Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of two different tapering protocols on fitness and body composition in young soccer players: positional differences

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of two different tapering protocols on anthropological status in junior elite soccer players according to playing positions. One- hundred and fifty-eight junior elite soccer players (mean age: 17.07±0.79 years ; mean height: 177.85±6.64 cm ; mean weight: 71.27±7.96 kg ; mean body-mass index: 22.50±1.66 kg/m2) were randomly selected into two groups: (1) exponential and (2) linear tapering group. Training sessions were conducted 3 times a week per 8 weeks. After 4 weeks of training and 4 weeks of tapering period, participants were measured in morphological characteristics and tested in motor and functional abilities. In both groups, time changes occurred in all tested variables, except in height and sitting height. However, forwards in the exponential group had larger changes in 5, 10 and 30 m sprint and 96369 agility test, while midfielders performed somewhat better in the linear group in repeated sprint ability (ES=0.64). Maximal oxygen uptake significantly increased in both exponential and linear tapering group. However larger mean differences occurred in the exponential group. In conclusion, both tapers produced similar time changes, yet divided by playing positions, players in the exponential group had larger improvements in morphological characteristics and both motor and functional abilities.
Nanoparticles in Lustre Reconstructions

It is increasingly apparent that the spatial distribution of Ag and Cu nanoparticles in lustre glazes is an important factor in determining the colour displayed by the decoration. Using STEM-EDX of cross sections, this distribution can easily be imaged, as is demonstrated in two modern reconstructions of lustre decorations from Granada, Spain. On the nanoscale, the difference in colour can be related to a different spatial distribution of the Ag and Cu particles, with the brownish gold variant consisting of a top layer of Ag nanoparticles with an underlying layer of Cu nanoparticles while in the yellowish golden lustre Cu specks are unevenly dispersed.
Effects of temperature and natural disturbance on growth, reproduction, and population density in the alpine annual hemiparasite euphrasia frigida

The effects of temperature and "natural disturbance" on growth, seed production, and population density in the facultative hemiparasitic annual Euphrasia frigida (Scrophulariaceae) were examined in the middle alpine zone at Finse, southwest Norway. Experimentally elevated temperature increased growth and seed production significantly. Higher temperatures resulted in a small decrease in population densities during three seasons. The degree of "natural disturbance" did not influence growth and seed production, but population density was highest at intermediate disturbance levels. Thus, while temperature influenced the performance of E. frigida, disturbance affected the population dynamics. The effects of temperature on growth and reproduction may also be indirect on hemiparasites, through improved conditions for the host plants under elevated temperatures. It is hypothesized that the predicted global warming will result in increased seed output from E. frigida plants in the middle alpine zone. Population densities, however, are likely to decrease under elevated temperatures, due to lower disturbance levels by frost heave and increased vegetation cover.
Comparison of Different Forms for the “Spin” and “Orbital” Components of the Angular Momentum of Light

We compare three attempts that have been made to decompose the angular momentum of the electromagnetic field into components of an “orbital” and “spin” nature. All three expressions are different, and there seems to be no reason to prefer one to another. It appears, on the basis of classical electrodynamics, that there is no unique way of decomposing the angular momentum of the electromagnetic field into orbital and spin components, even in a fixed inertial frame.
Assessing the impact of Impatiens glandulifera on riparian habitats: partitioning diversity components following species removal

Summary 1. Attempts to quantify the impact of non-native plants on the vegetation of invaded habitats have often been criticized because of the frequent use of observational assessments (invaded/uninvaded comparisons) focused on local- rather than community-level effects. This study highlights how removal experiments combined with partitioning of diversity components across spatial scales can provide key insights into invasive species’ impacts. 2. Impatiens glandulifera (Balsaminaceae) is a widespread invasive riparian weed, yet few quantitative assessments of its impact on natural vegetation exist. Thus replicated experiments were used to compare the impact of Impatiens removal on α , β , γ components of species richness, diversity and evenness in open riparian habitats in north-east England. 3. Plant community response to Impatiens removal was rapid, with a significant increase in seedling recruitment resulting in an average increase of four species m − 2 . The impact of Impatiens invasion was most marked for light-demanding species. Eight non-native species (in addition to Impatiens ) occurred in the community and these responded proportionally more to Impatiens removal than native species. As a result the proportion of non-native species in removal plots was higher than in invaded plots. 4. The increase in α richness and diversity following Impatiens removal was matched by a similar increase in the γ components. Thus the effect of Impatiens was significant at both the local plot scale and at the scale of the riparian community, although the former effect was more marked. Species accumulation curves suggested that extensive Impatiens stands may reduce species richness by as much as 25%. 5. Synthesis and applications. Removal experiments appear particularly well suited to assess the impacts of herbaceous non-native plants on ruderal communities. By partitioning diversity components, impacts were consistently assessed at local and community scales and, when combined with analysis of species accumulation curves, provided a comprehensive assessment of impact on the plant community. The approach adopted in this study highlights that although Impatiens reduces native species diversity in open and frequently disturbed riparian vegetation, many of the species negatively influenced by Impatiens are widespread ruderal species. Furthermore, management may lead to a compensatory increase in the abundance of other non-native species and thus fail to achieve desired conservation goals.
Smallholder pig production systems along a periurban-rural gradient in the Western provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

