Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring attentional allocation : what is the appropriate baseline? An event-related potential study

Electroencephalographical (EEG) measurements have played an important role regarding the understanding of the processes involved in directing, shifting and dividing attention. Several studies indeed employed EEG in the Posner endogenous cueing paradigm to examine these processes. In this study, a variant of this paradigm was used, in which cues were always 100% valid, i.e., cues pointed to the left or the right side where a to be discriminated target was presented. As baseline conditions, two types of trials were used. For one of the trials, a double arrow cue was used that pointed outwards to both sides, whereas for the second type of trials, the arrows pointed inwards. The major goal of this study was to determine whether the type of baseline trial (outward or inward cues) had any effect, as one might argue, that with the outward cue, attention is divided over the relevant sides, while this seems not to be the case for inward cues. EEG was measured from twenty participants that took part in our experiment. Afterwards, behavioral data and EEG data were analyzed. Most important, within the analysis no main differences were found between the baseline condition cues (outward and inward) and the valid cues. According to this, the conclusion was drawn that, based on statistical analysis of behavioral measurement and EEG measurement, the chosen baseline is appropriate.
Performance of hedge fund strategies in bull and bear markets

Hedge funds use a wide variety of investment styles, although many people have the perception that they are a relatively homogenous group with similar strategies to generate returns. Understanding the differences in the risk and return structure of hedge fund strategies is crucial to making a good investment decision. This paper examines the performance of 13 hedge fund strategies in the Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index, during a 20-years long period ranging from 1995 to 2015. In contrast to previous research, our study encompasses performance analysis on multiple long-term bull and bear stock market periods. Our study provides potential hedge fund investors with valuable information about the best performing strategies in different market conditions. The results show that returns vary greatly between different strategies and time periods.
Acute endotoxemia during gestation induces organ dysfunction and tissue damage in mouse offspring.

Sepsis complications represent a systemic inflammatory response to microbial infection or severe injury. This study aimed at determining the effects of septic complications in pregnant female mice on the development of their pups. To achieve this aim, pregnant Swiss mice were given an intraperitoneal injection of endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) at a single dose of 2.5 mg/kg body weight. Results revealed that bacterial endotoxin increased oxidative stress in both brain and liver tissue. Malondialdehyde (MDA) was significantly elevated in both LPS-treated mothers and their pups. The anti-oxidant enzyme glutathione was significantly reduced in the LPS-treated mothers and their pups. Free radicals induced by endotoxemic stress mediated the pathological and behavioral complications in the pups born to LPS-treated mothers. Thus, obvious damage was observed in hepatic and intestinal tissues, which in turn led to decreased body weight gain and decrease general activity. Spleen sections from treated mothers and pups showed an increase in trabeculae, high leukocyte infiltration (especially neutrophils and immature megakaryocytes). In contrast, significant depletion of neutrophils was detected in peripheral blood. In addition, pups born to LPS-treated mothers showed significantly lower muscular grip strength than that recorded for pups born to control mothers. The active avoidance test indicated that LPS exposure was associated with learning and memory impairment in the pups. In conclusion, septic complications were actively transferred from endotoxin-treated mothers to developing pups, mediated by high oxidative stress. The oxidative stress, hepatic, ileal, splenic and developmental changes were the major determinants in both mothers and pups.
A retrospective study of Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) prevalence amongst patients attending infrectious diseases hospital, in Kano, Nigeria

A retrospective study aimed at ascertaining the prevalence of Pulmonary TB amongst patients attending Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kano was conducted between January, 2006 and July, 2008. Sputum samples were obtained from three thousand six hundred and seventy nine (3679) patients. Samples were smeared on glass slides, stained using Ziehl Neelsen Stain and later observed under light (oil immersion) microscopy. The results showed that were positive for tuberculosis had prevalence of 541 (14.7%) out of 3679 subjects. The age group 30-43 years had the highest prevalence of 145 (17.0%) out of 858 of PTB positive subjects. There was no significant difference between age groups and sex of subjects with PTB positivity {X2: 11.07 at P= 0.05 and X2=15.09 at P=0.01}; similarly, the difference between prevalence of PTB in male and female subjects between the three year period{X2=14.07 at P= 0.05 and X2=18.48 at P=0.01} was not significant. It is noteworthy that PTB is still a serious disease in this part of the world, thus, there is need for stepping up TB awareness, treatment and control program. Key words: Retrospective study, Pulmonary Tuberculosis, prevalence, Mycobacterium tuberculosis
A first look at volcanic ash detection in the GOES-12 era

