Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Methods courses and texts in psychology: “textbook science” and “tourist brochures”

Two studies examined the possibility that instruction in psychological methodology is committed to a philosophy of science, logical positivism, that is not adequately acknowledged and is empirically problematic. Study 1 suggested that psychology departments had more courses in methodology than corresponding physics departments, and psychology departments were far more likely to offer an introductory course in general methodology. Study 2 suggested that psychology had more introductory general methods textbooks than did physics. Both studies suggested psychology still presents itself as the kind of science that was defined by logical positivism. Study 2 suggested psychology does this only implicitly in its texts and without acknowledging problematic features of that philosophy. Psychology methods texts commonly justified the importance of the scientific method by describing human cognitive fallibilities without cautioning that these same fallibilities could be seen alternatively as showing the problematic nature of the positivistic conception of scientific methodology. In several regards, texts conformed to Fleck’s notion of “textbook science” and to Kuhn’s description of science texts as “tourist brochures. ” It was cautioned that an implicit appeal by psychology to logical positivism contradicts its claim that its methods and data are objective, transparent, and little influenced by philosophy, logic divorced from data, or authority.
Practical Problems in the Numerical Solution of PDE's in Finance

In this paper we investigate the use of finite difference and finite element schemes when applied to the valuation of exotic options characterized by discontinuities in the payoff function. In particular, we will conduct a numerical analysis of several common schemes in order to give a better understanding of the numerical problems associated with the valuation of non-standard options.
Non-linear retreat of Jakobshavn Isbræ since the Little Ice Age controlled by geometry

Rapid acceleration and retreat of Greenland’s marine-terminating glaciers during the last two decades have initiated questions on the trigger and processes governing observed changes. Destabilization of these glaciers coincides with atmosphere and ocean warming, which broadly has been used to explain the rapid changes. To assess the relative role of external forcing versus fjord geometry, we investigate the retreat of Jakobshavn Isbræ in West Greenland, where margin positions exist since the Little Ice Age maximum in 1850. We use a one-dimensional ice flow model and isolate geometric effects on the retreat 5 using a linear increase in external forcing. We find that the observed retreat of 43 km from 1850 until 2014 can only be simulated when multiple forcing parameters— such as hydrofracturing, submarine melt and frontal buttressing by sea ice—are changed simultaneously. Surface mass balance, in contrast, has a negligible effect. While changing external forcing initiates retreat, fjord geometry controls the retreat pattern. Basal and lateral topography govern shifts from temporary stabilization to rapid retreat, resulting in a highly non-linear glacier 10 response. For example, we simulate a disintegration of a 15 km long floating tongue within one model year, which dislodges the grounding line onto the next pinning point. The retreat pattern loses complexity and becomes linear when we artificially straighten the glacier walls and bed, confirming the topographic controls. For real complex fjord systems such as Jakobshavn Isbræ, geometric pinning points predetermine grounding line stabilization and may therefore be used as a proxy for moraine build-up. Also, we find that after decades of stability and with constant 15 external forcing, grounding lines may retreat rapidly without any trigger. This means that past changes may precondition marine-terminating glaciers to reach tipping-points, and that retreat can occur without additional climate warming. Present-day changes and future projections can therefore not be viewed in isolation of historic retreat.
Information Asymmetry and Cross-Sectional Returns: A Re-Examination of the Relationship between Stock Return and the Adjusted Probability of Informed Trading

We re-examine the relationship between stock return and the adjusted probability of informed trading (AdjPIN) for about 40,000 firm-years of NYSE/AMEX listed firms. We obtain two AdjPIN estimates for each firm-year pair: the first is estimated with all daily observations in the year, while the second is estimated after excluding 20 daily observations around each earnings announcement date. On average, the second estimate is greater than the first one. The difference between these two estimates is significantly smaller for firms that have large market capitalization or are actively traded. With both sets of estimates, the Fama-MacBeth regression analysis shows a significant and positive relationship between stock return and AdjPIN in the period between 1984 and 2005. Our findings support that information asymmetry in itself plays a role in explaining the cross-section of stock returns, though its effect appears to vary across time periods.
Properties of open and hidden charm mesons in light quark matter

