Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How does relative performance feedback affect beliefs and academic decisions?

I report on a field and lab-in-the-field experiments examining how students’ beliefs, academic investments, performance, and the decision to take a college entrance exam change when students of different ability levels learn about their relative performance. In the context of a 3-month preparation course for a high-stakes college entrance exam, I elicit beliefs from all students and randomly assign them either to receive or not to receive feedback about their quartile in the score distribution in weekly practice tests. Combining elicited beliefs and administrative data, I present three main findings. First, relative performance feedback affects almost exclusively low-performing students, who become discouraged by this intervention. Compared to low-performing students who do not get relative feedback, they take fewer practice tests, get lower scores, and are less likely to take the college entrance exam they are preparing for. Second, low-performing female and male students respond in different ways, with males reducing investments and females keeping effort up but deciding to not take the college entrance exam. Third, even though low performers change behavior, they do not update beliefs in the incentivized task, suggesting potential discrepancies between elicited and true beliefs. Overall, my results shed light on the potential discouragement effects of informational interventions on students with low academic performance.
The American mink is a seasonally breeding mustelid with induced ovulation

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of artificially extended daylight applied during pregnancy on reproductive performance in farmed mink. The material consisted of 536 female Black (or “short NAP”) mink aged 2 years. To analyse the reproductive performance, we selected females mated twice during the period 13 to 17 March. Energy-saving bulbs of 11 watts each (equivalent to traditional 60-watt bulbs) were placed above the cages of the females. The experiment involved two groups of females: the control group (n = 258) were females kept under natural daylight throughout pregnancy; the females of the treatment group (n = 278) were additionally subjected to extended photoperiod – up to 16 hours of light per day, applied from 20 March to 15 April. Selected reproduction indicators were analysed among the groups. The extended daylight applied during pregnancy of mink positively influenced many of the analysed indices. The duration of diapause and related total length of gestation decreased, the litter size – both at birth and at weaning – significantly increased. Pre-weaning mortality of young and the proportion of nonbreeding females slightly decreased as a result of the treatment, which from the practical point of view might be seen as a beneficial effect; however, these parameters are shaped by other factors than photoperiod. The whelping season was both commenced and completed earlier among females subjected to extra light during pregnancy, which improved the organization of work on the farm. Artificial illumination of pregnant mink in Poland’s climate can be applied with great success and introducing this treatment to the mink breeding technology on a permanent basis should be seriously considered.
University of Oklahoma

Employed high school seniors in rural schools do not always have the class scheduling options of their counterparts in larger geographic areas. In particular, many are faced with mandatory attendance of six hours per day as required by state law. A non-college bound student, for example, must have only three credits of science, history, and math for graduation. As such, many will spend their senior year in electives throughout the day with English as their last and only graduation requirement. This phenomenological study examines the lived experiences of seven employed high school seniors to explore the research question: How do rural, employed high school seniors approach learning in English, their only required course for graduation. Through in-depth interviews, their emerging themes of frustration, values, personal growth/identify of self, and academic growth are explored through a situational triad of employment, mandatory attendance, and fulfillment of their last graduation requirement, English. Their candid recollections of gain and loss indicate that grade 12 fails and succeeds in meeting their educational needs. Their voices reveal that senior English accomplishes its goal of preparing them for college, but overall, they expose a sense of missed learning opportunities, many of which are directly linked to employment. They continue to work, despite the compromises to their health and relationships with others, even often adding more hours of employment, because their class schedules are not strenuous. Findings from this study suggest that English, as the only graduation requirement for these graduating seniors, did more harm than good.
Cannibalism in Herring Gulls

The Herring Gull Larus argentatus is a notorious killer during the breeding season. Young chicks are repeatedly struck on the head or often gripped by the neck and worried until dead (plate 85a). Usually, these chicks have trespassed into neighbouring territories, and the strong territorial aggression of the adults may cause a considerable pre-fledging mortality. Chicks may also be eaten, however, by other Herring Gulls and even by their own parents (Moreau 1923, Paynter 1949, Goethe 1956). Few observers who have visited Herring Gull colonies have failed to record such instances of cannibalism. Nevertheless, no quantitative study of this habit appears to have been made. This paper presents an account of the extent and possible effects of cannibalism within a colony breeding on the Isle of May, Fife. On that island the species has increased progressively and spectacularly from a solitary pair in 1907 to over 14,000 pairs in 1968. This investigation was part of a wider study of the breeding biology of that large population during 1966-69.
INADVERTENT ESTABLISHMENT OF CONTROL BY LOCATION IN MATCHING-TO-SAMPLE TASKS IN INDIVIDUALS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Studies with non-human subjects have shown that inadvertent establishment of control by location can interfere with the acquisition of conditional relations in matching-to-sample (MTS) procedures. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to verify whether this phenomenon would occur with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in training sessions with MTS, without fading, prompting, and correction procedures that could improve training efficacy. All three participants showed control by location even after completing a minimum of 50 training sessions of arbitrary MTS with two comparison stimuli. A second study was conducted to verify if control by location would occur during MTS procedures using three comparison stimuli. Sixteen participants completed two training sessions. Results of this study indicate that 13 of these participants exhibited control by location at the beginning of training. Taken together, the results of both experiments indicate that, in the absence of errorless learning procedures, such as stimulus fading, control by location can interfere with the acquisition of conditional relations taught via MTS procedures in individuals with ASD.
Forecasting soil temperature based on surface air temperature using a wavelet artificial neural network