In the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo(DRC), pigs are raised almost exclusivelyby smallholderseither in periurban areas of major cities such as Kinshasa or in rural villages. Unfortunately, little information is available regarding pig production in the Western part of the DRC, wherefore a survey was carried out to characterize and compare 319 pig productionsystems in their managementand feedingstrategies, along a periurban- rural gradientin Western provinces of the DRC. Pig breeding was the main source of income (43%) and half of respondents were active in mixed pig and crop production, mainly vegetable garden. Depending on the location, smallholders owned on average 18 pigs, including four sows. Piglet mortality rate varied from 9.5 to 21.8% while average weaned age ranged between 2.2 and 2.8 months. The major causes of mortality reported by the farmers were African swine fever 98%, swine erysipelas (60%), erysipelas trypanosomiasis (31%), swine worm infection (17%), and diarrhoea (12%). The majority of the pigs were reared in pens without free roaming and fed essentially with locally available by-products and forage plants whose nature varied according with the location of the farm. The pig production systems depended on the local environment; particularly in terms of workforces, herd structure and characteristics, production parameters, pig building materials, selling price and in feed resources. It can be concluded that an improvement of Congolese pig production systems should consider (1) a reduction of inbreeding, (2) an improvement in biosafety to reduce the incidence of African swine fever and the spread of other diseases, and (3) an improvement in feeding practices.
The TeV Spectrum of Markarian 501

The energy spectrum of the active galactic nucleus Markarian 501 has been determined from 0.3 to 10 TeV with the Whipple Observatory Cerenkov Imaging Telescope, by using both small zenith angle and large zenith angle data taken between 1997 February 14 and June 8. The TeV emission from Mrk 501 was unprecedentedly high, allowing a statistically accurate spectrum to be derived. In contrast to previously measured TeV spectra, the spectrum over this energy region is not well described by a simple power law. Instead, the spectrum exhibits significant curvature and can be well fitted by a parabolic spectrum proportional to E-2.22 ± 0.04 ± 0.05 - (0.47 ± 0.07) log10E, where the first set of errors is statistical and the second systematic and E is in units of TeV. Simple power-law fits to the TeV data are also inconsistent with upper limits from EGRET observations that temporally overlap a subset of the TeV observations. The data show a statistically significant signal above energies of 7 TeV. This energy, combined with variability timescales, yields a Doppler beaming factor, δ, of at least 1.5.
Orienting to the Public Good: Developing a Moral Self in the Middle Grades

Abstract This study takes up the challenge of middle level researchers to investigate the extent to which schools prepare young adolescents to commit themselves to serve the public interest. One way of assessing the orientation of children and adolescents to the public good is through their emerging self-understanding. This study analyzes middle school students’ descriptions of the ideal, real, and dreaded selves. Fewer than half the participants describe themselves with at least one moral characteristic and many of them focus narrowly on attaining material and social success. These findings raise questions about the hidden curriculum of individualism in schools as well as in the wider culture.
Sur les pas de Jean A. Vellard. A propos de sa contribution à l'étude des scorpions (Chelicerata)

Se efectua una revision comentada de la contribucion de Jean A. Vellard al conocimiento de los escorpiones de la fauna brasilena. Este aracnologo frances, que paso la mayoria de su vida en los paises suramericanos, publico solo dos trabajos sobre escorpiones, pero la infromacion en ellos apportada resulta particularmente precisa. Se describe una nueva especie de escorpion de Brasil
Managing Professional Competencies of Teaching Staff in the University: Views of Finnish University Leaders