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-12 Imager, which was activated 1 April 2003, has been reconfigured with the addition of a 13.3 μm Infrared (IR) spectral band, in place of the “split window” 12.0 μm band. This suite of spectral bands will remain in place until the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) becomes operational circa 2013. The 12.0 μm band has been successfully used for volcanic ash detection from GOES for nearly ten years, since it first became available on GOES-8 in 1995. The “Two-Band Split Window (TBSW)” technique, as it is often referred as, has its heritage dating back to the late 1980’s when it was applied to data from the Advanced very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) polar-orbiting spacecraft (e.g. Prata 1989; Holasek and Rose 1991). The unavailability of this channel has resulted in some concern about the impact of this change on short term warnings and forecasts for aviation operations over North and South America. Since the implementation of GOES-12, several weak to moderate volcanic eruptions have been observed by the new Imager, the most significant of which occurred at the Soufriere Hills Volcano, on the island of Montserrat in the eastern Caribbean during 12-15 July 2003. Ash clouds resulting from a series of four eruptions were dispersed throughout the Eastern Caribbean at altitudes as high as 16 km. As a result, numerous advisories were issued by the Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center. This paper will discuss the use of GOES-12 data to detect and track these events, and how data from the lower resolution GOES Sounder can be used to ____________________________________ * Corresponding author address: Gary P. Ellrod, E/RA2, Room 712, WWBG, 5200 Auth Road, Camp Springs, MD 20746; Email: gary.ellrod@noaa.gov complement products obtained from the Imager.
Media, legitimacy and climate change reporting by companies in the oil and gas industry

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether a link exists between the amount of media attention focussed on oil and gas companies with regard to climate change issues and the quality and quantity of reporting on climate change within company sustainability reports. The study reviews sustainability reporting by 45 oil and gas companies listed on the 2011 Global Fortune 500 between 2001 and 2010.The effect of media attention on climate change reporting is considered from two different perspectives. In the first instance legitimacy and media agenda setting theory are drawn on to determine whether oil and gas companies, wishing to maintain legitimacy, will respond to media attention around climate change by increasing the quantity of climate change reporting in sustainability reports. In the second case legitimacy theory is considered with media visibility and in particular whether highly visible organisations, wishing to maintain legitimacy, have higher quality reporting to meet the needs of more informed stakeholders. Using these two perspectives two hypotheses are developed and tested. Results show that there is a relationship between media attention and both the quality and quantity of climate change reporting for the companies in the sample, showing how the media can play a dual role in influencing the sustainability reporting process.
A Comparison between Holistic and Analytic Assessment of Speaking

As speaking is an intricate productive skill, its evaluation raises many interesting issues. In this study, the main purpose is to find the most suitable procedure that is useful to assess speaking, by making a comparison between the holistic and the analytic scales. Thus, twenty oral performances were recorded and given to five raters who assessed them holistically and analytically, according to four distinct tasks at the Higher Institute of Languages in Gabes. The raters’ gradings were compared according to four basic parameters, namely the mean, the range, inter-rater and intra-rater reliability. Despite the fact that both methods yielded low reliability rates, it was clear that there were many differences between the two scales, since they reflected a discrepancy at the level of the four parameters as well as at the level of tasks. Apart from the differences, it was noted that the holistic scale is more useful, reliable and consistent as far as speaking assessment is concerned.
Stock market liquidity and firm performance

The present study is done in Indian context with an objective to find out the effect of Stock Market Liquidity on Firm Performance. NSE listed firms were studied from 2005 to 2014. OLS regression was used to find out a causal relationship between indicators of stock market liquidity and firm performance. The results indicate a positive relationship between age and performance of firm.
A Data Mining System for Investigation on Cause-E ff ect Relations in OSS

The availability of data on open source projects increased dramatically throughout the last decade. This tendency attracts the attention of many researchers who focus their attention on different software attributes and on how these affect each other. Commonly, such research involves the analysis of individual or small groups of projects and thus provides results that are strongly biased by the choice of these projects. To exploit the full value of the available information, it is necessary to consider at least a representative proportion of the universe of open source software. Such a universal set would allow us to draw generalizable conclusions about software development and the development process. These can both serve as a benchmark to re-evaluate current beliefs as well as build new knowledge valuable to both industry and academia. A quantitative investigation of open source software requires the automated collection and examination of large amounts of data. Such automation is fraught with problems, though. Project data such as source code, versioning history, bug data, and descriptive information is scattered around heterogeneous sources and thus differs in form and content. Moreover, much information originating from abandoned, incomplete, or small projects is inconsistent and can thus lead to unreliable results. Finally, it is difficult to support investigations concerning general software attributes as Size or Quality since such analyses require a high level of abstraction. In this thesis, we present OSSQuery, a data mining system that indexes, collects, cleans, updates, and analyzes publicly available project data to allow quantitative research on open source software. An efficient, extensible, and reliable design allows our system to construct a representative data set and to analyze a variety of questions on open source software on demand. In spite of primarily addressing cause – effect relations, the modular architecture can readily accommodate several types of analysis. OSSQuery indexes over 143,000 open source projects to date, it stores both historical and recent information on more than 2,500 projects. We performed a number of investigations to test our system. The outcomes confirm our primary hypothesis, namely that research on a limited set of projects might not be valid for all open source software. While our results commonly agree with outcomes of other studies, they also show that a significant proportion of projects do not fit these findings, yet.
A Comparative Analysis of Resistance Testing Methods in Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) from St. Johns County, Florida

