Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the Relationship between Team Performance and Joint Attention with Longitudinal Multivariate Mixed Models

Previous research indicates that measures of joint attention provide unique insight into team cognition and performance. In this study, we examined the effects of practice and joint attention on team performance improvement using multivariate mixed models, with an emphasis on exploring the correlation structure between the variances in growth trajectories of team performance and joint attention around estimated means. Observed patterns in team performance showed time dependent trends well known in a variety of learning contexts, including non-linear growth, performance retention, and performance retention loss between multiple practice sessions. Joint attention was found to decrease non-linearly over time, starting out comparatively high and decreasing as a function of time on task. Additionally, we found evidence of negative relationships between joint attention and team performance in our task environment, and we established that joint attention was significantly higher than the chance levels that would be expected by task-constraints alone.
On dynamical systems with the specification property

A continuous transfornation T of a compact metric space X satisfies the specification property if one can approximate distinct pieces of orbits by single periodic orbits with a certain uniformity. There are many examples of such transformations which have recently been studied in ergodic theory and statistical mechanics. This paper investigates the relation between Tinvariant measures and the frequencies of T-orbits. In particular, it is shown that every invariant measure (and even every closed connected subset of such measures) has generic points, but that the set of all generic points is of first category in X. This generalizes number theoretic results concerning decimal expansions and normal numbers.
The application of some food industry by-products in the production of extruded products

Various by-products of the food industry (fruit and vegetable pulp, oilseed cake, different bark and shells.) are generated in large quantities and represent a huge problem for manufacturers, because they have a significant effect on the environment due to slow biodegradation, water pollution, emissions of methane, and related environmental problems. On the other hand, these by-products, aside from the fact that they are a rich source of polyphenols, dietary fibre, β-glucans, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids, represent cheap and easily available raw materials which could be used for the production of various products consumed by many people (snacks, breakfast cereals, pasta, bread, biscuits.). One of the most important product groups are certainly extruded products, and their production mainly uses various types of grains, such as corn, wheat, rice and barley, which are rich in carbohydrates. Therefore, in recent years there is much more research on the topic of improving the nutritional value of this product group by using various food industry by-products.
Structure and variability of the microbial community associated to the Alboran Sea frontal system (Western Mediterranean) in winter

The Almofront-2 cruise (22 November 1997 – 18 January 1998) was aimed at documenting physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the Alboran Sea. Both horizontal and vertical distributions of picophytoplankton (Prochlorococcus spp., Synechococcus spp. and small photosynthetic eukaryotes), heterotrophic prokaryotes and viruses were investigating using flow cytometry (FCM). Three types of ecosystems were discriminated on the basis of physical parameters and picoplankton distribution: the Mediterranean ecosystem (MED) in the Northern part, the anticyclonic gyre of modified Atlantic (ATL) water in the southern part, and the frontal ecosystem in between. MED waters were dominated by Prochlorococcus while Synechococcus concentration was higher in ATL waters. High concentrations of both groups were also recorded in dense waters of the front, a likely response to nutrient injection from deeper and/or adjacent waters. Photosynthetic picoeukaryotes concentration was the highest in regions influenced by the front and at the periphery of the gyre. The low biomass of picoeukaryotes in dense waters of the front suggests that this group responded very differently to environmental factors compared to Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus. Picoplankton contributed up to 50% of total chlorophyll a (Chl a) in the gyre (mean ca 25%), essentially due to the picoeukaryotes. The biomass of the picophytoplankton clearly decreased between the two legs. Heterotrophic bacteria concentrations were well correlated to those of picoeukaryotes and reached their maximum in the central part of the Alboran eastern gyre. Two patches of high concentration of heterotrophic bacteria were recorded in frontal-influenced MED waters and were tightly coupled to maximal chl a concentrations following the 28.1-28.2 density excess isolines. At this period of the year, picoplankton could represent up to 50% of the <200 µm living organic carbon in MED waters and up to 35% in modified ATL waters (mean 35 and 23%, respectively). At last, two groups of virus-like particles were discriminated by FCM according to DNA content fluorescence. No major differences in their distribution patterns were recorded between sites. A significant correlation was found between heterotrophic bacteria numbers and viruses suggesting a tight coupling between the two communities. In conclusion, picoplankton appears to constitute an important fraction of living matter in the Alboran Sea at the end of fall and early winter and may thus participate significantly to carbon and energy fluxes in the W. Mediterranean Sea.
CONSTRAINING GAMMA-RAY BURST INITIAL LORENTZ FACTOR WITH THE AFTERGLOW ONSET FEATURE AND DISCOVERY OF A TIGHT Γ0–Eγ,iso CORRELATION