In this work we study the implications of light-quark pionic matter at finite temperatures on the properties of open and hidden charm mesons. The meson-meson interactions are described by means of a chiral unitary approach accounting for coupled channels and the finite temperature effects are included using the Imaginary Time Formalism. The key observables presented here are the spectral function and the pion-induced width at finite temperatures for the mesons D, D* and most importantly J/ψ.
Ownership concentration, ownership identity, and bank performance

This paper examines whether ownership concentration and certain type of ownership can affect the financial performance of Lebanese banks. It uses longitudinal data from the largest 35 Lebanese banks over the period 2009–2014 and employs the panel re- gression model. The empirical results show that ownership concentration and certain type of shareholders play an important role in the area of corporate governance in Lebanese banks. In particular, bank financial performance is positively associated with ownership concentration, managerial ownership, and foreign and institutional owner- ships; however, family ownership is not related to bank performance. Also, this paper shows that both ownership concentration and managerial ownership have a U-shaped relationship with bank performance. Several robustness tests largely confirm the findings, with important implications for policy-makers. The findings are crucial to policy- makers and bankers who are interested in tailoring good corporate governance principles for the Lebanese banking sector. Studying the shareholding structure in banks has been largely inspired by the work of Jensen and Meckling (1976) on the agency theory. However, the national governance mechanisms, such as rule of law, legal system, or investor protection, may also affect the effectiveness of corporate governance strategies. So, our study draws upon both agency and institutional theories to examine the ownership concentration and ownership identity on the performance of banks operating in Lebanon. Our analyses involved data from 35 large banks covering the period 2009–2014. Our main results indicate that ownership concentration, ownership by managers, institutional, and foreign investors are effective governance mechanisms that can be used to reduce agency costs. We showed the existence of non-monotonic effects given that managerial and concentrated ownerships in banks create a trade-off between incentives and entrenchment, leading to a nonlinear relationship. As for the role of equity ownership by families, it had no significant effect on bank performance, despite the fact Lebanese families have valuable expertise in running banks. Our analyses also revealed that foreign ownership and institutional ownership affect bank performance differently. However, this latter finding doesn’t necessarily imply that category of ownership is the cure for all the monitoring and performance flaws facing banks in Lebanon, as foreign or institutional shareholdings are often sensitive to geopolitical risks. Furthermore, it is rec-ommended that Lebanese banks continue developing good governance practices that could ultimately enhance their resilience in a highly competitive environment. As such, they are required to move from
Determinants of Technical Efficiency of Rose Cut-Flower Industries in Oromia Region, Ethiopia

The objective of this study is to measure and identify input use efficiency level of 28 rose cut flower industries in three districts of Oromia Regional state (Ethiopia) using a two stage approach. In the first stage, a non-parametric (DEA) method was used to determine the relative technical, scale and overall technical efficiencies. In the second stage, a Tobit model was used to identify sources of efficiency differentials among industries. The results obtained indicated that the mean technical, scale and overall technical efficiency indices were estimated to be 92%, %61 and 58%, respectively for the cut flower industries. This Implies, major source of overall technical inefficiencies was scale of operation rather than pure technical inefficiency. Besides, the estimated measures of technical efficiency were positively related with Farming experience, formal schooling years of manager’s and negatively related with age of farms. No conclusive result was obtained for the relation between size and efficiency. Key words: Technical Efficiency, Scale Efficiency, DEA, Tobit, Rose cut flowers, farming experience, Oromia, Ethiopia.
Lipid content of marine microalgae Chaetoceros muelleri Lemmermann (Bacillariophyceae) grown at different salinities

The production and storage of lipids by microalgae in response to variations in environmental factors are specific for each microalgal species. The present study aimed to evaluate the growth and concentration of total lipids of the microalga C. muelleri Lemmermann cultivated at three different salinities (15, 25 and 35). The experiment was conducted in triplicate, using 9-L containers (7-L working volume), with the culture being stationary or batch type. The temperature and light intensity of the cultivation room was kept at 28±1oC and 20 μ. mol.m -2 . s -1 , respectively. The results showed that the lipid yield (10.41±1.89, 10.87±2.10 and 12.33±1.81%
Philosophical commitments, empirical evidence, and theoretical psychology