Abstract Aedes albopictus Skuse (Diptera: Culicidae) was tested for resistance to permethrin, bifenthrin, and malathion using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bottle bioassays and topical toxicology assays on adults and larval bioassays. Eggs were collected from 3 locations across St. Johns County, Florida, raised to the F3 generation and compared with an insecticide susceptible laboratory strain. Results from CDC bottle bioassays with permethrin indicate no significant differences between the 3 wild-type strains and the laboratory strain but suggest the possibility of resistance in 1 strain. Bottle bioassay results for malathion were inconclusive. Topical toxicological results for adults and bioassays for larvae showed a significant difference in permethrin resistance between the control strain and 1 of the wild-type strains. Results from this project indicate that insecticide susceptibility testing should be a regular part of mosquito surveillance programs. Upon detection of resistance, detailed dose response bioassays should be performed to quantify the resistance and mechanisms in local vector populations.
Government Incentives and Financial Intermediaries: The Case of Chinese Sell-Side Analysts

We study how sell-side analysts produce information in a context where the central government can influence financial intermediaries. Leveraging seven economic periods between 2005 and 2015 when the Chinese government had strong incentives to prop up the stock market, we show that sell-side analysts employed at state-owned brokerages issued relatively optimistic earnings forecasts and stock recommendations during these periods. This relative optimism is particularly pronounced in earnings forecasts for larger firms and for state-owned enterprises, and is found regardless of analysts’ experience or star status, or of their brokerages’ degree of dependence on commissions. Although these optimistic forecasts are also relatively less accurate, the evidence suggests that they influence investors’ beliefs. These findings highlight the role of government incentives in the behavior and output of analysts in emerging-market contexts.
Modelling nitrogen and phosphorus loads in a Mediterranean river catchment (La Tordera, NE Spain)

Human activities have resulted in increased nutrient levels in many rivers all over Europe. Sustainable management of river basins demands an assessment of the causes and consequences of human alteration of nutrient flows, together with an evaluation of management options. In the context of an integrated and interdisciplinary environmental assessment (IEA) of nutrient flows, we present and discuss the application of the nutrient emission model MONERIS (MOdelling Nutrient Emissions into River Systems) to the Catalan river basin, La Tordera (north-east Spain), for the period 1996–2002. After a successful calibration and verification process (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies E =0.85 for phosphorus and E =0.86 for nitrogen), the application of the model MONERIS proved to be useful in estimating nutrient loads. Crucial for model calibration, in-stream retention was estimated to be about 50 % of nutrient emissions on an annual basis. Through this process, we identified the importance of point sources for phosphorus emissions (about 94% for 1996–2002), and diffuse sources, especially inputs via groundwater, for nitrogen emissions (about 31% for 1996–2002). Despite hurdles related to model structure, observed loads, and input data encountered during the modelling process, MONERIS provided a good representation of the major interannual and spatial patterns in nutrient emissions. An analysis of the model uncertainty and sensitivity to input data indicates that the model MONERIS, even in data-starved Mediterranean catchments, may be profitably used by water managers for evaluating quantitative nutrient emission scenarios for the purpose of managing river basins. As an example of scenario modelling, an analysis of the changes in nutrient emissions through two different future scenarios allowed the identification of a set of relevant measures to reduce nutrient loads.
Academic Integrity "Captured" by a Personality-Based Test

The main goal of this study was to develop and validate a personality-based academic integrity test which could serve as a predictor of students’ academic dishonesty. A new Academic Integrity Test (AIT), based on methodological principles accepted in the field of work integrity, was created during this study. The test was developed on one student sample (N=350), and then validated on another (N=471). Validation of the AIT confirmed its relations with three dimensions previously found to be consistent correlates of work integrity measures - Conscientiousness, Aggressiveness and Neuroticism, with the addition of Negative Valence. The correlation between the AIT and a cognitive ability measure was not significant, which is in accordance with previous research. The test retained significant relations with the aforementioned personality measures in simulated applicant condition (except with Neuroticism), leading to the conclusion that the AIT maintains construct validity in situations susceptible to self-presentation.
Thermoregulation during reproduction in the solitary, foliage-roosting hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus)

