Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the Effects of Trait Mindfulness on Stress with College Students

This research looked at the relationship between subjective trait mindfulness and perceived stress on performance on the stroop. As stress is a major issue with college student’s mental health and academic performance it is important to investigate means of reducing it. Thirty participants were obtained by convenience sampling from the National College of Ireland (NCI). Participants completed the mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and Perceived Stress scale (PSS) and then carried out the stroop task. Cross sectional design was used to test the research question. It was hypothesised that those who have higher trait mindfulness would have better performance on the stroop task (less errors and faster time to completion), decreased perceived stress and physiological responses (lower temperature and lower heart rate). Results showed that there was no significant difference found between mindful and non-mindful individuals in perceived stress and induced stress on the stroop task. It appears that mindfulness has to be trained in order to observe significant effects on the stroop task. Limitations are discussed further.
Time Series Volatility Forecasting of the Zimbabwean Stock Exchange

This paper attempts to explore the comparative ability of different statistical and econometric volatility forecasting models in the context of Zimbabwe stock market. Two different models were considered in this study. The volatility of the ZSE industrial index returns have been modeled by using a univariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) models including both symmetric and asymmetric models that captures most common stylized facts about index returns such as volatility clustering, fat tails and leverage effect, these models are GARCH (1,1) and exponential GARCH (1,1). The first model is used for capturing the symmetry effect whereas the second model is for capturing the asymmetric effect. The study used a stock market average daily industrial index from Zimbabwe (ZSE index), a country not previously considered in the volatility literature, for the period 19 February 2009 to 31 December 2014. Basing on the empirical results presented, the following can be concluded. ZSE data showed a significant departure from normality and existence of conditional heteroskedasticity in the residuals series. For all periods specified, the empirical analysis evidenced that asymmetric EGarch (1;1) model outperform the symmetric Garch (1;1) model on forecasting future volatility after using two different evaluation techniques of Error measures statistics and regression based analysis.Future studies should consider the general extensions of Garch models, in particular symmetric and asymmetric Garch (p;q) rather than symmetric and asymmetric Garch (1;1) model. This general extension is helpful because such higher order-models are often useful when long span of data is used. Therefore with additional lags such models allow both fast and slow decay of information.
THE IMPACT OF INFLATION ON STOCK MARKET PERFORMANCE IN ZIMBABWE BETWEEN 1980 AND 2008 : AN EMPIRICAL

Empirical literature fails to agree on how the performance of the stock market and inflation are related as explained by Fama (1981) and Fisher (1930). The relationship had been mixed and this research makes an empirical investigation on this relationship using Zimbabwean data from 1980-2008. The study employed VECM approach to test the dynamic relationship in the short and long term and to understand the key drivers of each variable. Findings support the Fisher hypothesis but stocks did not offer perfect protection from the effects of inflation over the long period. Each variable was mainly driven by its own lagged variable while the importance of one variable in explaining the variation in the other variables was moderate. Investors should not hold and view equities as long term investments providing them with compensation for loss of purchasing power. They can hold equities as good buys in the short to medium term.
Would Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Consumers’ Attitudes towards Brand and Purchase Behavior? Buyer-seller Guanxi as the Moderator

Corporate social responsibility is a critical strategy for enterprises proceeding marketing planning on either brand promotion or image building. Nevertheless, the past research on corporate social responsibility rarely mentioned about the effect on purchase intention. Attitudes towards brand, brand image, and consumers’ purchase intention are integrated in this study to construct the major research model, and a scale is developed from the special perspective of Chinese culture to measure the buyer-seller guanxi between enterprises and customers. Aiming at the coffee shop chain of Starbucks, the consumers are proceeded the questionnaire survey, and total 673 valid copies of questionnaire are retrieved. The SEM analysis results show significantly positive relations between corporate social responsibility and purchase intention, partially mediating effects of attitudes towards brand and brand image on the relations between corporate social responsibility and purchase intention, and moderating effects of buyer-seller guanxi on the relations between corporate social responsibility and purchase intention. Corporate social responsibility should not simply stress on the external activities of an enterprise, but should also pay attention to internal employees’ working environment and training. It is suggested that an enterprise exchanging consumers with emotional appeal to have consumers understand that they do not simply acquire favorable products or services from the enterprise, but also realize the mission and goals of the enterprise.
Interactive comment on “Analyzing precipitationsheds to understand the vulnerability of rainfall dependent regions” by P. W. Keys et al