The philosophical or theoretical commitments informing psychological research are sometimes characterized, even by theoretical psychologists themselves, as nonempirical, outside the bounds of methodological consideration, and/or nonrational. We argue that this characterization is incoherent. We illustrate our concern by analogy with problematic appeals to Kuhn’s work that have been influential in theoretical psychology. Following the contemporary pragmatist tradition, we argue that our philosophical/theoretical commitments are part of our larger webs of belief, and that for any of these beliefs to have meaning their content must be informed by our practical engagement with the world, i.e., they are based on empirical evidence, broadly construed. It is this empirical basis that allows us to recognize our commitments at all and rationally to assess and criticize them when necessary. We conclude by demonstrating a rational assessment of the philosophical/theoretical commitments underlying a recent study in the social psychology of religion.
The Family Firm’s Performance: A Literature Review

The purpose of this article was to provide the understanding of the performance of family firms, explain the relationship of family ownership and family involvement in management and the performance of firms, and to show the differences in the performance of family firms and non- family firms. The analysis carried out based on the results of the review of 29 articles published in the international journals. The selected article is an article that proves the role of family ownership and family involvement in management as a monitoring of firms in order to increase the performance of firms. The results of the literature review found that family ownership and family involvement in management improved the performance of firms. Small scale firms, middle scale firms, and young company positively contributed to the performance of firms. The performance of family firms was better than the performance of non–family firms.
Occurrences and characterization of endophytic Gluconacetobacter isolated from sugarcane tissues of North Eastern region of India

Sugarcane plants including roots were collected from 21 sugarcane growing locations of Golaghat, Dimapur and Jorhat districts of North Eastern region for isolation of endophytic Gluconacetobacter. Based on the nitrogenase activity, only eight isolates were selected for further characterization of Gluconacetobacter. The nitrogenase activity of the isolates ranged in between 12.4 to 72.4 n mole C2H4 h-1 culture-1. The characteristic yellowish surface pellicles were formed on inoculating the selected isolates into semisolid LGI medium and acetic LGI medium. On enumeration in LGI plates, the frequencies of well recognized Gluconacetobacter like colonies ranged in between 0.75 and 7.68 x 105 (cfu g-1 fresh tissue). Colony morphology of the isolates was irregular flat, irregular raised or circular raised yellow colonies of 1-5 mm in diameter. Light brown to brown pigmentation was observed on potato agar plates and light brown pigmentation with clearing of plates was observed on GYC plates. All the isolates exhibited gram negative and shape of the cells were rods. Reactions to extracellular and intracellular enzymes as well as to the various carbon sources by the isolates explained the diversity among them. The IAR profiles of the eight isolates against twelve antibiotics exhibited wide variation in their response to various antibiotics.
Influence Model of User Behavior Characteristics on Information Dissemination

Quantitative analysis on human behavior, especially mining and modeling temporal and spatial regularities, is a common focus of statistical physics and complexity sciences. The in-depth understanding of human behavior helps in explaining many complex socioeconomic phenomena, and in finding applications in public opinion monitoring, disease control, transportation system design, calling center services, information recommendation. In this paper,we study the impact of human activity patterns on information diffusion. Using SIR propagation model and empirical data, conduct quantitative research on the impact of user behavior on information dissemination. It is found that when the exponent is small, user behavioral characteristics have features of many new dissemination nodes, fast information dissemination, but information continued propagation time is short, with limited influence; when the exponent is big, there are fewer new dissemination nodes, but will expand the scope of information dissemination and extend information dissemination duration; it is also found that for group behaviors, the power-law characteristic a greater impact on the speed of information dissemination than individual behaviors. This study provides a reference to better understand influence of social networking user behavior characteristics on information dissemination and kinetic effect.
Bean polygalacturonase inhibitor protein-1 (PGIP-1) inhibits polygalacturonases from Stenocarpella maydis

Stenocarpella maydis, a fungal pathogen of maize, produced polygalacturonases (PGs) when grown on pectin or maize cell walls. An extract from bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) which contained an active inhibitor of Aspergillus niger PG, also inhibited S. maydis PG in a reducing sugar assay. Bean polygalacturonase inhibitor protein (PGIP) was purified from the extract by affinity chromatography, and this inhibited the S. maydis PG in reducing sugar assays and an overlay gel activity assay. Inhibition was abolished by boiling of the PGIP. Since purified PGIP could still be a mixture of PGIPs with similar physical properties but different inhibitory activities on different fungal PGs, the bean pgip-1 gene was cloned and expressed in transgenic tomato. PGIP extracts from the transgenic tomato inhibited both A. niger and S. maydis PG, whereas extracts from a control untransformed tomato did not. This indicated that bean PGIP-1 is able to inhibit the S. maydis PGs.
Trip chains and tours: definitional issues associated with household travel surveys