Higher education institutions should recognize that their staff are their vital and valued asset. Theuniversity should therefore, commit itself to encouraging and enabling staff to realize their potential byproviding opportunities for all colleagues to gain the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary forthem to enhance their contribution to meeting individual, area, and organizational objectives. Not onlythat staff development should be among a clutch of institutional innovations thrust upon universities, it isa technique or tool to increase quality, efficiency and output, it can be associated with high qualityprofessional performance resulting in career advancement, strategic development, and initiative tosustain change (Duke, 1992: 98, 105). The purpose of this article was to understand the nature of staffdevelopment in Finnish universities in helping staff fulfill their roles as educators. In line with thisobjective, the crucial question that this paper seeks to answer is: How would the professionalcompetencies of teaching staff in Finnish universities be developed in order to bring quality in theiracademic work of student teaching. It is believed that answer to this vital question would present bestpractices in academic staff management in institutions of higher learning in other countries.
ACCURACY OF ANALYSTS' EARNINGS FORECASTS: EVIDENCE FROM MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS IN AUSTRALIA

As the incidence of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) continues to escalate, understanding the factors that systematically affect earnings predictability becomes increasingly important. This paper examines how changes in business characteristics and forecasting environment of merging firms affect the accuracy of consensus analysts' earnings forecasts in Australia. Based on a sample of 99 M&As from 1998 to 2000, the results show that the forecast error increases after an M&A. The increase in the forecast error appears to persist for at least the first three years after the merger, suggesting that analysts take time to adjust to changes in the firm brought about by an M&A. The change in analysts' forecast errors is related to variables proxying the change in the complexity of the merging firms.
PERCEIVED BENEFITS OF INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL TRUST IN E-COMMERCE PARTICIPATION: A CASE STUDY IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY

Business to business e-commerce hype has highlighted the importance of both, information and communications technologies and inter-organizational trust, for developing and maintaining trading partner relationships. While many studies focused on competitive advantages as the driver of e-commerce adoption, the objective of this paper is to examine the impact of trust on perceived benefits and subsequently e-commerce adoption. This study identifies antecedent trust factors that contribute to successful e-commerce participation (adoption, integration and use). The findings are based on a case study of an inter-organizational dyad in the telecommunications industry that underscores the salience of inter-organizational trust for e-commerce participation.
Treating Compassion Fatigue among Those Working With Trauma and High Risk Populations

This study was completed as a systematic review looking into effective self-care for those working with trauma and at risk populations. This study looked into how compassion fatigue can be combated by compassion satisfaction. By workers actively and effectively practicing self-care they are able to increase their own compassion satisfaction, which allows them to fight off both compassion fatigue and burnout. This study was able to identify exercise, spirituality, mindfulness, and personal support all as popular and effective self-care strategies commonly used by mental workers.
Modeling strength loss in wood by chemical composition

In this study, we develop models for predicting loss in bending strength of clear, straight-grained pine from changes in chemical composition. Although significant work needs to be done before truly universal predictive models are developed, a quantitative fundamental relationship between changes in chemical composition and strength loss for pine was demonstrated. In particular, this study explored a linear independent-component modeling approach. The models were evaluated across a range of environmental exposure conditions known to cause strength loss and with several chemical treatments capable of causing hydrolytic chemical degradation in wood. Simple linear models developed reasonably accurate predictions of strength loss of clear, straight-grained southern pine wood based on changes in its chemical composition. Side-chain sugars of hemicellulose were the most susceptible to acid hydrolysis. The extent of their degradation was a sensitive predictor of early strength loss. Those sugars associated with the hemicellulose backbone were the next most susceptible, but they were strongly correlated between themselves. This is known as collinearity and, as such, data from either mannose or xylose, or from Klason lignin or glucose, often precluded the need for the other in the models. A linear three-parameter model using changes in a side-chain hemicellulose (arabinose), a main-chain hemicellulose (mannose), and glucose as an indicator of the extent of cellulose degradation reasonably predicted bending strength loss. We believe that with further work, residual strength or serviceability models based on a linear accumulation of the changes in chemical composition of wood during microbiological attack, thermochemical treatments, or severe environmental exposures can be developed to provide sensitive predictors of post-treatment or in-service strength loss.
Insight into the synergism between MnO2 and acid sites over Mn–SiO2@TiO2 nano-cups for low-temperature selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3

The rational synthesis of low-temperature catalysts with high catalytic activity and stability is highly desirable for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3. Here we synthesized a Mn–SiO2/TiO2 nano-cup catalyst via the coating of the mesoporous TiO2 layers on SiO2 spheres and subsequent inlay of MnO2 nanoparticles in the narrow annulus. This catalyst exhibited superior catalytic SCR activities and stability for low-temperature selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3, with NO conversion of ∼100%, N2 selectivity above 90% at a temperature ∼140 °C. The characterization results, such as BET, XRD, H2-TPR, O2/NH3-TPD and XPS, indicated that this nano-cup structure catalyst possesses high concentration and dispersion of Mn4+ active species, strong chemisorbed O− or O22− species and highly stable MnOX active components over the annular structures of the TiO2 shell and SiO2 sphere, and thus enhanced the low-temperature SCR performance.
Benthic community composition across gradients of intertidal elevation, wave exposure, and ice scour in Atlantic Canada

