Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The complex system of problem solving - providing the conditions to develop proficiency

Problem solving in mathematics has been a central topic of research in mathematics education, stemming mainly from Pólya’s (1945) work on problem solving heuristics (Lesh and Zawojewski, 2007). Despite the attention this topic has received, the research conducted in problem solving has not easily translated into improving school practice (Lester and Kehle, 2003). Foster et al. (2014) found that the teachers’ knowledge and ability to employ “effective strategies for teaching problem solving processes was particularly underdeveloped” (p.7). Felmer and Diaz (2016, p.289) also noted that there is little research on “teachers as problem solvers”, particularly at second level. Evidence on pre-service secondary teachers’ performance on non-routine problem solving tasks and experience with solving such problems led Felmer and Diaz (2016) to recommend that action be taken on pre-service mathematics teacher education courses. The aim of this research was to develop a framework for teaching and assessing problem solving in mathematics and to implement this framework in the form of a teaching intervention with a sample of pre-service secondary level mathematics teachers. The author developed a Framework for Teaching and Assessing Problem Solving (F-TAPS) in mathematics, consistent with findings on significant issues identified from the review of literature. The author’s F-TAPS in mathematics integrates significant knowledge and affective factors with mathematical thinking in order to develop proficiency in problem solving in mathematics through the coherent construction of meaningful knowledge. The author integrated her F-TAPS in mathematics with the Modified Moore Method using the Modified 4C-ID model to design and implement an educational intervention in problem solving. This intervention was implemented with sixteen secondary pre-service mathematics teachers. Two assessments in problem solving were developed to assess problem solving ability before and after the intervention. The mindset (growth/fixed) of the pre-service teachers who participated in this study was also evaluated before and after the intervention. Educational Design Research methodology which incorporates a proof of concept approach underpinned this research. Pre and post-test findings showed statistically significant increases in the growth mindset and problem solving ability of the pre-service teachers who participated in this study. The intervention (and the integrated F-TAPS) had a moderate effect on the mindset of the pre-service teachers and a strong effect on the problem solving ability of the pre-service teachers. The proof of concept approach provides evidence that the author’s F-TAPS could contribute to improved teaching of problem solving in mathematics at secondary level.
An Application of Principal Component Analysis for Pre-Harvest forecast Model for Wheat Crop Based on Biometrical Characters

An application of principal component analysis for the development of suitable statistical models for pre-harvest forecast of wheat yield based on biometrical characters has been illustrated in the present paper. The data obtained from the experiments on wheat under normal and late sowing situations have been utilised to develop the model. The result have revealed that the proposed model can provide reliable pre- harvest forecast of wheat yield in both the situations within the reasonable range of per cent standard error of 2.16 to 4.96 per cent.
Financial Inclusion Index in Nigeria: An Exploratory Analysis

This study aims to develop a financial inclusion index for Nigeria. Analysis of secondary data on composite value of demand, time, saving and foreign deposits of deposit money banks in Nigeria (DTSFD), number of branches (BBR), deposit in rural branches (DRB), loans granted to customers in rural areas (LRA), volume of transactions via ATM (VATM), volume of transactions via mobile bank (VMP), volume of transactions via POS (VPOS), and volume of transactions via webpay (VWBP) obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, 2018 using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) identified number of bank branches, deposits in bank branches in rural areas, volume of transactions via POS, volume of transactions via the ATM, loans to account holders in rural areas and volume of transactions via webpay as the determining variables for measuring the level of financial inclusion in Nigeria. Efforts by monetary authorities at improving financial inclusion in Nigeria should focus on the variables in this index.
Concentration of health care providers: does it contribute to integration of service delivery?