We would like to thank the reviewer (P. Laux) for his positive comment stating that the paper is well written and fascinating. Below we reply in detail to his other comments. 1. Comment: “The threshold to delineate precipitationsheds of 70% seems to be arbitrarily to me. Please elaborate the reason for this choice. Is it based on an empirical study using different thresholds? ” Response: The 70% threshold represents our “user-defined” threshold, and was determined after a preliminary sensitivity analysis. In this case, we used 70% to have a standard threshold that (a) included a considerable amount of the moisture contributing to growing season precipitation, which goes beyond the regional scale, and (b) was
Prevalence of neuropathic pain and associated factors in diabetes mellitus type 2 patients seen in outpatient setting

JUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS:Dados epidemiologicos sobre dor cronica, em diferentes populacoes, sao escassos no Brasil. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar a prevalencia de dor neuropatica e possiveis fatores associados em pacientes portadores de diabetes tipo 2, de um servico universitario.METODOS:Realizou-se estudo transversal com individuos atendidos entre marco de 2010 e marco de 2011, no Ambulatorio Medico de Especialidades da Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Tubarao, SC, com entrevistas para identificacao das variaveis socio-demograficas de idade, genero e tempo de diagnostico do diabetes mellitus e aplicacao de instrumentos para mensuracao de dor neuropatica, depressao, glicemia e adesao aos farmacos.RESULTADOS:Foram entrevistados 72 sujeitos, sendo 69,4% do genero feminino, 15,3% apresentavam niveis glicemicos controlados no momento da entrevista, 90,3% eram aderentes ao tratamento e 33,3% apresentavam sintomas de depressao. A prevalencia de dor neuropatica foi de 16,7% e esta se associou com o tempo de diagnostico do diabetes mellitus 2 (p=0,031). CONCLUSAO:A prevalencia de dor neuropatica foi semelhante a observada em outras localidades do pais, e sugere-se melhor acompanhamento da populacao estudada quanto a depressao e a adesao aos farmacos para tratamento do diabetes. Descritores: Complicacoes do diabetes, Diabetes mellitus, Dor cronica, Neuropatias diabeticas.
PENGARUH PROMOSI DI MEDIA SOSIAL DAN WORD OF MOUTH TERHADAP KEPUTUSAN PEMBELIAN (STUDI KASUS PADA KEDAI BONTACOS, JOMBANG)

ABSTRACT Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui dan menjelaskan pengaruh promosi melalui media sosial dan word of mouth terhadap keputusan pembelian konsumen di kedai Bontacos baik secara parsial ataupun simultan. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif. Sampel penelitian ini adalah 100 konsumen kedai Bontacos dengan menggunakan metode non probability sampling serta teknik accidental sampling. Instrumen penelitian ini menggunakan kuesioner dan dianalisis menggunakan analisis regresi berganda. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa promosi menggunakan media sosialdan word of mouthsecatra parsial dan simultan memiliki pengaruh terhadap keputusan pembelian.Penelitian ini memberikan konstribusi bagi Pemasar kedai Bontacos terkait strategi promosi di media sosial dan word of mouth yang efektif. Kata kunci : Promosi, media sosial, word of mouth, keputusan pembelian
The survey of bacterial etiology and their resistance to antibiotics of urinary tract infections in children of Birjand city

