditat des entwickelten Assessments.
The Relationship Between Accounting Information in the Financial Statements and the Stock Returns of Listed Firms in Vietnam Stock Exchange

This study is conducted to analyse the relationship between accounting information in the financial statements and the stock returns of listed firms in Vietnam Stock Market. Using OLS, FEM, REM, GLS, and GMM regression models, the study examines the relationship of earnings, volatility in the rate of return, size, levering ratios and growth rates to the stock returns of 274 firms in the period from 2012 to 2016. Findings from the study show that the rate of return, the change in the rate of return, gearing ratio and growth rate are positively correlated to the stock returns, while the size of firm by assets is negatively related to stock returns. Based on the research’s results, the authors also provide some recommendations for investors, firm management and policy makers.
Greed, grievance, leadership and external interventions in the initiation and intensification of the civil war in Angola

Understanding the initiation of conflict is fundamental for the success of efforts in conflict prevention. The validity of the mechanisms of the “Greed and Grievance” model, alongside leadership and external interventions are tested in four periods of initiation and intensification of the conflict in Angola. All mechanisms are present but their relative relevance varies throughout the conflict. Among the mechanisms identified in each period the most relevant in the Cold War period are the international and regional interventions in 1961 and 1975 and in the post-Cold War period, the “greed” factors in 1992 (oil and diamonds, poverty and war capital) and the UNITA leadership of Jonas Savimbi in 1998. The case study provides evidence that “greed” and “grievance” can be interlinked (such as in 1992) and confirms the relevance of leadership and external interventions mechanisms.
MICROWAVE CHARACTERIZATION OF DIELECTRIC MATERIALS USING BAYESIAN NEURAL NETWORKS

This paper shows the efficiency of neural networks (NN), coupled with the finite element method (FEM), to evaluate the broad- band properties of dielectric materials. A characterization protocol is built to characterize dielectric materials and NN are used in order to provide the estimated permittivity. The FEM is used to create the data set required to train the NN. A method based on Bayesian regularization ensures a good generalization capability of the NN. It is shown that NN can determine the permittivity of materials with a high accuracy and that the Bayesian regularization greatly simplifies their implementation.
A plea for change in research on intercultural discourses: A ‘liquid’ approach to the study of the acculturation of Chinese students

Abstract Research on intercultural communication and education is often unsatisfactory in the ways it examines the utterances of research participants, especially if they are ‘Others’. This often seems to be the case in research on acculturation of ‘the Chinese student’ abroad. In this exploratory article, I propose to look at intercultural discourses through a ‘liquid’ approach. The article first describes the components of such a constructivist and open-ended approach to the ‘Other’: a constant effort to review and interact with interdisciplinary concepts; the use of research methods that are dynamic such as linguistic dialogism and theories of enunciation; and a fundamental renewal of the role and positioning of researchers in their studies. In order to illustrate the approach and verify if some of its aspects are taken into account by researchers, four studies from the fields of intercultural education and communication on ‘the Chinese student’ abroad are examined. The results show that the researchers base their analyses on solid/culturalist approaches, which place a lot of emphasis on a loose and static understanding of the concept of culture. The research discourses of some articles also derive from a Janusian vision of interculturality, which encompasses both culturalism and an open-ended, individual and hermeneutic vision of the Other. No consistent liquid approach to intercultural discourses was identified. This article thus represents a plea for renewing epistemological and methodological positioning in the study of Otherness and intercultural discourses.
Exploring the Relationship between Cohesion and Collective Efficacy in Tunisian Sports Teams: Validation of the Tunisian Version of the Collective Efficacy Questionnaire for Collective Sports

This project seeks to examine the relationship between cohesion and collective efficacy in Tunisian sport’s team. A total of 463 athletes (313 males, M age= 17,3, SD = 2.09 and 150 females, M age = 19.15, SD = 3.32) were recruited from 18 Tunisian amateur sport team. This sample complete the Tunisian version of GAG (group environment questionnaire, Heuze et Fontayne, 2002) and a collective efficacy measure validate for this study which is the second objective of this research: the validity of a Tunisian (classical Arabic) translation of the Collective Efficacy Questionnaire in Sports (CEQS). Confirmatory factor, internal consistency and correlation analysis among subscales were performed. The statistical analyses undertaken provide the psychometric character of the Tunisian CEQS (α = 0.92). This study also revealed a positive and significantly relationship between the dimensions of cohesion and collective efficacy. However, subsequent multiple regression analyses indicated that collective efficacy is more related to task cohesion than social cohesion. More than, Tunisian Players who perceived a higher level of task cohesion also tended to report higher collective efficacy judgments
Molecular and morphological analysis of an Antarctic tardigrade, Acutuncus antarcticus

