Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CHOLNERGIC EXCITATION OF DOPAMINE NEURONS IN THE VENTRAL TEGMENTAL AREA

Ventral tegmental area dopaminergic neurons are critically involved in brain mechanisms of reward, motivation, and emotional arousal. The natural cholinergic agonist nicotine is highly addictive and believed to cause addiction through activating the central dopamine system. In this thesis, we used perforated patch-clamp recording to examine the effects of the cholinergic agonist carbachol on the excitability of dopamine neurons in brain slices. Results from these experiments revealed that bath application of carbachol (20 1-1M) for 1-2 min excited most cells in the VTA regardless of their membrane characteristics and neurochemical identities. Muscarinic and nicotinic receptors appeared to contribute equally to carbachol-induced excitation. A majority of cells putatively identified as dopaminergic based on the expression of hyperpolarizationactivated current and dopamine-induced autoinhibition, responded to carbachol with depolarization and an increased rate of firing. Of these cells, 13% responded to the carbachol with a switching of firing pattern from tonic firing to bursting. Carbacholinduced excitation and bursting were all reversible and could be prevented by combined muscarinic and nicotinic antagonism. The synaptic blocker cO<~ktail containing 100 1-1M APV (NMDA receptor blocker), 10 1-1M CNQX (AMPA receptor blocker) and 100 1-1M picotoxin (GABAA receptor blocker) did not alter carbachol's effect on neuronal excitability and bursting. In addition, a small proportion of dopamine cells were spontaneously bursting in the slice. The characteristics of these bursts were very similar to those induced by carbachol. Both
On the trophic coupling between protists and copepods in arctic marine ecosystems

Grazing experiments were conducted at different seasons with the large Calanus fin- marchicus, C. glacialis and C. hyperboreus, and the small Acartia longiremis in Disko Bay, West Greenland and Young Sound, NE Greenland. Female copepods incubated in 200 µm screened nat- ural water preferred large protists. Thus, particularly during the post-bloom period, the relatively large heterotrophic protists (ciliates and heterotrophic dinoflagellates) contributed substantially to the trophic coupling between protists and copepods. However, low grazing by C. glacialis and C. hyperboreus in mid-June suggests that large parts of the populations of these species had terminated feeding at this time, prior to overwintering. Clearance increased with ciliate and dinoflagellate size above 10 µm equivalent spherical diameter (ESD), equal to the size of the smallest heterotrophic pro- tists. At a size of 30 to 40 µm ESD maximum clearance was observed. Grazing on Phaeocystis single cells of 5 µm by C. finmarchicus showed a lower size-limit for capture of this species < 5 µm which contrasts with C. glacialis and C. hyperboreus, which had a lower size-limit near 10 µm. In addition to size and relative concentrations of phytoplankton and heterotrophic protists, prey and/or predator behavior is suggested to play an important role for copepod feeding.
THERAPIST COMMON FACTORS’ INFLUENCE ON CLIENT CONSTRUCTIVE COMMUNICATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN COUPLE THERAPY

Title of Thesis: THERAPIST COMMON FACTORS’ INFLUENCE ON CLIENT CONSTRUCTIVE COMMUNICATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN COUPLE THERAPY Liza Harbison, Master of Science, 2018 Thesis Directed By: Professor Norman B. Epstein, Department of Family Science This study investigated the relationship between therapist common factors behaviors and changes in client constructive communication during couple therapy. Research suggests that common factors are associated with client improvement, but research on these factors in couple therapy is lacking. This study was a secondary data analysis of 41 couples presenting with mild to moderate psychological and physical partner aggression who received ten sessions of couple therapy at a university family therapy clinic. The study examined the relationship between therapist collaborative behavior and use of systemically based techniques coded from the fourth couple therapy session, and changes in client constructive communication, measured by client cognitions during conflict, client and partner behavior during conflict, and video coding of couple communication. Minimal significant links were found, but unexpectedly, therapist use of systemic techniques was negatively associated with change in female constructive problem solving cognitions. Implications of these findings are discussed. THERAPIST COMMON FACTORS’ INFLUENCE ON CLIENT CONSTRUCTIVE COMMUNICATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN COUPLE THERAPY
Codification Theory is a Gateway for Setting Mandatory Reporting Requirements in Emerging Economies

