Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding student performance beyond traditional factors: Evidence from PISA

This paper studies the linkages between schools’ inputs and students’ performance in Latin America. We exploit the richness of PISA 2012 questionnaires at the student and school level to study the association between a different set of inputs and students’ performance in mathematics. First, this research shows that students’ characteristics and their environment (i.e. sex, age and economic, social and cultural status of students and schools) explain close to 30% of the variation in education performance in Latin America, a higher percentage than in OECD and other economies which participated in PISA 2012. Second, after controlling for students’ characteristics and their environment, our results show that in Latin America, some non-traditional school inputs, such as the feedback provided by the principal to the teacher, weekly instructional time or the attitude and motivation of teachers, are associated with student performance, whereas more traditional inputs (e.g. school infrastructure, share of certified teachers and teacher qualifications) are not always related to better learning outcomes. These findings suggest that some pedagogical initiatives, which are also more cost-effective, could improve students’ performance in the region. Cet article etudie les liens entre les politiques en matiere d’education et la performance des etudiants en Amerique latine. Nous exploitons la richesse de la base de donnees de PISA 2012 generee a partir des questionnaires soumis aux etudiants et aux ecoles visant a analyser l'association entre certaines variables liees aux politiques educatives avec la performance des eleves en mathematiques. Tout d'abord, cette recherche montre que les caracteristiques des eleves et leur environnement (sexe, âge et situation economique, sociale et culturelle des eleves et des ecoles) expliquent pres de 30% de la variation de la performance des etudiants en Amerique latine, un pourcentage plus eleve que dans les pays de l’OCDE et d'autres economies participant a PISA 2012. Deuxiemement, apres avoir controle les caracteristiques des etudiants et leur environnement, nos resultats montrent qu'en Amerique latine certaines politiques « non traditionnelles » pratiquees par certaines ecoles, telles que les evaluations des enseignants realisees par le principal, le temps d'enseignement hebdomadaire ou l'attitude et la motivation des enseignants, ont une influence sur la performance des eleves, alors que certaines politiques traditionnelles, telles que les infrastructures scolaires, la part des enseignants certifies, les qualifications des enseignants n’en ont pas. Ces resultats suggerent que des initiatives pedagogiques presentant un bon rapport en termes de couts et d’efficacite peuvent etre mises en oeuvre en Amerique latine pour ameliorer la performance des eleves dans la region.
Comparison of Remifentanil-Propofol and Sevoflurane for Preventing Cardiovascular Response and Quality of Recovery in Paediatric Otolaryngologic Surgery

As the practice of outpatient paediatric surgery advances, the search continues for anaesthesia that provides rapid smooth induction, stable patient haemodynamics, rapid emergence and minimal unpleasant side effects. Therefore, this study was designed to compare the haemodynamic changes, emergence and recovery characteristics of remifentanil-propofol (TIVA) and sevoflurane anaesthesia for adenoidectomy with bilateral myringotomy and insertion of tubes and/or tonsillectomy (ENT surgery) in children. Children aged 6.3-1.6 years, undergoing elective ENT surgery, were randomly assigned to receive TIVA (n=15) and sevoflurane (n=15).
Early Attraction in Temporally Controlled Sight Reading of Music

A music reader has to “look ahead” from the notes currently being played—this has usually been called the Eye-Hand Span. Given the restrictions on processing time due to tempo and meter, the Early Attraction Hypothesis suggests that sight readers are likely to locally increase the span of looking ahead in the face of complex upcoming symbols (or symbol relationships). We argue that such stimulus-driven effects on looking ahead are best studied using a measure of Eye-Time Span (ETS) which redefines looking ahead as the metrical distance between the position of a fixation in the score and another position that corresponds to the point of metrical time at fixation onset. In two experiments of temporally controlled sight reading, musicians read simple stepwise melodies that were interspersed with larger intervallic skips, supposed to create points of higher melodic complexity (and visual salience) at the notes following the skips. The results support both Early Attraction (lengthening of looking ahead) and Distant Attraction (lengthening of incoming saccades) in the face of relative melodic complexity. Notably, such effects also occurred on the notes preceding the nominally complex ones. The results suggest that saccadic control in music reading depends on temporal restrictions as well as on local variations in stimulus complexity.
Price, Quality, and Variety: Measuring the Gains from Trade in Differentiated Products

This paper explores the gains from trade in differentiated products from three channels: decreases in price, improvements in quality, and increases in variety. Using data on Indian imports of computer printers from 1996 to 2005, a period of trade liberalization, I find that quality was the leading source of welfare gains. Consumers would require a 65 percent decrease in all 1996 prices to be as well off as they were with the quality available in 2005. The contribution of price was slightly smaller, while variety lagged farther behind. These effects varied across buyers, as gains were largest for small businesses.
THE IMPACT OF RELEVANT FACTORS ON WHEAT SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