To improve the understanding of people’s travel behaviour, the authors re-formulated the 1997/98 NZ (Household) Travel Survey database to link together the trip legs to derive two datasets, one based on “trip chains” and the other on “tours” (beginning and ending at home). While this re-formulation appears straightforward, the authors encountered a number of difficulties in creating definitions and procedures for the treatment of trip chains, tours, main mode and main purpose as researchers use the same terms interchangeably or give them different meanings. This paper explores some of the issues encountered while trying to derive coherent meanings for the terms “trip segment”; “trip chain”; “tour”; “main mode”; and “main purpose. ” It then goes on to demonstrate how the definitions are applied by highlighting some results from the re-formulated datasets. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E213716.
Peripheral T Cell Subpopulation in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Relation to Ablation Therapy

Background: Ablation therapy with advances in its techniques becomes widely used in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Ablative techniques can induce tumor cell death and stimulate many immunological responses. These responses can be evaluated through assessment of peripheral immune cells changes in systemic circulation. Aims: To investigate changes in the peripheral immune cells presented in CD4, CD8 and CD4/CD8 ratio after HCC ablation by different procedures and their relations to ablation result. Subjects and Methods: This study investigated 73 HCC patients admitted to Department of Tropical Medicine, Mansoura University Hospital, Egypt. The patients were stratified into three groups according to ablative technique used. Radiofrequency ablation was performed for 24 cases, microwave ablation for 24 and transarterial chemoembolization for 25 cases. After history taking, clinical examination, basic investigations, triphasic abdominal computerized tomography before and 4 weeks after the treatment, HCC patients were selected according to EASL guideline. Lymphocyte subset assay using flow cytometry 1 day before, and 4 weeks post ablation was done. The patients subdivided into successful and unsuccessful subgroup according to the result of ablation by CT. Results: In patients treated with Radiofrequency ablation, significant increase in CD4 count and CD4/CD8 ratio after treatment (P<0.001), while CD8+ cells count significantly decreased (P<0.002). In HCC patients treated with microwave ablation, CD4+ count and CD4/CD8 ratio significantly increased after treatment (P<0.001,<0.007), without significant differences in CD8+ cells count. After transarterial chemoembolization, CD4+ cells count and CD4/CD8 ratio significantly decreased (P<0.001) with significant increase of CD8+ cells (P<0.001). Changes in CD4, CD8, and CD4/CD8 ratio remained comparable to that occurred in both successfully ablated and cases with residual tumor. Conclusion: Various ablation procedures of HCC are associated with significant changes in peripheral T cell subpopulation. These changes mostly were due to the ablation of tumor cells but these changes cannot predict the success of ablation or recurrence of previously ablated one.
Evaluation of the performance of micromoulding blocks using micromanufacturing technologies

A B S T R A C T A R T I C L E I N F O The production of micromou lding blocks for the mass production of plastic microparts is associated to the decision of the more adequate micromanufacturing technology for the quickest time to moulding operation. The integration of subtractive and additive micro manufacturing technologies and micromoulding techniques made the development of plastics microcomponents in several domains of activity possible at feasible costs. However, the lifetime expectancy of their replication tools is directly dependent on the tool material properties and the thermal and mechanical characteristics of moulding process. Besides the tool manufacturing costs, post-treatments to achieve the enhancement of tool properties as surface roughness or abrasion resistance must also be considered, so that the mass production process results technically and economically effective. Thus, a trade-off is required to establish the break-even point between the overall tool cost and the tool lifetime. An analysis was made on the design of plastics microparts considering their performance requirements and implications on the tooling manufacturing route and expected production life. It was considered the use of additive and subtractive technologies for the microtooling manufacture using current industrial equipment . This study enabled a possible approach using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) towards the detailed analysis of the life cycle and production costs of common routes in microinjection moulding. A study of this type requires the continuous update of micromanufacturing technological developments in order to score actual process features. This analytical hierarchization approach enables decision makers to input market requirements and to obtain suitable manufacturing solutions, considering the continuous technological challenges and economical aspects.