This study provides an explanation of how the process of setting new mandatory disclosure requirements in the financial reporting environment takes place by using codification theory. An empirical investigation was undertaken on the Jordanian financial reporting practices by measuring the association between the voluntary and mandatory disclosure practices of 51 manufacturing corporations before and after imposing the new Jordanian Securities Commission (JSC) mandatory requirements in 1998. The results indicate a significant, positive relationship that reflects that in 1998 the JSC took the existing Jordanian companies’ voluntary financial disclosure practices and codified this practice into mandatory disclosure requirements. This paper provides evidence that will benefit future accounting standard setters as the codification of an existing optimal voluntary practice as a mandatory requirement increases the future level of compliance. This might be due to familiarity and cost effectiveness through reduced costs of compliance and analysis from a corporation's side, as well as through reduced costs associated with setting financial reporting standards, as the process can be costly for government. This paper addresses a topic that has not received appropriate attention in the extant literature, which offers a new platform for future research exploring new developments of financial reporting in relation to codification theory.
Description et sauvegarde du patrimoine immatériel de la langue franco-calédonienne

Introduction : Les langues et variétés de langue en milieu insulaire L'insularité peut avoir deux types de conséquences linguistiques (Hagège, 2012) , d'une part le repli sur soi facilité par l'isolement sur une terre entourée d'eau, d'autre part l'ouverture vers le monde par le biais des langues les plus proches. Ces deux attitudes forgent respectivement des caractéristiques particulières des langues ou des variétés de langue. Pour ce qui est des langues, le japonais par exemple est un cas significatif d'ouverture à l'extérieur, les emprunts lexicaux au chinois (langue du continent) atteignant une proportion d'au moins la moitié du lexique; à l'inverse l'islandais est un cas de langue repliée sur elle-même dans le sens où elle compte de très nombreux mots dont les racines sont locales. Si l'on se penche maintenant sur les variétés intralinguistiques, et qu'on prend pour exemple celle qui nous importe ici, la variété de langue française en usage en contexte calédonien, on peut observer que les deux tendances y sont représentées, au moins sur le plan lexical. D'un côté le français calédonien emprunte de nombreuses lexies, notamment à l'anglais, c'est le cas par exemple d'une très grande part du lexique de l'élevage (stockman, stockwhip, station, run, .etc.). Certes l'anglais est une langue qu'on peut considérer comme "locale" au moment où ces emprunts se font (XIXe siècle) puisqu'il est à cette époque en concurrence en Nouvelle-Calédonie avec le français (et le bichelamar, cf infra). Il demeure que le continent australien peut être cet extérieur vers lequel l'insulaire est attiré et dans lequel on va puiser des ressources, ici lexicales (emprunts lexicaux qui sont conséquences de l'importation de l'univers de l'élevage australien avec ses techniques, ses savoir-faire). On sait combien cette tentation du continent voisin est une réalité qui dépasse le domaine de l'élevage, les modèles continentaux australiens opérant une attraction certaine chez les Calédoniens en général, ces représentations faisant partie intégrante de la culture calédonienne. D'un autre côté, le substrat local constitué par les langues kanak est également une source non négligeable d'emprunts qui illustreraient la tendance au "localisme" (cagou, kaori, dawa, doghi, Tcha! , Aouh! , Yossi! , .etc.). Mais force est de constater que les langues kanak sont loin d'être la seule source d'emprunts puisque ce sont en réalité toutes les langues en contact dans le pays à partir de l'époque de la présence française qui sont sollicitées, les langues polynésiennes (faré, fiu, nana, leleïpe, titoi, .etc), le bichelamar (troca, kaïkaï, sel, .etc.), le vietnamien (margouillat, congaï, .etc.), . etc. Cela montre peut-être que l'insularité en Nouvelle-Calédonie est certes l'occasion à la fois de
The Value of Precedent: Appellate Briefs and Judicial Opinions in the U.S. Courts of Appeals

This study of appellate advocacy examines factors that affect judicial treatment of precedents identified in litigant briefs. Although we find some attorney and party characteristics influence whether a court addresses precedent cited by a party, legal resources are not as influential in the court's adoption of a party's use of a precedent. At times, ideological congruence between the circuit panel and the litigant increases the likelihood that the court's opinion will use a precedent in the same way as presented by the litigants. Concerning attorney experience, when their clients ultimately win the case, attorneys with no experience before the circuit are less likely to see the court use litigant-cited precedents in a similar way to the party brief. Even when their clients lose, experienced attorneys are more likely to see the court's opinion address the precedents the attorneys have raised positively. This suggests that attorney experience has some influence in shaping legal policy, regardless of whether the litigant wins or loses.
The Effect of Corporate Governance Quality, Firm Size, Leverage, and Financial Performance on Intellectual Capital DisclosureEmpirical Study: Manufacturing Companies Listed on the IDX