Studies on community organization may focus on different properties, such as species richness (total number of species) or composition (a measure of the identity and abundance of spe- cies). In rocky intertidal habitats from Nova Scotia, Canada, we previously determined that richness varied across vertical (elevation) and horizontal (wave/ice exposure) gradients of environmental stress on 2 coasts of contrasting winter ice load: the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast and the open Atlantic coast. Across some limited ranges of stress, however, richness remained similar. Through multivari- ate analyses (NMDS followed by ANOSIM) of species abundance data measured for all seaweeds and benthic invertebrates, we increased our ability to detect spatial trends in community structure. The present study shows that community composition varied clearly across all studied ranges of envi- ronmental stress. Therefore, even relatively small changes in abiotic stress seem capable of altering the structure of intertidal communities. An analysis of similarity percentages (SIMPER) identified the main species that typified each environmental level and those that best discriminated between con- secutive levels across the elevation and exposure gradients. Sessile organisms (barnacles and a few brown and red seaweeds) constituted the most important characterizing species, with differences in relative importance between the 2 studied coasts. Future experimental work aiming to unravel the biotic interactions underlying the observed changes in composition across the stress gradients should benefit by initially focusing on these species.
Ashkanfar A, Langton DJ, Joyce TJ. Does a micro-grooved trunnion stem surface finish improve fixation and reduce fretting wear at the taper junction

8 The generation of particulate debris at the taper junction of total hip replacements (THRs), 9 can cause failure of the artificial hip. The taper surfaces of femoral heads and trunnions of 10 femoral stems are generally machined to a certain roughness to enhance fixation. However, 11 the effect of the surface roughness of these surfaces on the fixation, wear and consequently 12 clinical outcomes of the design is largely unknown. In this study, we asked whether a micro13 grooved trunnion surface finish (1) improves the fixation and (2) reduces the wear rate at the 14 taper junction of THRs. We used 3D finite element (FE) models of THRs to, firstly, 15 investigate the effect of initial fixation of a Cobalt-Chromium femoral head with a smooth 16 taper surface mated with a Titanium (1) micro-grooved and (2) smooth, trunnion surface 17 finishes. Secondly, we used a computational FE wear model to compare the wear evolution 18 between the models, which was then validated against wear measurements of the taper 19 surface of explanted femoral heads. The fixation at the taper junction was found to be better 20 for the smooth couplings. Over a 7 million load cycle analysis in-silico, the linear wear depth 21 and the total material loss was around 3.2 and 1.4 times higher for the femoral heads mated 22 with micro-grooved trunnions. It was therefore concluded that smooth taper and trunnion 23 surfaces will provide better fixation at the taper junction and reduce the volumetric wear 24
Homotopy Analysis of Stretching Flows with Partial Slip

The investigation deals with the slip effects on the two problems of viscous incom- pressible flows induced by a stretching sheet. These flow problems corresponds to the planar and axisymmetric stretching. After a similarity transformation, The arising system has been solved by homotopy analysis method (HAM). Convergence of the HAM solution is checked. Comparison of the HAM results corresponding to the planar stretching problem is provided with that of the existing results. The influence of the slip parameter on the flow is explored.
The Role of Cognitive Distortions in Predicting Mental Toughness in Athletes

Mental toughness is one of the most commonly applied concepts in sports but also one of the least understood terms used by individuals in the athletic community (Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton, 2002). Mental toughness in sports is also characterized as the ability to be more consistent and better than opponents in remaining determined, focused, and confident under pressure (Jones et al., 2007). Despite the advancements in the cognitive understanding of mental toughness, little research has focused on evaluating the basis or rationality as to why or how mentally tough athletes possess the tendency to have an unshakeable confidence and belief in their abilities in the face of uncertainty. The purpose of the current study was to examine the possibility that mental toughness is related to the presence of specific cognitive distortions (e.g., minimization, magnification, all-or-nothing thinking, comparisons to others, emotional reasoning and decision making, should statements, and, particularly, perfectionism) after accounting for the factors already known to be related to mental toughness (i.e., age, gender, total years of playing experience). Results demonstrated that magnifications and comparisons to others were significantly, negatively correlated to mental toughness. Apparently, the less frequently athletes engage in blowing bad situations out of proportion to reality and comparing themselves unfavorably to others, the more mentally tough they are likely to be. These findings lend support to the integration of cognitive-behavioral interventions aimed at reducing athletes’ engagement in these specific types of distortions in order to improve mental toughness and, potentially, athletic performance.