The onset of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow is characterized by a smooth bump in the early afterglow light curve as the GRB fireball is decelerated by the circumburst medium. We extensively search for GRBs with such an onset feature in their optical and X-ray light curves from the literature and from the catalog established with the Swift/XRT. Twenty optically selected GRBs and 12 X-ray-selected GRBs are obtained, among which 17 optically selected and 2 X-ray-selected GRBs have redshift measurements. We fit these light curves with a smooth broken power law and measure the width (w), rising timescale (tr), and decaying timescale (td) at full width at half-maximum. Strong mutual correlations among these timescales and with the peak time (tp) are found. The ratio tr/td is almost universal among bursts, but the ratio tr/tp varies from 0.3 to ∼1. The optical peak luminosity in the R band (LR,p) is anti-correlated with tp and w in the burst frame, indicating a dimmer and broader bump peaking at a later time. The isotropic prompt gamma-ray energy (Eγ,iso) is also tightly correlated with LR,p and tp in the burst frame. Assuming that the bumps signal the deceleration of the GRB fireballs in a constant density medium, we calculate the initial Lorentz factor (Γ0) and the deceleration radius (Rd) of the GRBs with redshift measurements. The derived Γ0 is typically a few hundreds, and the deceleration radius is Rdec ∼ 2 × 1017 cm. More intriguingly, a tight correlation between Γ0 and Eγ,iso is found, namely Γ0 ≃ 182(Eγ,iso/1052 erg)0.25. This correlation also applies to the small sample of GRBs which show the signature of the afterglow onset in their X-ray afterglow, and to two bursts (GRBs 990123 and 080319B) whose early optical emission is dominated by a reverse shock. The lower limits of Γ0 derived from a sample of optical afterglow light curves showing a decaying feature from the beginning of the observation are also generally consistent with such a correlation. The tight lower limits of Γ0 of GRBs 080916C and 090902B derived from the opacity constraints with Fermi/LAT observations are also consistent with the correlation at the 2σ confidence level, but the short GRB 090510 is a clear outlier of this relation. This correlation may give insight to GRB physics and could serve as an indicator of Γ0 for long GRBs without early afterglow detections. A comparison of the early X-ray and optical afterglow light curves shows that the early bright X-ray emission is usually dominated by a non-forward-shock component, but occasionally (for one case) the forward shock emission is observable, and an achromatic deceleration feature is observed. The superposition of the internal and external components in X-rays causes the diversity of the observed X-ray light curves.
CONSUMERS' VALUATION OF INSECTICIDE USE RESTRICTIONS: AN APPLICATION TO APPLES

Economic assessments of pesticide regulations typically focus on producer impacts and generally ignore possible changes in product demand. These changes may be nonnegligible if real and/or perceived product attributes change. We measure consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for the elimination of one insecticide and also a whole group of insecticides in apple production using a multiple-round Vickrey auction. The data are analyzed using nonparametric statistical tests and a double-hurdle model. Our findings show that consumer perceptions of product attributes change if pesticides are removed from production, and this is reflected in WTP changes. WTP is shown to be income elastic.
Regions Based on Social Structure

Boas argued that anthropologists should make historical comparisons within well-defined regional contexts. A century later, we have many improvements in the statistical methodologies for comparative research, yet most of our regional constructs remain without a valid empirical basis. We present a new method for developing and testing regions. The method takes into account older anthropological concerns with relationships between culture history and the environment, embodied in the culture-area concept, as well as contemporary concerns with historical linkages of societies into world systems. We develop nine new regions based on social structural data and test them using data on 351 societies. We compare the new regions with Murdock's regional constructs and find that our regional classification is a strong improvement over Murdock's. In so doing we obtain evidence for the cross-cultural importance of gender and descent systems, for the importance of constraint relationships upon sociocultural systems, for the historical importance of two precapitalist world systems, and for strikingly different geographical alignments of cultural systems in the Old World and the Americas. © 1996 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved.
Genetic variability and conservation problems in Alpine ibex, domestic and feral goat populations (genus Capra)