Background and Aim: Urinary tract infection is one of the most prevalent bacterial infections in childhood, which due to an inapproto determine the common bacteria and their antibiotic susceptibility in children with urinary tract infection. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical and prospective study was done in 2009-2010 on urine samples of all children under 13 years who had been referred to Emmam-Reza hospital laboratory in Birjand and had positive urine culture. Sex and age of children, kind of isolated bacteria in urine culture, susceptibility and resistance of these bacteria to current antibiotics were studied. The obtained data was analyzed by means of SPSS using Fisher exact- test. Results: One hundred children (84 girls and 16 boys) with positive urine culture were studied. The most common age of urinary tract infection was under two years. In all ages the rate of urinary tract infection in females was more than males. E.coli was the most common cause in both sexes. There was a significant relationship between kind of microorganism and age of infection (P=0.001). The most prevalent cause of urinary tract infection in all ages was E.coli (75%) ,infection by Proteus was 11%, and other microorganism caused 14% of the cases. E.coli had the most susceptibility to ceftriaxone and ceftazidime and the most resistance to cephalexin and co-trimoxazol. Not taking the type of microorganism into consideration, the most sensitive antibiotics were ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, cefexim and nalidixic acid; and the most resistance was against co-trimoxasol and cefalexin. Conclusion: Regarding the results, it is recommended to use cefexime and nalidixic acid for outpatient treatment of urinary infection, and ceftazidime and ceftriaxon for inpatient treatment. Selecting of antibiotics for urinary infection therapy should be based on the local prevalence of pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic sensitivities rather than on a universal guideline.
Profitability of technical trading strategies in emerging Sri Lankan stock market

This study examines whether the technical trading strategies can outperform the unconditional buy-and-hold strategy to forecast stock price movements and earn excess returns, after adjusting transaction costs, in emerging Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). The study uses daily market closing prices of All Share Price Index (ASPI), which is a composite index to represent whole market, for twenty five years from January 1985 to December 2010. The variable length moving average method and fixed length moving average method with sixteen different rules is used as the methodology to analyze data. The empirical findings of the study confirmed that the moving average trading strategies have statistically significant predictive ability in explaining the market and capable of generating excess return to investors. However after considering transaction costs the excess return is negligible. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.4038/kjm.v2i2. 6549 Kelaniya Journal of Management Vol.2(2) 2013:32-50
Financial and Legal Institutions and Firm Size

The authors investigate how a country's financial institutions and the quality of its legal system explain the size attained by its largest industrial firms in a sample of 44 countries. Firm size is positively related to the size of the banking system and the efficiency of the legal system. Thus, the authors find no evidence that firms are larger in order to internalize the functions of the banking system or to compensate for the general inefficiency of the legal system. But they do find evidence that externally financed firms are smaller in countries that have strong creditor rights and efficient legal systems. This suggests that firms in countries with weak creditor protections are larger in order to internalize the protection of capital investment.
Chromosomal characterization of germplasm of wild species of Arachis L. belonging to sections Trierectoides, Erectoides and Procumbentes

Abstract Karyotypes of five species of genus Arachis belonging to three sections are described for the first time. Section Trierectoides: A. tuberosa Bong. ex Benth. (2n=2x=20m), section Erectoides: A. douradiana Krapov. and W.C. Gregory (2n=2x=18m+2sm), section Procumbentes: A. subcoriacea Krapov. and W.C. Gregory (2n=2x=18m+2sm), A. appressipila Krapov. and W.C. Gregory (2.=2x=14m+6sm) and A. Vallsii Krapov. and W.C. Gregory (2n=2x=18m+2sm). Satellited chromosomes are analysed for all species. “A” chromosomes were not found in none of them. Chromosome and exomorphology data suggest that A. Vallsii merit to be exclude from section Procumbentes.
Assessing the impact of climate change on snow avalanche activity in France over the last 60 winters using hierarchical Bayesian change point models