Soil temperature is a very important variable in agricultural meteorology and strongly influences agricultural activities and planning (e.g. the date and depth of sowing crops, frost protection). There are many physically based studies in the literature which model soil temperature, but few are easily applicable for use in the field. Simple and precise short‐term forecasting of soil temperature with minimum data requirements is the main goal of this study. The soil temperature at 0300, 0900 and 1500 GMT was forecast based only on surface air temperatures using artificial neural network (ANN) and wavelet transform artificial neural network (WANN) models. The hourly data were collected from the Mashhad synoptic station in Khorasan Razavi province in Iran between 2010 and 2013. The results of this study showed that using a wavelet transform for preprocessing improved the accuracy of soil temperature forecasting. It was also found that changing the temporal increment in forecasting time did not have a noticeable effect on errors in the WANN models. WANN models can be used as accurate tools to forecast soil temperature 1–7 days ahead at depths of 5–30 cm.
GENERAL FISHERIES COMMISSION FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN COMMISSION GÉNÉRALE DES PÊCHES POUR LA MÉDITERRANÉE GENERAL FISHERIES COMMISSION FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC) Fourteenth Session Sophia, Bulgaria 20-24 February 2012 REPORT OF THE TRANSVERSAL WORKSHOP ON SPATIAL BAS

2. Mr Abdellah Srour, Executive Secretary of the GFCM Secretariat, welcomed the participants and warmly thanked Mr Carlo Pipitone for chairing the meeting. Mr Srour underlined the importance of the topic and recalled the framework whereby the workshop is being carried out. He underlined the need to give clear management indications to the Commission for the correct implementation of the spatial based approach to fisheries.
INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC STUDIES WORKING PAPER SERIES W 04 : 11 December 2004 Countervailing Power in the Icelandic Cement Industry

The Icelandic Competition Council recently ruled that a cement supplier with 75% market share is not dominant. The ruling was based on countervailing power of local concrete producers. To test the economic arguments for the ruling, we present a simplified model of the industry and apply and adapt some recent work on bilateral oligopoly. We show that it may be rational for buyers, given that some buying firms have switched to an entrant, to stay with a less efficient incumbent. Contracts negotiated with the incumbent are not as advantageous as those the entrant offers, but better than those that would prevail in monopoly of the entrant.
Role of chemical and biological constituents of PM 10 from Saharan Dust in the exacerbation of asthma in Puerto Rico

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways whose prevalence in the US has increased 75% since 1980, particularly in children. Some environmental factors associated with increased asthma are: exposures to endotoxins (ENX) and other contaminants found in airborne particulate matter (PM). This research evaluates the role of chemical and biological constituents (such as ENX) present in PM10 of Saharan dust in the exacerbation of pediatric asthma in PR. To accomplish this, we analyzed PM10 for Fajardo and Guaynabo during 2004. We found that PM10 levels increased when Saharan Dust Events (SDE) reached the shores of Puerto Rico. ENX content was measured and found to be higher in PM10 Guaynabo aqueous extracts. Therefore, we evaluated whether SDE reaching PR correlated with an increase in asthma morbidity in children. A retrospective analysis of claims data for pediatric asthma cases, from the ASES (Health Insurance Administration of PR) database for the year 2004, revealed that the highest number of visits for both an urban (San Juan) and rural (Fajardo) site occurred in March. Coincidentally, March 2004 also contained the highest number of SDE reaching PR. We used an in-vitro model of lung epithelial cells to evaluate the cytotoxic and pro-inflammatory effects (IL6 and IL-8 release) of SDE vs Non-SDE PM10 in inland and Atlantic Ocean aqueous extracts. Results showed that the Guaynabo PM10 extracts exerted a cytotoxic effect in a dose dependent manner and was more toxic than non-SDE PM10 extract (p<0.05). Inhibition of ENX in extracts reduced its original cytotoxicity and pro-inflammatory effects.
Title: Childhood fat and lean mass: differing relations to vascular structure and function at age 8-9-years Authors:

Objective: Childhood body mass index (BMI) has been related to vascular structure and function. However, little is known about the differing contributions of fat and lean mass to this relationship. Our objectives were to relate the fat and lean mass (bone excluded) components of BMI (fat mass index (FMI) and lean mass index (LMI); mass (kg)/height (m)) to vascular measures in pre-pubertal children. Approach and Results: In the UK Southampton Women’s Survey mother-offspring cohort, 983 children had dual x-ray absorptiometry and vascular measurements at 8-9 years. Using linear regression analyses, we found that most vascular measures were related to BMI, but fat and lean mass contributed differently. Systolic blood pressure was positively associated with both FMI (β=0.91 (95% CI: 0.52, 1.30) mm/Hg) and LMI (β=2.16 (1.47, 2.85) mmHg), while pulse rate was positively associated with FMI (β=0.93 (0.48, 1.38) b/min), but negatively associated with LMI (β=-1.79 (-2.59, -0.99) b/min). The positive relation between BMI and carotid intima media thickness was mainly due to a positive association with LMI (β=0.013 (0.008, 0.019) mm). Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), but not carotidradial PWV, was positively associated with FMI (β=0.06 (0.03, 0.09) m/s). For systolic blood pressure, carotid-femoral PWV and reactive hyperemia significant interactions indicated that the association with fat mass depended on the amount of lean mass. Conclusions: In pre-pubertal children, differences in vascular structure and function in relation to BMI probably represent combinations of adverse effects of fat mass, adaptive effects of body size and relatively protective effects of lean mass.
SERIES SELECTIVITY , WELFARE STIGMA , AND THE TAKE-UP OF SOCIAL WELFARE : HOW DO CHINESE PEOPLE MANAGE WELFARE STIGMA ?

Scholarship of welfare stigma agrees that the more selective the welfare policy is, the more stigmatizing it is. Yet there are controversies about the impact of welfare stigma on the take-up of welfare benefits. Earlier studies hold that welfare stigma is a major deterrent factor of welfare take-up, whereas more recent studies from comparative perspectives produce more complex results. To what extent is this knowledge from the well-established welfare states explanatory to the fact of the developmental welfare states? This paper, taking the highly selective social assistance program—the Minimum Livelihood Guarantee in China— as an example, explores the relationship between selectivity and welfare stigma, and its effect on the take-up of social assistance via questionnaire interviews and a unique data set compiled for this research. Analysis shows that though there are multiple stringent selection mechanisms and stigmatizing official propaganda, average citizens do not perceive strong stigma. They do believe that welfare fraud is serious, and yet they don’t show strong resentment for the welfare claimants, as they don’t relate the transfer to their own wallets. More importantly, they attribute poverty and welfare receipt more to bad luck and slack labor market than to negative personal characteristics or misbehaviors. In addition, the public distrust of the official propaganda and the strategic behaviors of the grass-roots bureaucrats neutralize the stigmatizing effect. Therefore, the statistical discrimination approach —one of the conventional theories of welfare stigma sources — is irrelevant in the context of China, while taxpayer resentment view and individual attribution theory have strong explanatory power. Among all the deterrent factors of welfare participation, the significant ones are: the high guarantee threshold, substitution effect of the informal social assistance system, the limited coverage, and transaction cost of the participants (in descending order of importance). By contrast, welfare stigma has a relatively limited impact on welfare participation. To promote the program’s effectiveness in poverty reduction, the state needs to lower the threshold of protection, increase the program’s coverage, reduce the participation cost of the residents, and shoulder greater responsibility in the welfare system.
Three Normative Models of the Welfare State

In order to work out an appropriate division of labor between the public and the private sector, we need a normative standard that tells us what the state ought to be doing. In order to be credible, this standard needs to be more than just prescriptive, it must provide the basis for a broader reconstructive theory of the welfare state. The problem, however, is that even among supporters of the welfare state there are several different theoretical reconstructions of the normative commitments that are taken to underlie it, all of which are in tension with one another. In particular, the three normative purposes most commonly cited as providing a justification for the scope of welfare state activity are equality, community, or efficiency. These give rise to a corresponding set of models, which I refer to as the redistributive, the communitarian, and the public-economic models of the welfare state. My objective in this paper is to show that the public-economic model of the welfare state, although the least popular among political philosophers, is actually the most plausible. Not only does it provide a superior account of the existing configuration of welfare-state activities, but it alone is able to explain why, in all Western democracies, state spending rose almost continuously over the course of the 20th century as a fraction of GDP.
Influence of Stakeholder Participation in Utilization of Monitoring and Evaluation Results on the Performance of Fish Farming Projects in Kenya