Purpose - This study aims to determine the effect of corporate governance quality, firm size, leverage, and financial performance on intellectual capital disclosure (ICD), in manufacturing companies listed on Indonesian Stock Exchange. Methodology - The observation period is from 2010 to 2015. The sample is chosen by purposive random sampling method so that 45 companies as sample are obtained. This study used a secondary data and multiple linear regression analysis method. Data tabulation was processed using SPSS version 19.0 for Windows. Findings - The corporate governance quality, firm size, and financial performance in which measured to ROA and EPS showed to have positive significant effect on the ICD. This is shown from the significant value smaller than α of 0.05 and positive t value. Meanwhile, leverage has negative significant effect on the ICD with the result showed that leverage variable has the significant value smaller than α of 0.05 and negative t value. Contribution - This study supports agency theory and signaling theory. The results of the research can be input for the accounting standards making body that the disclosure of intellectual capital in the financial statements is necessary because it can improve the performance of the company.
Journal of Geophysical Research : Solid Earth Seismic anisotropy of Precambrian lithosphere : Insights from Rayleigh wave tomography of the eastern Superior Craton

The thick, seismically fast lithospheric keels underlying continental cores (cratons) are thought to have formed in the Precambrian and resisted subsequent tectonic destruction. A consensus is emerging from a variety of disciplines that keels are vertically stratified, but the processes that led to their development remain uncertain. Eastern Canada is a natural laboratory to study Precambrian lithospheric formation and evolution. It comprises the largest Archean craton in the world, the Superior Craton, surrounded by multiple Proterozoic orogenic belts. To investigate its lithospheric structure, we construct a frequency-dependent anisotropic seismic model of the region using Rayleigh waves from teleseismic earthquakes recorded at broadband seismic stations across eastern Canada. The joint interpretation of phase velocity heterogeneity and azimuthal anisotropy patterns reveals a seismically fast and anisotropically complex Superior Craton. The upper lithosphere records fossilized Archean tectonic deformation: anisotropic patterns align with the orientation of the main tectonic boundaries at periods ≤110 s. This implies that cratonic blocks were strong enough to sustain plate-scale deformation during collision at 2.5 Ga. Cratonic lithosphere with fossil anisotropy partially extends beneath adjacent Proterozoic belts. At periods sensitive to the lower lithosphere, we detect fast, more homogenous, and weakly anisotropic material, documenting postassembly lithospheric growth, possibly in a slow or stagnant convection regime. A heterogeneous, anisotropic transitional zone may also be present at the base of the keel. The detection of multiple lithospheric fabrics at different periods with distinct tectonic origins supports growing evidence that cratonization processes may be episodic and are not exclusively an Archean phenomenon. Plain Language Summary The roots of the oldest parts of the continents are unusually thick (∼250 km) and preserve structures dating back to the Earth’s most ancient geological period, >2.5 billion years ago. The structure, formation, and preservation of these thick continental roots are still debated. Eastern Canada has a geological record stretching back over more than 3 billion years, providing an excellent opportunity to study the Earth’s early history and the formation and evolution of continents. To investigate the deep structure beneath this region, we use earthquake energy recorded at seismic stations across eastern Canada to build an image of the continental interior. Our results show that the ancient continental root is made up of at least two layers, each with a different formation mechanism. The upper layer preserves the signature of continental deformation older than 2.5 billion years, whereas the lower layer properties suggest later downward growth of the root above a slow-moving mantle. The results support the idea that the thick continental roots formed episodically and across multiple geological periods.
A Spatial Analysis of Tourism Infrastructure in Romania: Spotlight on Accommodation and Food Service Companies

Location is a key concept in tourism sector analysis, given the dependence of this activity on the natural, built, cultural and social characteristics of a certain territory. As a result, the tourist zoning is an important instrument for delimiting tourist areas in accordance with multiple criteria, so as to lay the foundations for finding the most suitable solutions of turning to good account the resources in this field. The modern approaches proposed in this paper use a series of analytical tools that combine GIS and spatial agglomeration analysis based techniques. They can be also employed in order to examine and explain the differences between tourist zones (and sub-zones) in terms of economic and social results and thus to suggest realistic ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of tourist activities in various geographical areas. In the described context this paper proposes an interdisciplinary perspective (spatial statistics and Geographical Information Systems) for analysing the tourism activity in Romania, mainly aiming to identify the agglomerations of companies acting in this industry and assess their performance and contribution to the economic development of the corresponding regions. It also intends to contribute to a better understanding of the way in which tourism related business activities develop, in order to enhance appropriate support networks. Territorial and spatial statistics, as well as GIS based analyses are applied, using data about all companies acting in tourism industry in Romania provided by the National Authority for Tourism as well as data from the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).
Mathematical analysis of some multi-dimensional tissue-growth models