Snow avalanches are mainly ruled by temperature fluctuations, heavy precipitations and wind regimes, so that climate change is likely to modify the frequency and magnitude of both ordinary and extreme events. However, reference scenarios and return periods for avalanche hazard management are always computed in the engineering practiced under the assumption of a stationary process. On a more phenomenological point of view, contrary to other phenomena such as tropical storms, snow avalanches are very rarely used as proxy indicators that point out signals of climate change. This study focuses on avalanche occurrences and runout altitudes in France over the last six decades. For both variables, a hierarchical spatio-temporal modelling framework is proposed to quantify the interannual fluctuations possibly resulting from climate change. First, the regional annual component is isolated from the total variability using a nonlinear analysis of variance. Second, the latent structured time trend is distinguished from the random noise with different time series shifting level sub-models. The hierarchical structure obtained takes into account the uncertainty related to the estimation of the annual component for the quantification of the time trend. Bayesian inference is performed using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations. Avalanche occurrences are studied in the northern French Alps. No systematic modifications in occurrence regime could be found over the last 60 years. This suggests that climate change has recently had little impact on the avalanching rhythm in France. Significant temporal patterns have though occurred. They consist in complex combination of abrupt changes and pseudo-periodic cycles of approximately 15 years.
Exploring the Research Culture in an Educational Faculty in Malaysia

Globally, journal publication index is used as a key indicator to measure university performance. At the macro level, it contributes to the university ranking. At the micro level, it reflects academicians’ scholarship values and credentials. Over the last decade, tertiary education has rapidly grown in the Asia Pacific region. Tertiary institutions are competing among themselves nationally and regionally for university ranking, student intake and research funding. These three elements have numerical figures that are inter-related and powerful enough to dictate the fate and survival of an institution. Journal publication output plays a big role in this numerical game. For that reason, it is the topmost interest of many institutions and faculties to boost research writing output of their members. Paradoxically, minimal efforts have been made in the majority of instances to understand the needs and obstacles for such an aim to be realised. In this study, a preliminary attempt was made to gather the views and perceptions of academicians from an educational faculty in Malaysia. The data were collected via an online survey. The findings informed that academicians were facing different sets of challenges in different stages of their careers. Beginners reported the lack of technical support as the major hindering factor faced by them in producing academic output while the more senior members identified personal factors such as paradigm shift and motivation as the major hindering factors faced by them. Thus, the differential needs of academicians need to be acknowledged and to be supported with suitable mechanisms and catalysts.
Estimating output gap, core inflation, and the nairu for Peru, 1979-2007

Following Domenech and Gomez (2006), and using quarterly Peruvian data for 1970:1-2007:4, I estimate a model that exploits the information contained in the inflation, unemployment and private investment rates in order to estimate non-observable variables as output gap, the NAIRU and the core infflation. The unknown parameters are estimated by maximun likelihood using a Kalman filter initialized with a partially diffuse prior, and the unobserved components are estimated using a smoothing algorithm. The results suggest that only the inflation rate contains useful information in order to estimate the output gap. Estimates suggest poor performance for the unemployment and private investment rates. I explain this issue as related to the poor quality of the construction of these variables. In order to perform a sensitivity analysis, I estimate the output gap using other alternative methods. The correlations are very different and very far away from the estimates obtained in this paper. It is clear that estimates obtained from simple statistic filters gives poor approximations.
The effects of inorganic and organic selenium sources on growth performance, carcass traits, tissue mineral concentrations, and enzyme activity in poultry