Background The concentration of health care providers is a growing process in many countries, including Russia. There is a general expectation that larger medical entities can better promote the process of service integration. Purpose This paper explores the impact of health provider concentration on service delivery integration through the indicators of teamwork, coordination and continuity of care in outpatient and inpatient medical facilities. These developments in Russia are compared with international experience. Methods National and international literature on health services concentration and integration is reviewed; statistical analysis is based on Russian national data, WHO and OECD databases; a sociological survey of Russian physicians and interviews with managers of medical facilities are used to evaluate the value of integration. Results The review of international trends indicates a growing process of mergers to form large hospital and physician-hospital systems, particularly in the USA. Enhanced clinical and administrative integration is usually seen as the logical outcome of concentration. However, growing international empirical estimates demonstrate a controversial impact of concentration on quality of medical care, unit cost (per patient) and integration of care. In Russia, the establishment of consolidated health systems is coupled with an increase in the average size of hospitals, while the number of free-standing providers has substantially decreased. The effect of concentration in the country is also controversial. There is some evidence of its positive impact on restructuring service delivery and the accessibility to some services, but the surveys of physicians don’t demonstrate improvement in the organization of service delivery, nor closer links between providers. Surveys of providers don’t provide evidence of teamwork, coordination and continuity of care in consolidated settings. Conclusion There are many deeply rooted barriers to integration in Russia, of which the most important is the lack of clear objectives of providers mergers. The major lesson learnt is that in the country with limited financial resources, decisions on provider concentration should be carefully justified with the focus on the specific integrative activities. National health policy for integration should be a major pre-condition for the positive impact of concentration on integration.
The impact of ISO 9001 quality management on organizational learning and innovation: Proposal for a conceptual framework

The integration of the learning perspective and knowledge management has led us in this research to develop a framework for analyzing the influence of a management system of quality on organizational learning and innovation within certified companies. By conceptualizing a framework of analysis including contextual and methodological elements, we theoretically develop how a management system of quality such as ISO 9001 can produce different types of learning and knowledge and how the advantage of quality can become more sustainable.
Multi-exposure high dynamic range image synthesis with camera shake correction

Machine vision plays an important part in industrial online inspection. Owing to the nonuniform illuminance conditions and variable working distances, the captured image tends to be over-exposed or under-exposed. As a result, when processing the image such as crack inspection, the algorithm complexity and computing time increase. Multiexposure high dynamic range (HDR) image synthesis is used to improve the quality of the captured image, whose dynamic range is limited. Inevitably, camera shake will result in ghost effect, which blurs the synthesis image to some extent. However, existed exposure fusion algorithms assume that the input images are either perfectly aligned or captured in the same scene. These assumptions limit the application. At present, widely used registration based on Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) is usually time consuming. In order to rapidly obtain a high quality HDR image without ghost effect, we come up with an efficient Low Dynamic Range (LDR) images capturing approach and propose a registration method based on ORiented Brief (ORB) and histogram equalization which can eliminate the illumination differences between the LDR images. The fusion is performed after alignment. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method is robust to illumination changes and local geometric distortion. Comparing with other exposure fusion methods, our method is more efficient and can produce HDR images without ghost effect by registering and fusing four multi-exposure images.
Knowledge, Attitude, and Experience about Industrial Disaster Mitigation and Preparedness

When a community is unprepared for industrial disaster, the anticipated results are many fatalities and economic loss. Preparedness indicators can be seen from knowledge, attitudes, and experience regarding disaster risk. The purpose of this research was to explain the relationship between knowledge, attitude, and experience of teenagers about industrial disaster mitigation and preparedness . The design of the research was descriptive correlation with a cross-sectional approach. The sample of the research was 109 teenagers in the age range 15-18 years who lived in high risk of industrial disaster. This research were undertaken by using simple random sampling by each cluster. The dependent variable were knowledge, attitude, and experience about industrial disaster mitigation, and the dependent variable was preparedness. Data was collected by using questionnaires and analyzed using Spearman’s rho test and a chi square test with significant level α<0.05. The results show that knowledge about industrial disaster mitigation does not have significant correlation with preparedness (p = 0.323), attitude about industrial disaster mitigation has significant correlation with preparedness (p = 0.037), and experience about industrial disaster mitigation has significant correlation with preparedness (p = 0.004). It can be concluded that knowledge on mitigation has no effect on preparedness, whereas attitude and practice have an effect on preparedness. People practicing preparadness was not based on knowledge, but on training and experience.
Identifying writing tasks using sequences of keystrokes

The sequences of keystrokes that are generated when writing texts contain information about the writer as well as the writing task and cognitive aspects of the writing process. Much research has been conducted in the area of writer identification. However, research on the analysis of writing processes based on sequences of keystrokes has received only a limited amount of attention. Therefore, in this study we try to identify properties of keystrokes that indicate cognitive load of the writing process. Moreover, we investigate the influence of these properties on the classification of texts written during two different writing tasks: copying a text and freeform generation of text. We show that we can identify properties that allow for the correct classification of writing tasks, which at the same time do not describe writer-specific characteristics. However, some properties are the result of an interaction between the typing characteristics of the writer and the writing task.
Watch Your Neighbor: A Volatility Spillover in ASEAN-5 Stock Exchange