Studied genetic variability in two Alpine ibex (Capra ibex ibex), and in domestic and feral goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) populations with multilocus enzyme electrophoresis. Ibex from the Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy), the "mother" population of all the present Alpine colonies, shows genetic variability lower than the Graubunden (Switzerland) colony. Feral goats from Montecristo Island (Italy) show genetic variability higher than domestic goats. Such results have been discussed taking into account the possibility of past interbreeding between ibex and domestic goat during the first stages of captive breeding and reintroduction in Switzerland, and of repeated introductions of domestic goats into Montecristo Island. Both Alpine ibex and Montecristo feral goats have been submitted to repeated bottlenecks and founding episodes, with consequent erosion of genetic variability. The opportunity to conserve genetic variability has been discussed within the framework of ibex reintroduction plans, and of conservation projects of small island goat populations.
Molecular data challenge traditional subgeneric divisions in the leafy liverwort Radula

With approximately 200 species, the genus Radula is one of the most speciose genera of leafy liverworts. Although the genus is well delimited, its subdivision into subgenera and sections has been controversial. None of the subgeneric subdivisions have been the subject of an explicit test of internal consistency or monophyly based on molecular data and a comprehensive view of evolutionary relationships within the genus is thus still lacking. In the present paper we propose, based on a molecular phylogeny of the genus, a new subgeneric classification for Radula, and create three new subgenera. While the reconstruc tions of ancestral gametophytic characters allow for a morphological description of each of the seven lineages identified in our phylogeny, synapomorphies for these lineages are mostly lacking. Uncertainty of morphological state reconstructions at the deepest nodes of the phylogeny, which point to a rapid morphological diversification of the genus in its early history, do not allow for pinpointing when morphological changes occurred. The classification scheme proposed here is therefore mostly based on molecular features.
Midlatitude atmospheric circulation responses under 1.5 and 2.0 °C warming and implications for regional impacts

Abstract. This study investigates the global response of the midlatitude atmospheric circulation to 1.5 and 2.0 °C of warming using the HAPPI (Half a degree Additional warming, Prognosis and Projected Impacts) ensemble, with a focus on the winter season. Characterising and understanding this response is critical for accurately assessing the near-term regional impacts of climate change and the benefits of limiting warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, as advocated by the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The HAPPI experimental design allows an assessment of uncertainty in the circulation response due to model dependence and internal variability. Internal variability is found to dominate the multi-model mean response of the jet streams, storm tracks, and stationary waves across most of the midlatitudes; larger signals in these features are mostly consistent with those seen in more strongly forced warming scenarios. Signals that emerge in the 1.5 °C experiment are a weakening of storm activity over North America, an inland shift of the North American stationary ridge, an equatorward shift of the North Pacific jet exit, and an equatorward intensification of the South Pacific jet. Signals that emerge under an additional 0.5 °C of warming include a poleward shift of the North Atlantic jet exit, an eastward extension of the North Atlantic storm track, and an intensification on the flanks of the Southern Hemisphere storm track. Case studies explore the implications of these circulation responses for precipitation impacts in the Mediterranean, in western Europe, and on the North American west coast, paying particular attention to possible outcomes at the tails of the response distributions. For example, the projected weakening of the Mediterranean storm track emerges in the 2 °C warmer world, with exceptionally dry decades becoming 5 times more likely.
Analysis of the Impact of Testing Frequency on Student Performance in a Ba- sic Thermodynamics Course

Many engineering courses, such as Thermodynamics, have topics which build upon the material previously learned in the course. For example, students will have difficulty learning the Second Law of Thermodynamics if they have not mastered the First Law. Unfortunately, many students delay studying material in courses until an exam is drawing near. This can be a particular problem in a course which does not inherently interest a student, such as a non-Mechanical Engineering student required to take Thermodynamics as a course outside their major. As a result, they may find themselves well behind in a course and struggling with the material currently being taught because they had not spent enough time learning earlier material while it was being covered in class. One technique which has been used to motivate students to learn the course material promptly is to test students more frequently, rather than waiting a month or more to do so. The author used this more-frequent-testing technique for many years, using shorter (30-45 minute) quizzes every 2 to 3 weeks in a Basic Thermodynamics course. Before using this method, the author had used a more traditional approach of giving the students 2 mid-term exams during the semester. While the frequent-quiz technique generally received positive feedback from the students and appeared to aid in their learning of the material, the two techniques had not been directly compared to quantifiably measure their relative impact. In the Fall 2011 semester, the author taught two sections of Basic Thermodynamics, and used the frequent-quiz technique in one and the 2 mid-term exam technique in the other. Other than the testing frequency, the two sections were kept as similar as possible. The lecture content and homework assignments were identical. Results of the final exam in the course were used to judge which technique was more successful in aiding the students’ learning. Yet to be determined is the impact of each technique on student retention of the material in a second Thermodynamics course. In this paper, a thorough discussion of the study methodology and results is presented. A discussion of the benefits and detriments of both techniques is provided, and recommendations for teachers on testing frequency in Thermodynamics courses are made.
Workplace conflict resolution in Wales: The unexpected prevalence of alternative dispute resolution