The aim of the study is to conduct the wheat balances analysis, to research the supply and demand in the domestic market, and to examine the partial impact of the relevant factors on the supply and demand. The the research results of wheat production and trade ﬂows can contribute to the increase of supply and to the structural changes in production, the strengthening of competitiveness, the increase of trade exchange, improvement in production and processing, new investments, higher employment rate, and so on. The methods used in the research are the wheat balances analysis, the functional and correlation analysis (the functional correlation analysis), the variance analysis, T-test, as well as other general methods. The results of the wheat production and consumption balances analysis indicate the existence of surplus and potential for export of an average of 805.29 thousand tons with a trend of increase after 2013. The impact of production, initial stocks, imports, and purchase prices on wheat supply is high (R = 0.99). The impact of consumption, sales prices, income, exports, and final stocks on wheat demand is high (R = 0.95). By analyzing the correlation coefficient of wheat production and supply, a coefficient of 0.96 was obtained, while for the wheat consumption and demand the obtained coefficient was 0.82, which indicates high correlation dependence. In the period 2000-2016, the export of wheat was increased 8.7 times along with the increase in price per kg and the total export value.
The Influence of the HEQC's institutional audits on teaching and learning at three South African universities

Institutional audits constitute one of the ways through which South Africa’s Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) executes its quality assurance mandate. The study investigated the effect of the HEQC’s institutional audits on teaching and learning at three South African universities. A case study design was used for the investigation. A total of 58 participants spread across the three selected universities were interviewed in 27 interview sessions. The findings indicate that the audits have had a positive, albeit limited and variable, effect on teaching and learning, and on the support functions for teaching and learning at the three universities. Though there seems to have been considerable progress made in some areas, in other areas the institutions seemed to be struggling to implement their improvement plan effectively and probably need support. Some of the recommendations based on the present study’s findings are that the HEQC should put in place more robust follow-up and monitoring mechanisms, including compulsory followup site visits, and that institutional audits be conducted at more universities to test the findings of this study.
Diversity and Relationships among U.S. Maize Inbreds Revealed by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms

Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) have been proposed as molecular markers for characterizing the genetic diversity in maize. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the usefulness of RFLP data for (i) elucidating heterotic patterns among maize inbreds and (ii) assessing genetic similarity among related and unrelated lines. Thirty-two maize inbreds from the US Corn Belt were analyzed for RFLPs with two restriction enzymes and 83 DNA probes distributed over the maize genome. Eighty-two probes detected polymorphisms with at least one enzyme. On average, 4.3 variants were found per probe-enzyme combination across all 32 inbreds. Genetic distances among lines, estimated from RFLP data as Rogers' distance (RD), revealed considerable diversity among lines from Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS), Reid Yellow Dent (RYD) and Lancaster Sure Crop (LSC). Lines from different heterotic groups had a slightly greater RD mean than unrelated lines from the same heterotic group, yet differences were small when compared with the wide range of RDs for individual line combinations within each group. RDs between related lines agreed well with expectations based on coancestry coefficients determined from pedigree data with few exceptions. Principal component analyses of RFLP data resulted in a separate grouping of lines from BSSS/RYD and LSC. Dispersion of lines of miscellaneous origins was generally consistent with expectations based on known breeding behaviour and pedigrees. Results from this study suggest that RFLP data can be used for assigning inbreds into heterotic groups and quantifying genetic similarity between related lines, but it seems that a large number of probe-enzyme combinations are required to obtain reliable estimates of genetic distance
Winter Annual Weed Suppression in Rye–Vetch Cover Crop Mixtures