In the process of financial markets integration, this research was conducted to investigate the phenomenon of the transmission of stock return volatility among stock market in five ASEAN countries. Those were Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. The research was important because when the interdependence of financial markets had increased, changes in asset prices in the market were not only influenced by the shock in the market but also by its response to asset price volatility that occurred in other countries. Information about the volatility spillover between markets was important for investors to the portfolio selection process. Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) method was used on a daily time series stock return data obtained by accessing www.bloomberg. com. The result indicates that the shock in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines stock market will be transmitted to the Indonesia Stock Market with an asymmetric pattern. It has increased intensity after the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community in December 2015.
AVAILABILITY AND INSTRUCTIONAL USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract The study explored the availability of information and communication technology (ICT) resources for instruction in selected colleges of education based on institutional ownership in Kano State. The study used a survey research design. A researcher-designed questionnaire and an adapted checklist from the National Commission for Colleges of Education, Minimum Standard (2012) for data collection. Mean and simple percentages were used to analyze the research questions. A total of 286 lecturers were proportionately sampled from Federal College of Education, Kano and Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso, Kano, which were purposively selected for the study. A reliability value of 0.72 was obtained for the frequency of utilization instrument using Cronbach Alpha. The findings revealed that the two Colleges of Education have almost all of the ICT resources required by National Commission of Colleges of Education (NCCE) in Nigeria. The findings also revealed that lecturers’ frequency of use of ICT resources for instruction was not fully encouraged. The study concluded that Colleges of Education in Kano state have basic ICT resources as required by NCCE. The study therefore recommended, among others, that government and school management should provide an enabling environment, such as the provision of infrastructure facilities, internet connectivity, and stable power supply, among others.
Impact of Ownership Characteristics on Modified Audit Opinion in Jordan

It is well established that ownership characteristics are impacted by the quality of financial reporting. The purpose of this work is to examine the role of ownership characteristics in minimising the prospect of corporates obtaining a modified audit opinion in Jordan. Three ownership characteristics [family ownership (FAOWN), institutional ownership (INOWN) and foreign ownership (FAOWN)] and modified audit opinion were studied. The study used 117 samples of corporates listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). Logistic regression was employed to analyse the association between the modified audit opinions as a dependent variable and ownership characteristics as independent variables. Ownership characteristics are anticipated to be more successful in improving the quality of financial statement, and thus, reduce the prospect of firm obtaining a modified audit opinion. The analysed results from 2012 to 2016 periods of these corporates in Jordan showed that FAOWN and FOOWN validated this projection. Interestingly, the effect of family and FOOWN improve the quality of financial statement, thereby, reduce the cases of a modified audit opinion. Additionally, the study could not find any association impact between the INOWN and modified audit opinion.
Use of Mobile Devices for English Language Learner Students in the United States

Mobile devices have become widely used in K-12 education settings for teaching diverse students. We comprehensively reviewed 11 studies published between 2005 and 2016 that examined the use of mobile devices for teaching K-12th grade English language learner students in the United States. We also examined the methodological quality of the studies. Results of the review indicated promising effects from using mobile devices for teaching K-12th grade students who are learning English. Using the devices for instruction led to improved learning, self-efficacy, and engagement and increased students’ time with the academic content. Results of the review also indicated that additional studies are needed with improved methodological quality. We discussed directions for future research and implications for practice.
Transportation, Adaptive and Productive Performance of Transported Buffalo Herd in New Environment

The study was carried out in El-Nobarya Station, Beheira Governorate and El-Nataf El-Kadeem Station, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate. Twenty-two buffalo cows were included in the experiment. Animals were transported\d to El-Nobarya station to establish a buffalo herd in this station.The experiment included two stages, the first stage aimed to study the effect of transportation and the second stage aimed to study the effect of acclimatization in El-Nobarya station. Meteorological data were collected and recorded including air temperature (AT, °C), relative humidity (RH, %) and wind speed (WS, Km/hr.), from which temperature humidity index (THI) was calculated. The following physiological and hematological parameters were recorded: rectal temperature (RT, °C), respiration rate (RR, r/min), hemoglobin (Hb, g/dl), hematocrit value (Ht, %) and differential counts of leukocyte types; Neutrophils (Ne), Lymphocytes (Ly), Eosinophils (Eo), Monocytes (Mo) and Basophils (Ba). Meanwhile productive traits included dam weight at calving (DW, KG), birth weight of calves (BW, Kg), weaning weight of calves (WW, KG), calving interval period (CI, day), lactation period (LP, day), total milk yield (TMY, Kg) and persistency (PE, %). The present work was conducted to compare between physiological and productive performance of buffaloes before and after transportation. The main obtained results are: the decrease in THI and increase in WS were the main meteorological factors affecting physiological performance for animals. The high difference between animal body temperature and house temperature in El-Nobarya had been ameliorated by the effect of low THI and high WS. Transportation influenced significantly physiological (RR and RT) and hematological parameters. It increased significantly RR, RT, Ne and Mo and decreased significantly Ht, Hb, Ly and Eo after sustainability of animals. However, productive traits of the first season after transportation was better than before transportation except TMY due to better managerial and environmental conditions. Buffaloes can acclimatized to transportation stress during the first season as no significant differences were found between physiological and productive traits between the four season after transportation except milk yield and milk curve persistency which require three seasons to come back to pre-transportation levels. It could be concluded that buffaloes under conditions in El-Nobarya were better than those in El-Nataf El-Kadeem due to better environmental conditions (lower THI and higher WS) and management.
On the Integral Representation of The Value Function