This study, sought to establish the influence of stakeholder participation in utilization of Monitoring and Evaluation results on the performance of fish farming projects in Kenya, a case of Economic Fish farming projects Nyeri County. This study was guided by a pragmatic research paradigm for a mixed research method in a concurrent parallel research design. The study targeted the eight fish farming projects funded by the Economic Stimulus programme in Nyeri County. The target population was1198 project participants. The sample size was 271 respondents comprising of 247 farmers, 4 project managers and 24 committee members obtained through purposive and stratified random sampling techniques. Structured questionnaires were administered to collect quantitative data while focus group discussions were conducted to collect qualitative data. The instruments were tested for validity and reliability through the content validity index (CVI=0.833) and the Cronbach Alpha ‟ s index (a=0.795) for reliability. Regression models were used to analyse quantitative data while qualitative data was analysed using content analysis. The study found out that the level of stakeholder participation in utilization of Monitoring and Evaluation results was average (M=3.43). The study established a significant influence of stakeholder participation in utilization of M&E results (t=14.20, p<0.05) on performance of fish farming projects. The study recommends that fish farming projects should increase utilization of M&E results so as ensure better performance of fish farming projects. The study provides a stakeholder participation model for strengthening the performance of fish farming projects.
Experimental Study of Relationship between Interfacial Instabilities and Mechanical Strength of Two-layer PPIHDPE Polymer Melts

, T he existence of interfacial instability at the interface of multilayer polymeric fluid is well known. The experimental studies have shown that interfacial instability of two-layer polymer melts plays an important role in polymer processing operation. This work is designed mainly to provide guidelines for the development of experimentaltechniques forthe improvement of the two-layer polymer products in the polymer processing industry. This is done by performing a series of tensile tests on extruded two-layer polymer melts in order to get insight into the relation between interfacial instabilities and mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP) over high density polyethylene (HDPE) systems. Observed variations of the mechanical properties have been related to the conformation of the interfacial wave. Thus, a relationship is established between the interface morphology corresponding J to extrusion instabilities and the mechanical characteristics of the interfacial strength , of the extruded PP/HDPE. I.
PATIENTS SATISFACTION : 1 RC 2 WHEN SHOULD YOU MEASURE AND WHAT SHOULD YOU ASK ?

Before asking about patient satisfaction with anaesthetic care we have to define the concept of satisfaction, which is rather abstract and far from clear [1]. From the patient’s point of view, outcome quality is of major importance. – and satisfaction is a part of it. Hence, the evaluation of patient satisfaction based on their subjective perception of the care they received, should be an integral part of the measurement. A traditional definition of satisfaction is the degree of congruence between expectation and accomplishment [2]. Therefore, we have to know what patients expect before we ask about their satisfaction. Logically, the involvement of patients in the development of a questionnaire on patients’ satisfaction is very important [3,4]. Unfortunately, many instruments do not consider this aspect [5,6]. Second, many lack psychometric development characteristics. A psychometric development is a step by step approach and should include elements of content validity (e.g. focus groups) and construct validity and reliability (internal consistency). [3,4]. When considering validity, there are two aspects which should always be addressed [7,8]. First, does the instrument really measure what it purports to measure, e.g. patient satisfaction? Second, is there a relationship between the observation and what it reflects or are there other confounding factors which may influence the result but were not directly involved in the causal pathway [9, 10]. Reliability, on the other hand, is a way to reflect the variance in scores which are caused by true differences and not due to inaccurate measurement [3,7,8]. The traditional understanding of reliability (testretest-reliability) is only a part of reproducibility, among inter-observer and intra-observer reliability.
Integrated Use of Aureobasidium pullulans Strain CG163 and Acibenzolar-S-Methyl for Management of Bacterial Canker in Kiwifruit

An isolate of Aureobasidium pullulans (strain = CG163) and the plant defence elicitor acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) were investigated for their ability to control leaf spot in kiwifruit caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae biovar 3 (Psa). Clonal Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa plantlets (‘Hayward’) were treated with ASM, CG163 or ASM + CG163 at seven and one day before inoculation with Psa. ASM (0.2 g/L) was applied either as a root or foliar treatments and CG163 was applied as a foliar spray containing 2 × 107 CFU/mL. Leaf spot incidence was significantly reduced by all treatments compared with the control. The combination of ASM + CG163 had greater efficacy (75%) than either ASM (55%) or CG163 (40%) alone. Moreover, treatment efficacy correlated positively with the expression of defence-related genes: pathogenesis-related protein 1 (PR1), β-1,3-glucosidase, Glucan endo 1,3-β-glucosidase (Gluc_PrimerH) and Class IV chitinase (ClassIV_Chit), with greater gene upregulation in plants treated with ASM + CG163 than by the individual treatments. Pathogen population studies indicated that CG163 had significant suppressive activity against epiphytic populations of Psa. Endophytic populations were reduced by ASM + CG163 but not by the individual treatments, and by 96–144 h after inoculation were significantly lower than the control. Together these data suggest that ASM + CG163 have complementary modes of action that contribute to greater control of leaf spotting than either treatment alone.