Abstract Winter annual weeds can interfere directly with crops and serve as alternative hosts for important pests, particularly in reduced tillage systems. Field experiments were conducted on loamy sand soils at two sites in Holt, MI, between 2008 and 2011 to evaluate the relative effects of cereal rye, hairy vetch, and rye–vetch mixture cover crops on the biomass and density of winter annual weed communities. All cover crop treatments significantly reduced total weed biomass compared with a no-cover-crop control, with suppression ranging from 71 to 91% for vetch to 95 to 98% for rye. In all trials, the density of nonmustard family broadleaf weeds was either not suppressed or suppressed equally by all cover crop treatments. In contrast, the density of mustard family weed species was suppressed more by rye and rye–vetch mixtures than by vetch. Cover crops were more consistently suppressive of weed dry weight per plant than of weed density, with rye-containing cover crops generally more suppressive than vetch. Overall, rye was most effective at suppressing winter annual weeds; however, rye–vetch mixtures can match the level of control achieved by rye, in addition to providing a potential source of fixed nitrogen for subsequent cash crops. Nomenclature: Cereal rye, Secale cereale L. ; hairy vetch, Vicia villosa Roth; mustard family, Brassicaceae Resumen Las malezas anuales de invierno pueden interferir directamente con los cultivos y pueden servir como hospederos alternativos para plagas importantes, particularmente en sistemas con labranza reducida. Se realizaron experimentos de campo en suelos areno limosos en dos sitios en Holt, Michigan entre 2008 y 2011 para evaluar los efectos relativos de los cultivos de cobertura Secale cereale , Vicia villosa y la mezcla S. cereale-V. villosa sobre la biomasa y la densidad de las comunidades de malezas anuales de invierno. Todos los tratamientos de cultivos de cobertura redujeron significativamente la biomasa total de malezas en comparación con el testigo sin cultivo de cobertura, con una supresión que varió de 71 a 91% en el caso de V. villosa y de 95 a 98% en el caso de S. cereale. En todos los experimentos, la densidad de malezas de hoja ancha que no pertenecen a la familia de la mostaza (Brassicaceae) no fue suprimida o fue suprimida de la misma forma por todos los tratamientos de cobertura. En contraste, la densidad de la familia de la mostaza fue suprimida más por los tratamientos con S. cereale que el tratamiento de V. villosa. Los cultivos de cobertura fueron más consistentemente supresores del peso seco por individuo de malezas que de la densidad de malezas, y las coberturas que contenían S. cereale fueron más supresoras que la cobertura de V. villosa.
Grooming Hand Clasp by Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the Issa Valley, Western Tanzania

anniversary event of Mahale Mountains Chimpanzee Research Project held in Kigoma on the 26th of November 2015 (Figure 1). Mr. Nemoto’s major was history. After graduating from the Division of History, Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University, he spent 6 years teaching at a high school in Ichikawa, Japan. Then, he moved to Tanzania in 1984 to study African history at the University of Dar es Salaam. His determination originated in his involvement in a Japan-based anti-apartheid movement and his first journey to East Africa as an undergraduate student in 1975 (Nemoto 2011). He made friends with primatologists from Japan including the late Professor Toshisada Nishida. I met Mr. Nemoto for the first time in August 1991 when he taught at Dar es Salaam Japanese Class. Since then, there have been many cases in which I had to solicit his advice to escape from various difficulties I faced while travelling in Tanzania. The Mahale Team’s reliance on him grew after he visited Mahale for the first time in 1992 and two years later accepted Prof. Nishida’s request that he act as the MWCS secretary-general. In 1999, he founded Japan Tanzania Tours Ltd. (JATA Tours) and started to assist researchers not only as a friend but also as a professional tour agent. On the 3rd of June 2017, more than 300 people gathered to remember him in Tokyo. There I had a chance to know how extensive and deep a friendship he had cherished, and what kind of man he was. Not only researchers of various disciplines but also diplomats, businesspersons, young students interested in Tanzanian people and culture, etc. regretted his too early passing. His wife, Asami, in her final speech as a representative of the surviving family, revealed that Mr. Nemoto had been determined to retire from his tourist company in November 2018 and concentrate on compiling his lifework about African history. On behalf of MWCS, I would like to express our sincere appreciation for his sharing of our passion for longterm research and conservation of Mahale chimpanzees. We vow to continue our endeavors and pass them on to the next generation.
EARNINGS RESPONSE COEFFICIENT: APPLYING INDIVIDUAL AND PORTFOLIO METHODS

This paper reports new findings from applying portfolio method, which shows a much bigger earnings impact on share prices (ERC) compared to the erstwhile reports of ERC using individual events, averaged over the sample. We estimate cumulative abnormal returns, CAR, across a test window for each quarterly earnings announcement event across one accounting year. The CARs are then regressed against earnings changes of individual firms and portfolios. The findings show a significant positive CAR when earnings increases; and a negative CAR if earnings declines. The ERC is very small in the test period of 2001-14, which is consistent with published results for years before 2000. The ERC size magnifies substantially due to the grouping effect used through portfolio formation. What is significant is that the use of portfolio method, by removing the idiosyncratic errors, show a price response very close to the size of earnings (i.e., ERC of 0.93) with a very high R-square of 75 percent. The last evidence supports strongly the value relevance accounting theory that has not seen much support from averaging the price responses of individual event responses.
Sulfur cycle and sulfate radiative forcing simulated from a coupled global climate-chemistry model