We isolated a species of tardigrade from moss samples collected from Langhovde and Skarvsnes, near Syowa station, East Antarctic, from which we cultured a parthenogenetic strain in Petri dishes with co-occurring cyanobacteria or green algae. This culture was maintained at both 4 and 10oC, though the latter proved more suitable for growth. Eggs were laid free, rather than in exuviae. We isolated the 18S rRNA sequences from this tardigrade, identical to that of Acutuncus antarcticus from King George island, South Shetland islands. Morphological analyses via both light and scanning electron microscopy also show general agreement with characteristics of A. antarcticus : dorsal and ventral apophyses for the insertion of stylet muscles and dorsal longitudinal thickening on the anterior part of buccal tube; presence of pharyngeal apophyses, two macroplacoids and absence of a microplacoid; the surface structure of egg; and claw shape. Peribuccal lamellae were absent, but six oval swellings surrounded the mouth opening. An additional study of moss pillars from lake Hotoke-ike, Skarvsnes, proved the existence of the same tardigrade taxon living at the bottom of the lake.
Global Pc5 pulsations during strong magnetic storms: excitation mechanisms and equatorward expansion

Abstract. The dynamics of global Pc5 waves during the magnetic storms on 29–31 October 2003 are considered using data from the trans-American and trans-Scandinavian networks of magnetometers in the morning and post-noon magnetic local time (MLT) sectors. We study the latitudinal distribution of Pc5 wave spectral characteristics to determine how deep into the magnetosphere these Pc5 waves can extend at different flanks of the magnetosphere. The wave energy transmission mechanisms are different during 29–30 October and 31 October wave events. Further, we examine whether the self-excited Kelvin–Helmholtz instability is sufficient as an excitation mechanism for the global Pc5 waves. We suggest that on 31 October a magnetospheric magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waveguide was excited, and the rigid regime of its excitation was triggered by enhancements of the solar wind density. The described features of Pc5 wave activity during recovery phase of strong magnetic storm are to be taken into account during the modeling of the relativistic electron energization by ultra-low-frequency (ULF) waves.
3D Visualization of Heterogeneous User Interactions in a Social Network

With the popularity of social networks, users can communicate with each other in a more convenient way. However, the increasing amount of data poses new challenges for the analysis of the social activities of the users. In this paper, we propose to visualize the heterogeneous information of user interactions in a social network in a three-dimensional way using the concept of solar systems. The target user represents the center of the solar system. We determine physical variables from interaction frequencies between the user and their friends to be visualized. This gives the user a better insight about their relationships on Facebook. To show the interactions between the user and their friends, we choose four variables related to the solar system: the size of each planet, its angular velocity, and the semi-major and the semi-minor axis of its elliptical orbit. Our system measures the interaction frequencies between a user and their friends based on a linear model. Its coefficients are derived from an online survey we performed. The experimental results indicate that the accuracy of our estimated interaction frequency is better than the accuracies for each individual interaction feature. The average accuracy improvement is 15.93%.
Photogrammetric analysis of the coastal erosion in the Algarve (Portugal) Analyse photogrammétrique de l'érosion côtière en Algarve (Portugal)

Resume Une etude preliminaire a ete conduite pour verifier l'interet de l'utilisation des techniques photogrammetrique s appliquees a la surveillance de l'erosion cotiere dans le sud du Portugal. Un ensemble de six releves aeriens verticaux, effectues entre 1938 a 1995, a ete employe pour le calcul ď estimations fiables des parametres d'erosion. Nous prouvons que dans les cinquante-sept dernieres annees, le segment de falaise Olhos-de-Agua/Quarteira de la cote de l' Algarve (Sud Portugal) a recule a une vitesse moyenne de 17 cm/an. Un modele 3D a ete construit pour chaque releve, permettant l'etude du taux de changement volumique entre deux releves. Durant la periode 1938-1969 il y a eu une perte significative de volume tandis qu'apres cette periode, et jusqu'en 1995, on observe un gain de volume dans la zone au-dessus du niveau de 2 m. Pour toute la periode etudiee, on observe une grande regularite dans la vitesse de recul de la falaise.
On the relationship between native grouper and invasive lionfish in the Caribbean

The Indo-Pacific lionfish, Pterois volitans, has invaded most of the Tropical Western Atlantic in the last few years. The degree to which populations of this invasive species can be controlled by native predatory fish (mostly grouper), is controversial with conflicting reports. Here, we review the evidence of two recent papers and point out some of the difficulties in inferring predator-limitation purely from observational data. A negative relationship has been found between large-bodied grouper and lionfish during early colonisation though the degree to which this is caused by direct predation versus behavioural mechanisms is unclear. Evidence to the contrary from a recent study suffers confounding effects of habitat quality, fishing, and dispersal and therefore remains equivocal.
Do R&D expenditure, royalty and technology licensing expenses increase operational performance of the biotech industry in Taiwan?