Resumo: Neste trabalho propomos uma hipotese alternativa para a representacao integral da funcao valor de Milgrom e Segal (2002). Ao inves de exigir que a funcao de utilidade possua derivada quase certamente, impomos que ela seja derivavel em todo o seu dominio. A ideia e obter condicoes para aplicar o Teorema de Lebesgue, que fornece ao mesmo tempo uma funcao valor absolutamente continua e sua representacao integral. Nossa hipotese e tecnicamente mais forte do que a de Milgrom e Segal (2002), mas argumentamos que existe um substancial ganho de interpretacao economica ao adiciona-la. Enquanto e dificil interpretar continuidade absoluta em termos de preferencias, a existencia de derivada em todo ponto signi ca que todas as escolhas dos agentes sobre qual tipo reportar geram uma variacao na sua utilidade. Palavras-chave: funcao valor; desenho de mecanismos; diferenciabilidade.
High-Quality Information Technology and Capital Investment Decisions

We examine the effect of high-quality information technology (IT) on management's capital investment decisions. Evaluating capital investment decisions with contemporary investment efficiency and long-term measures of investment effectiveness, we document a positive relation between high-quality IT and capital investment decision quality. In particular, we find high-quality IT is associated with more optimal levels of investment as well as fewer future fixed asset write-downs. We also disaggregate investment efficiency and find the relation with IT quality holds for investment decisions related to capital expenditures and acquisitions, but not research and development expenditures. Overall, our results suggest managers equipped with better internal information from higher-quality IT are able to make superior capital investment decisions. Our study contributes to the literature by providing evidence of a significant determinant of capital investment decision quality and documenting a specific mechanism that mediates the indirect effect of IT quality on future performance. JEL Classifications: D83; E22; G31; M15; M41. Data Availability: We thank InformationWeek for providing annual rankings that were previously published. All other data are publicly available from regulatory filings; we obtained data from the Compustat, Execucomp, and I/B/E/S databases.
Evaluating Aging Pedestrian Crash Severity with Bayesian Complementary Log–Log Model for Improved Prediction Accuracy

Reliable prediction accuracy is an essential attribute for crash prediction models. Generally, more severe injury outcomes, such as fatalities, are rarer than less severe crashes, such as property damage only or minor injury crashes. The complementary log–log (cloglog) model, commonly used in epidemiological research, is known for its accuracy in predicting rare events. This study implemented the cloglog model in analyzing pedestrian injury severity and compared its performance with the two conventional models used in injury severity research: the probit and logit models. The three models were developed with data from 1,397 crashes involving aging pedestrians that occurred in Florida from 2009 through 2013. The response variable, injury severity level, was binary and categorized as either fatal or severe injury or minor or no injury. The study used three accuracy metrics (deviance information criteria, prediction accuracy, and receiver operating characteristics curves) to compare the performance of the models. The cloglog model outperformed the probit and logit models in overall goodness of fit and prediction accuracy. More important, the cloglog model outperformed the other two models considerably for predicting fatal and severe crashes according to the recall metric (72% accuracy versus 43% and 41% for probit and logit models, respectively). However, the other two models outperformed the cloglog model in predicting crashes with no or minor injuries. Of predictor variables included in the model, six were found to significantly influence fatal or severe injuries for aging pedestrians at 95% Bayesian credible interval. These variables included pedestrian age, alcohol involvement, first harmful event, vehicle movement, shoulder type, and posted speed.