Abstract. The sulfur cycle and radiative effects of sulfate aerosol on climate are studied with a Global tropospheric Climate-Chemistry Model in which chemistry, radiation and dynamics are fully coupled. Production and removal mechanisms of sulfate are analyzed for the conditions of natural and anthropogenic sulfur emissions. Results show that the 1985 anthropogenic emission tripled the global SO2 and sulfate loadings from its natural value of 0.16 and 0.10 Tg S, respectively. Under natural conditions, the fraction of sulfate produced in-cloud is 74%; whereas with anthropogenic emissions, the fraction of in-cloud sulfate production slightly increased to 76%. Lifetimes of SO2 and sulfate under polluted conditions are estimated to be 1.7 and 2.0 days, respectively. The tripling of sulfate results in a direct radiative forcing of −0.43 W m−2 (clear-sky) or −0.24 W m−2 (all-sky), and a significant first indirect forcing of −1.85 W m−2, leading to a mean global cooling of about 0.1 K. Regional forcing and responses are significantly stronger than the global values. The first indirect forcing is sensitive to the relationship between aerosol concentration and cloud droplet number concentration which requires further investigation. Two aspects of chemistry-climate interaction are addressed. Firstly, the coupling effects lead to a slight decrease of 1% in global sulfate loading for both the cases of natural and anthropogenic added sulfur emissions. Secondly, only the indirect effect of sulfate aerosols yields significantly stronger signals in changes of near surface temperature and sulfate loading than changes due to intrinsic climate variability, while other responses to the indirect effect and all responses to the direct effect are below noise level.
Study of Serum Vitamin D Level among Critically Ill Patients Admitted to Alexandria University Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Background: Vitamin D is a pleiotropic hormone that plays an important role in calcium homeostasis, bone health, cardiovascular system and immunity. Vitamin D has other roles in the body, including modulation of cell growth, neuromuscular and immune functions, and reduction of inflammation. Its deficiency may aggravate the incidence and outcome of infectious complications in critically ill patients. Aim: The aim of this work was to determine the frequency of vitamin D deficiency in critically ill patients admitted to pediatric intensive care unit [PICU], Alexandria university children's hospital (AUCH) and relate the state of serum 25(OH) D to disease severity. Methods: Study was carried out on 102 critically ill children admitted to PICU at AUCH. Blood was collected on PICU admission and analyzed for 25(OH) D concentration by using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. Results: Low vitamin D levels had been found in most of our patients where 37.3% of cases were vitamin D deficient and 38.2% of cases were vitamin D insufficient while only 24.5 % of cases were vitamin D sufficient. High Pediatric logistic organ dysfunction (PELOD) score and high alkaline phosphatise (ALP) were associated with 25(OH)D deficiency while summer season and sun exposure were protective. There was no significant difference according to vitamin D level as regards PICU stay, patient mortality, presence of sepsis or septic shock and main affected system on admission. Conclusion: We found a high rate of vitamin D deficiency in critically ill children and vitamin D level was negatively correlated with PELOD score. We recommend screening of critically ill children for vitamin D deficiency to restore their serum levels. Introduction Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, normally produced in skin through a robust photolytic process acting on a derivative of cholesterol (7dehydrocholesterol) to produce previtamin D, which is then slowly isomerized to vitamin D3 (the natural form of vitamin D). (1) Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption in the gut and maintains adequate serum calcium and phosphate concentrations to enable normal mineralization of bones and to prevent hypocalcemictetany. It is also needed for bone growth and bone remodeling by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. (2, 3) www.jmscr. igmpublication.org Impact Factor 5.84 Index Copernicus Value: 83.27 ISSN (e)-2347-176x ISSN (p) 2455-0450 DOI: https://dx.doi. org/10.18535/jmscr/v5i4.167
The leaky funnel model, a metaphor of the ventilation of the World Ocean as simulated in an OGCM

It is seen that an idealized model may suggest an appropriate scaling of the water age in the World Ocean, which is a measure of the ventilation rate. We use a 1-D advection-diffusion model in which the deep ocean is represented as a leaky funnel, allowing recirculation towards the surface. The analytical solutions to the steady-state problem are readily obtained. The three parameters of the leaky funnel model are estimated in such a way that the behaviour of the domain-averaged water age be as similar as possible to that derived from a 3-D model in a series of sensitivity runs. The agreement between both sets of mean ages is excellent, with a linear correlation coefficient very close to unity. A good agreement is also found for the age of radioactive tracers and the associated radioages. The parameters of the leaky funnel model have a clear physical meaning, that is, the order of magnitude of the horizontal velocity, the mean length of water parcel trajectories in the deep ocean, and a horizontal diffusivity scale. The values of all of them turn out to be consistent with our current knowledge of the World Ocean circulation.
Two-component generalizations of the Camassa–Holm equation

A classification of integrable two-component systems of non-evolutionary partial differential equations that are analogous to the Camassa–Holm equation is carried out via the perturbative symmetry approach. Independently, a classification of compatible pairs of Hamiltonian operators of specific forms is carried out, in order to obtain bi-Hamiltonian structures for the same systems of equations. Using reciprocal transformations, some exact solutions and Lax pairs are also constructed for the systems considered.