Abstract The reproductive benefits of maintaining a high body temperature (Tb) are well understood, but costs may be prohibitively high. Many small mammals raise offspring in insulated nests, burrows, or roosts, and may form communal maternity colonies, all of which are behaviors that reduce the costs of maintaining Tb. However, some temperate-zone bats are solitary and raise young in exposed roosts. Little is known about how these species maintain energy balance in the face of high thermoregulatory costs, and whether they stay warm invariably for reproductive benefits, or use a more adaptive thermoregulatory strategy. We studied Tb patterns in response to foraging conditions, weather, and pup age in free-ranging adult and juvenile hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus). Lactating females regularly entered torpor, although its use was most extensive following poor foraging conditions, during inclement weather, and when pups were young. Juvenile L. cinereus appeared capable of staying warm from 3 days of age, but used torpor throughout development, gradually decreasing its use as they grew. Our results indicate that for this species, torpor is important throughout lactation, and torpor use changes in response to individually specific trade-offs between energetic cost and developmental benefit. We suggest that the costs of active thermoregulation during early development of L. cinereus pups outweigh the benefits of staying warm, and an extended growing season (as a result of their migratory nature) is more conducive to using torpor. Finally, we suggest that torpor use during lactation is dynamic and adaptive. Fine-scale changes within reproductive stages need to be considered, rather than broadly assessing thermoregulatory behavior among stages.
Critical hydrogenation effect on magnetic coercivity of perpendicularly magnetized Co/Pd multilayer nanostructures

Low dimensional materials of perpendicularly magnetized [Co(0.5 nm)/Pd(3 nm)] multilayer, including continuous thin film, nanodots and nanodot-chains were prepared for the investigation of reversible hydrogenation effect on the magnetic and optical properties. For the continuous film, after hydrogenation the magnetic coercivity (Hc) was enhanced by 47% and the Kerr intensity was significantly reduced to 10% of the pristine value. In nanodots, hydrogenation led to 25% reduction of Hc and Kerr intensity as well. For nanodot-chains, the shape of magnetic hysteresis loop was modulated by hydrogenation. The hydrogenation and desorption completed within few seconds in nanodots.
More on the Mesopotamian-Yungas disjunction in subtropical and temperate Argentina: Bioclimatic distribution models of the harvestman Discocyrtus dilatatus (Opiliones: Gonyleptidae)

In this paper, the potential distribution of the Mesopotamian harvestman Discocyrtus dilatatus Sorensen, 1884 is modeled, and the species' bioclimatic profile is described. Models were built with the presence-only methods Maxent and Bioclim, using 85 unique records (of which 49 are new) and 11 non-correlated bioclimatic variables as predictors. Both Maxent and Bioclim supported the Mesopotamian-Yungas disjunct pattern observed in D. dilatatus, and confirmed the hypothesis that the sub-xeric Dry Chaco is an effective barrier for the two portions of the range. Similarly to results of previous studies on other Mesopotamian harvestmen, temperature variables proved more relevant than precipitation variables in the final models. In the combined overall score obtained with Maxent, bc4-temperature seasonality ranked as the most relevant, and only one precipitation variable (bc18-precipitation of warmest quarter, in second place) ranked among the top five. In the Most Limiting Factor analysis, which identifies the relevant variables in a local scale, temperature variables were again more determining than precipitation variables in most of the range. One single variable, bc5-maximal temperature of warmest month, proved critical near the boundaries of the modeled range and the Dry Chaco, suggesting that extremely high temperatures (and not the supposed aridity) are responsible for the 450 km distribution gap.
The Contribution of the Self-Efficacy of Curriculum Development Team and Curriculum Document Quality to the Implementation of Diversified Curriculum in Indonesia.

The aim of this study is to describe how the self-efficacy of curriculumdevelopment team (CDT) and curriculum document quality contributed to theimplementation of diversified curriculum in elementary schools. This research isa survey study using descriptive method. Schools were the unit of analysis whilerespondents selected from the schools consisted of headmaster, teacher, andstudents. The instruments used were a questionnaire and curriculum documentreview. Data were analyzed using path analysis. The findings suggest that theself-efficacy of the CDT and curriculum document quality contributedsimultaneously to the quality of diversified curriculum implementation inelementary schools.