Mathematical models for the growth of nutrient-rich tissue are presented and a number of properties of the resulting models outlined. The focus is on obtaining broadly applicable results for the simplest appropriate formulations by using matched-asymptotic, moving-boundary and thin-film approaches; the relevance of the results to a variety of specific biological applications will be addressed elsewhere, as will the inclusion of additional physical phenomena.
The shallow-water Asellota (Crustacea: Isopoda) from the Beagle Channel: Preliminary taxonomic and zoogeographical results*

The shallow-water Asellota from the Beagle Channel were investigated, based on material collected at four localities in 2001-2002. A total of 3,124 asellotes were sorted, and three new species and 12 new records of distribution were reported. The Paramunnidae showed the highest species diversity and abundance (11 species and 1,463 specimens). The present research raises the number of species known from the Beagle Channel to 23; of these, 16 were previously reported from the Magellan Straits, representing 69% of similarity. Based on the present results and published data, the faunistic affinities for the shallow-water Asellota was 30% between the Magellan region and the Scotia Arc, and 26% between the Magellan region and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Outer conjugacy for actions of continuous amenable groups

The paper introduces a cohomological approach to the outer conjugacy problem in ergodic theory. Specifically, the following fact is proved: up to an isomorphism of an approximately finite type II ergodic full group there exists only one cohomological class of cocycles with dense range in a given amenable group. This result is used to establish outer conjugacy for strictly outer actions of continuous unimodular amenable subgroups of the normalizer of the full group generated by an ergodic type II automorphism. As a special case we show that outer conjugacy of compact groups reduces merely to conjugation. Besides that the correlation is established between the automorphisms of a principal groupoid with continuous orbits and ones of its discrete reduction. Also the correspondence is found between the automorphisms of groupoids with continuous orbits and those of the associated von Neumann algebras.
Metal Uptake and Physiological Changes in Lemna gibba Exposed to Manganese and Nickel

We investigated the effects of manganese (Mn) and nickel (Ni) stress on pigment (total chlorophyll and carotenoid), total soluble protein content and antioxidant enzyme [superoxide dismutase (SOD) guaiacol peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT)] activities in Lemna gibba under laboratory conditions. L. gibba was treated with exposures of Mn and Ni separately at 0.25, 1, 4 and 16 mg/L concentrations for 72 hours at 24 h intervals. The results of the present study showed that the physiological status of L. gibba was affected by Mn and Ni exposure. Mn and Ni accumulations showed increases in a concentration dependent manner. The amount of accumulated Mn was higher than Ni at all concentrations and exposure times. Ni caused strong inhibition on the total chlorophyll and carotenoid amounts than Mn. The increase in the total protein content was more evident in Mn-exposed plants. The highest increase in SOD activity was evidenced in Ni-treated plants for all exposure times. However, the stimulating effect of Mn on CAT and POD activities was more evident than of Ni (except for 72. h). Based on these results it is concluded that Ni was found to be more toxic to L. gibba than Mn. Additionally, L. gibba may be used for phytoremediation of Mn in polluted aquatic environments.
Road Extraction from Aerial Images

Road extraction from aerial images is essential to everyday life having several useful application in for example urban planning and automotive navigation. Roads are currently extracted using methods that requires a lot of manual work conducted by humans which is both time consuming and error prone. The aim of this thesis is to develop a robust algorithm that can automatically extract roads from aerial images. It was concluded, based on a literature review, that the most suitable method for automatic road extraction is a machine learning approach based on stacked convolutional neural networks. The method was implemented and evaluated against four different road images in the vicinity of the motorway E6 in southern Sweden. The best network achieved a recall of 0.845, precision of 0.878 and quality of 0.760 over a test set of previously unseen images. Considering that the method used was relatively simple, the result is to be considered competitive compared to other published works.
University Students’ Perception of Demotivating Factors in Learning English as a Foreign Language

Demotivation is a relatively new topic in the field of second or foreign language acquisition which is in need of more rigorous research. In this regard, the present study was an attempt to investigate demotivating factors in learning English as a foreign language in an Iranian context. To this end, 382 Persian learners of English were selected through stratified clustering sampling procedure to participate in this mixed method study. The Data was collected through a 40-item Likert type questionnaire. The Factor analysis of the data extracted seven factors including a) inadequate facilities, b) reduced self-confidence, c) class characteristics, d) lack of purpose to study English, e) teaching methods, f) teachers and teaching styles, and g) negative attitudes toward English and the culture of English-speaking countries as demotivators. The Students’ perceptions of these seven factors were compared based on their general English proficiency levels. The Results revealed that low proficient learners perceived reduced self-confidence and negative attitudes more demotivating than their counterparts at other levels of proficiency.