The purpose of this research was to compare dietary inorganic and organic Se sources in poultry. An experiment was conducted to assess daily egg production and Se deposition in eggs of hens fed diets supplemented with inorganic or organic Se. The results from this experiment indicated that hen production was not affected by Se source, and organic Se increased egg Se concentrations more than inorganic Se. Two experiments then were conducted with broilers to compare dietary organic and inorganic Se on growth performance, carcass traits, breast and plasma Se concentrations, and plasma glutathione peroxidase activity. The results from these experiments indicate that organic Se increases tissue Se concentration more than inorganic Se, but plasma glutathione peroxidase activity, growth performance, and carcass traits were not affected by source. Finally, three experiments were conducted to develop a Se-deficient diet, and then to compare plasma glutathione peroxidase and plasma and tissue Se concentrations in broilers fed a Se-deficient diet after they had been fed diets supplemented with either inorganic or organic Se. The results from these experiments indicate that organic Se increases tissue Se concentration compared with inorganic Se, but plasma glutathione peroxidase activity and growth performance were not affected by source. However, when broilers were placed on the Se deficient diet, organic Se maintained plasma glutathione peroxidase activity longer and at a higher level than inorganic Se. Overall, the results from these experiments indicate that dietary inorganic and organic Se result in similar growth performance and plasma glutathione peroxidase activity in broilers and layers, but organic Se increases tissue and egg Se concentrations more than inorganic Se.
Effects of regional cooling on vasoconstriction in the non-exercised limb during sustained knee extension exercise

To test whether there are regional differences in the exercise pressor reflex within an exercising muscle, we evaluated the effect of regional cooling, which delays activation of the muscle metaboreflex, using vascular resistance as an index of sympathetic nerve activity in the non-exercised limb during exercise. Nine subjects performed 2 min of ischaemic isometric knee extension at 30% of maximal torque in three trials: without cooling (C-trial), with cooling of the proximal thigh portion (P-trial), and with cooling of the distal portion (D-trial). Heart rate, mean arterial pressure, calf blood flow in the non-exercised leg, and calf vascular resistance in the non-exercised leg were measured. In both cooling trials, regional cooling significantly decreased the skin temperature of the exposed portion, but had no effect on the opposite portion of the thigh. During exercise, heart rate and mean arterial pressure increased significantly, but were not affected by regional thigh cooling. In contrast, at 60 s of exercise, calf blood flow was significantly higher in the D-trial than in the C-trial (2.94 ± 0.23 vs. 1.97 ± 0.22 ml·100g –1 ·min –1 , P < 0.05). Consequently, calf vascular resistance was significantly lower in the D-trial than in both the C- and P-trials at 60 and 90 s of exercise. These findings suggest that stimulating different regions within a given muscle causes a different magnitude of increase in calf vascular resistance evoked by the exercise pressor reflex during exercise.
Severe mushroom toxin alpha amanitin causes generation of reactive oxygen species in liver tissues of mice - a comparative study by two different instrumental methods.

Alpha amanitin is a natural hepatotoxin isolated from deadly poisonous Amanita phalloides mushroom and causes dramatic toxic consequences mainly within the liver and kidneys. By our formerly ex vivo studies using a spectrophotometrical method we demonstrated that alpha amanitin can induce increased levels of lipid peroxidation (LPO) products in livers of mice treated by the toxin compairing to those of the control mice. We assumed that during its metabolism alpha amanitin probably is involved in free radical reactions which were the reason for developing of lipid peroxidation process in livers of mice. The aim of the present study was to evaluate by two different unstrumental methods: Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) direct and indirect spectroscopy and visible spectrophotometry, the effect of alpha amanitin on livers of mice treated by the toxin. Twenty hours after toxin treatment, ROS production marked by EPR spectra signals of spin-adducts in the mice livers could be detected by indirect EPR spectroscopy. It was found twice higher levels of ROS production in the livers of poisonous mice comparing to those of the control mice. By direct EPR spectroscopy higher levels of ascorbate free radicals were found in liver homogenates of treated mice in comparison with those of the control mice, which confirmed that an oxidative process was developed in livers of poisonous mice. At the same time the levels of lipid peroxidation products measured by visible spectrophotometry as malondialdehyde reactive products in livers of treated mice were slightly increased in comparison with those of the controls.