Over the last two decades R&D has played an integral role in the biotechnological medicine industry. Biotech breakthroughs have resulted in an R&D expenditure boom, encouraging further exploration of its potential therapeutic applications. It is, however, complex, costly, and full of uncertainty. Thus, R&D investment is an appropriate mechanism to encourage firms to innovate. This paper examines the associations between R&D expenditure (RDI), royalty and technology licensing expenses (ROY) and firm value in terms of return on equity (ROE), in the biotechnology medicine industry from the period of 1996 to 2007 in Taiwan. Utilizing OLS regression analysis the empirical results indicate: (1) Both RDI and ROY are strongly connected to financial performance within the same year implemented and subsequent years. RDI has a considerably negative effect that outweighs the positive effect of ROY on ROE. (2) In the short run, RDI and ROY bare no effect on market value. (3) In the long run, RDI enhances market value, and has a significantly more positive effect than ROY on market value.
Political economy of citizens’ participation in environmental improvement: The case of Istanbul

We aim at questioning, within a political economy framework, the institutional context of environmental policies for the case of Turkey in general and of Istanbul in particular. The paper is centred around a survey study conducted with citizens of Istanbul (n=1565), a metropolitan city whose population is around 9 millions, with regard to their attitudes and behaviours on environmental issues, together with a set of in-depth interviews (n=16) carried out with representatives of business, NGOs, trade unions, and bureaucrats. The point of departure of the paper is the claim that environmental policies are likely to alter, overtly or covertly, the income distribution of societies, and ipso facto those who will be worse off in the ex-post sense will have a clear incentive to influence public authorities and politicians (be they central or local units) in not implementing them—their success depending of course on the extent to which the governing body is not sterile but open to corruption (the so-called “government failures”). The implication of the existence of such government failures on the enforceability of regulations dealing with environmental issues is certainly an area to which attention has recently been given, both at theoretical and empirical levels, where the issue of institutional context has emerged as one if not the important issue in addressing such failures. Turkey, being one of the clear examples of the existence of such corruptive elements, should certainly offer rich inputs to the said discussion, and the paper makes an attempt to questioning the institutional aspect of environmental policies from the point of view of citizens of Istanbul and of different stakeholders.
When Does Idiosyncratic Risk Really Matter?

In contrast to the finding of the current literature, we provide new evidence supporting a positive relation between idiosyncratic risk and the expected future market return. Since a large part of the idiosyncratic risk can be diversified away easily, the conventional aggregate idiosyncratic risk measures can only be noisy proxies for the undiversified idiosyncratic risk, which may be priced according to Merton (1987). We thus propose a simple noise reduction method that includes two different noisy measures (dual-predictor) in the same predictive regression to reexamine the relation. We show that the noise effect tends to cancel out in our framework due to the highly correlated noise components of the two measures. In particular, our dual-predictor alone explains future market returns with an adjusted R 2 of 4%. Such a large predictive power is economically significant and robust to the inclusion of other popular predictors and to the choices of sample periods and additional market indices.
A community capacity framework for enhancing a criminal justice response to elder abuse

Perceptions of elder abuse are shaped by experiential, cultural, contextual, and generational variables that influence both individuals' abilities to recognize elder abuse and their likelihood to report concerns to authorities. To examine community residents' understanding and awareness of elder abuse and their readiness to take action against it, we conducted telephone interviews with 710 adults, aged 25 and older, living in rural Virginia and Kentucky. Respondents answered a series of questions in response to scenarios depicting elder abuse. Although the majority of respondents identified the scenarios as representing abusive family situations, responses differed based on age, sex, and educational level of the respondents and sex of the victim portrayed in the scenarios. Older respondents and respondents with more positive perceptions of community cohesion (trust) also were likely to indicate that the older adult described in the scenario would get the necessary help that she or he needed. Based on our study findings, the extant literature, and concepts of community capacity, we propose a community capacity framework that highlights how the criminal justice system can optimally interface with formal systems and informal networks to reduce the risks for elder abuse within the community and overcome barriers to intervention.
High-Performance LPCVD-SiNx / InAlGaN / GaN MIS-HEMTs with 850-V 0 . 98-mΩ ∙ cm 2 for Power Device Applications