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practices are increasingly being viewed as an improved way of resolving workplace conflict. Much of the empirical literature focuses on the spread of ADR amongst US organizations with little evidence of such approaches having crossed the Atlantic. This article presents new survey evidence that examines the extent to which ADR has been adopted as a strategy to resolve different forms of conflict by Welsh firms in the UK. The factors that impact upon the diffusion of ADR are also analysed. The article finds that in contrast to earlier research, ADR is widespread amongst Welsh firms, irrespective of how broadly ADR is defined. The presence of institutional actors such as specialist HR managers and recognized trade unions are found to be positively associated with more private forms of ADR.
Raising the bar: Encouraging high level thinking in online discussion forums

More universities are offering online instruction for students though we know little about effective online learning. Some have found online instruction increases student participation while others have reported that students prefer the traditional face‐to‐face format This study of gifted education graduate students follows the expectation that online students ought to have time to be more thoughtful with online course interactions as compared to the time‐constrained interactions in a face‐to‐face course. Researchers evaluated students’ thinking levels (as per Bloom's Taxonomy) in the online discussion forums required by a graduate course in gifted education. Results indicate there was no relationship between the level of the prompt and the level of the responses. Higher level prompts did not necessarily generate higher level responses. The research‐developed Rubric for Evaluation of Online Discussions can be used both as an instructional guide and as an evaluation rubric to assess the level of online discussions.
Breeding ecology of Antarctic petrels and southern fulmars in coastal Antarctica

Seabirds at high latitudes breed in environments with short, but highly productive, summers. Not many species can utilize these narrow windows of time to complete the full breeding cycle, but fulmarine petrels (Procellariiformes, Procellariidae) appear particularly well adapted because of a relatively short period in which they raise their chick. We developed an automatic weighing system with artificial nests to study food provisioning and chick growth. During three seasons (1997-1999), we collected data on chick provisioning of Southern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialoides) and Antarctic Petrels (Thalassoica antarctica) on Ardery Island (66°S 110°E) near the Australian Antarctic station Casey. Although Southern Fulmars started breeding about 2.5 weeks later than Antarctic Petrels, both were similar in total duration of the breeding period (97 days) and in the diet they provide to their chicks. Southern Fulmars delivered meals to their chicks about every 14 hours, almost twice as frequent as Antarctic Petrels. Meal sizes varied between the seasons and species, and averaged from 111g to 152g. On average, Southern Fulmars delivered 240-265 gram per day to their chick, whereas Antarctic petrels delivered 122-140 gram per day. Southern Fulmars were delivering in a more pronounced bimodal distribution pattern and provisioned their chicks more during daylight than Antarctic Petrels. Antarctic Petrels did not compensate their lower chick-feeding rate through larger meals, but their prolonged foraging trips probably enable them to process more of the food into stomach oil and thus produce meals with a higher energy density. Furthermore, Southern Fulmar chicks need more energy for thermoregulation and are thus less efficient in converting food into body mass. By using a “double Gompertz growth model” we were able to investigate both chick growth until peak mass and mass recession until fledging. We investigated the differences in growth between species and how the provisioning and growth parameters were correlated. The average peak mass of chicks was 140% of the mean adult mass in Southern Fulmars and 136% in Antarctic Petrels. At fledging, Southern Fulmar chicks were on average 101.5% and Antarctic Petrels chicks 91.7% of the mean adult mass. In Southern Fulmars, the provisioning rate was positively correlated with growth rate, peak mass and fledging mass, but in the Antarctic Petrel these correlations were not significant, probably due to low samples size. The differences in chick provisioning fit in the overall strategies of two related seabird species that have to adapt to conditions at opposite extremes of their main habitats.