We demonstrate the electrical performances of the quaternary InAlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs with high quality SiNx gate dielectric and surface passivation layer deposited by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) at 780 °C. Excellent LPCVD-SiNx/InAlGaN interface and SiNx film quality were obtained, resulting in very high output current density, a very small threshold voltage hysteresis and steep subthreshold slope. The LPCVD-SiNx/InAlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT device exhibited high ON/OFF current ratio, large gate voltage swing, high breakdown voltage, and very low dynamic ON-resistance (RON) degradation, meaning effective current collapse suppression compared to the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)-SiNx/InAlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs. The corresponding specific ON-resistance (RON,sp) for LPCVD-SiNx device was as low as 0.98 mΩꞏcm2, yielding a high figure of merit (FOM) of 737 MW/cm2. These results demonstrate a great potential of the LPCVD-SiNx/InAlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs for high-power switching applications.
The involvement of cortisol and corticosteroid receptor types in mediating the effects of a high salt diet on rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are able to migrate between freshwater and seawater environments. These transitions induce remodeling of the gill, which aids in maintaining proper ionic balance in the face of changing salt and water requirements. Specific gill phenotypes for both freshwater and seawater rainbow trout have been observed, and are identifiable based on the locations and quantities of ion transporters and on the specific cell types present. Previous research has shown that internal salt loading is sufficient to induce a seawater gill phenotype in freshwater rainbow trout. The present study hypothesized that the developing phenotype was due to increases in circulating Cortisol levels or corticosteroid receptor expression; this correlation was attempted by examining the time course of development of the seawater phenotype, and by examining concomitant changes in two other key osmoregulatory tissues, gut and kidney. A novel finding of the present study is that Cortisol may play a role in promoting the development of a seawater phenotype in salt-fed freshwater fish, probably through regulation of corticosteroid receptor abundance rather than through modulation of Cortisol levels. Resume Oncorhynchus mykiss sont capable de migrer entre les environnements d'eau douce et eau de mer. Dans ces truites, on observe que les branchies sont remodeler, ce qui aide dans la propre maintenance d'equilibre ionique correct malgre les changements dans leur environnement. II existe des phenotypes specifiques de branchie, des truites qui vivent dans l'eau douce et l'eau de mer, qui sont identifiable a base de l'emplacement et
Learning Curve Spillovers and Transactions Cost in the Microfinance Industry of the Philippines

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Philippines have gained a reputation for operating as a for-profit institution reaching the poor through micro-lending. The problem or issue which the study addresses is to determine how MFIs in the Philippines are able to attain operational self-sufficiency, the established indicator for financial viability among microfinance institutions, in spite of high transactions cost. The phenomenon may be verified by the following research question: does the behavior of operational and transactions costs among group and individual microfinance lenders manifest experience or learning curve spillovers and a U-shaped supply curve? The study has two objectives. First, using appropriate measures of financial and social performance, the study shall empirically verify the phenomenon of experience or learning curve spillovers among MFIs. Second is to estimate the supply curve for loans to the unbanked poor and verify that it is U-shaped. The results of the pooled least squares with cross-section random effects regression estimation show that both NGOs and rural banks are attaining both objectives of operational self-sufficiency and moderate to good social performance, through the spillover effects of learning, that is, fast learning for rural banks and moderate learning for NGOs. Operational and transactions costs are high but decreasing for both rural banks and NGOs. Older, more mature NGOs and rural banks are able to set transactions cost at the prescribed level of 11%-25%. Such costs ensure that the MFIs operate in order to both financial performance and outreach.
Status of harbour seals ( Phoca vitulina ) in Atlantic Canada

Harbour seals are associated with small islets, reefs and rocks exposed at low tide and estuarine habitats throughout eastern Canada. Evidence of harvesting by indigenous people has been found in pre-European contact archaeological excavations. A bounty harvest as well as subsistence and commercial hunting probably lead to a decline in the population from 1949 to the early 1970s. The bounty was removed in 1976, and harbour seals, in the southern parts of their range have been protected since then. There is little information available on total abundance and current population trend. Mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA research has shown separation between Northeast and Northwest Atlantic harbour seals. Within Canada, the subspecies Phoca vitulina concolor shows some population sub-structure with three distinct units that could be separated into Hudson Bay, Gulf of St. Lawrence and Sable Island. Urban development resulting in habitat degradation is probably the most important factor affecting harbour seal populations in Atlantic Canada, although other factors such as incidental catches in commercial fisheries and competition with grey seals may also be important.