Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From Yang-Mills Photon in Curved Spacetime to Dark Energy Density

We start from quantum field theory in curved spacetime to derive a new Einstein-like energy mass relation of the type E=γmc2 where γ=1/22 is a Yang-Mills Lorentzian factor, m is the mass and c is the velocity of light. Although quantum field in curved spacetime is not a complete quantum gravity theory, our prediction here of 95.4545% dark energy missing in the cosmos is almost in complete agreement with the WMAP and supernova measurements. Finally, it is concluded that the WMAP and type 1a supernova 4.5% measured energy is the ordinary energy density of the quantum particle while the 95.5% missing dark energy is the energy density of the quantum wave. Recalling that measurement leads to quantum wave collapse, it follows that dark energy as given by E(D) = mc2 (21/22) cannot be detected using conventional direct measurement although its antigravity effect is manifested through the increasing rather than decreasing speed of cosmic expansion.
Chapter 3 Advances in HCV Therapy

Hepatitis C is a devastating illness which has the potential in the majority of cases to lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Worldwide, the number living with chronic hepatitis C approaches 185 million. Up until recently, the regimen of peg-IFN and ribavirin stood as the standard of care and is still commonly used as first line therapy. This is rapidly changing. Direct acting antivirals have altered the landscape drastically. By understanding the genome of the hepatitis C virus, scientists and researchers have been able to exploit its mechanism of transmission by creating inhibitors against several of the nonstructural proteins that are integral to HCV replication and function [NS3/4 protease, NS5A polymerase, and NS5B polymerases (nucleoside and non-nucleoside)]. The previously reported 50%-70% SVR rates achieved with peg-IFN and RBV are no longer the standard of care. Thanks to direct acting antivirals, IFN free as well as “all oral” regimens are being used to treat HCV. In addition to this, ribavirin-free regimens are also available. These highly effective therapies also provide far less side effects and accomplish better results in less time, thus shortening treatment duration significantly. Additionally, even in the notori‐ ously difficult -to-treat populations, results have been promising.
An L2 Pronunciation Judgment Task

As a remedy to what we might call the pronunciation deficit of the communicative approach, many undergraduate Spanish programs across the US offer a course in phonetics and pronunciation in their third or fourth year. An indication of the interest in these types of courses is the number of phonetics / pronunciation textbooks that are available on the market, such as Guitart (2004), Hammond (2001), Quilis and Fernandez (2003), Schwegler, Kempff and Barrutia (2007), Spicher, Sweeney and Pelayo Coutino (2007), Stokes (2005), and Teschner (2000). Of course, not all these textbooks have the same emphasis, and there is great variation with respect to the degree of sophistication of the phonetic and phonological theory that one can find in these textbooks. Nevertheless, all of them have the practical purpose of improving the students’ pronunciation. At the same time that formal training in phonetics and pronunciation has found a way into the Spanish curriculum, there has been an increasing interest in finding out whether such an addition is adequate. One thing is to realize that the communicative approach to language teaching is not very effective at getting the students to pronounce correctly (after all, precise pronunciation is seldom an impediment for successful communication). It is a very different thing is to claim that formal teaching in phonetics can have an impact on improving the students’ pronunciation. For this reason, there have been studies devoted to test whether formal instruction is an effective way of improving the students’ pronunciation. Although the students in a phonetics / pronunciation course might learn about the different modes of articulation or how the concepts of phonemes and allophones help us understand the differences between [s] and [z] in Spanish and English, the question is whether students actually improve in their practical knowledge of the language; that is, whether they put the phonetic theory to use. There are impressionistic data that seem to indicate that the students’ pronunciation of Spanish does not improve after a phonetics class. If there is no improvement at all, it would be difficult to justify the need for this type of course, although not impossible, since one could argue that it is important that students are aware of the phonological properties of the language even if they cannot put them to practice. Many studies that test the effectiveness of formal phonetics seem to indicate that formal training in phonetics has significant positive impact on the students’ pronunciation. (See, for example, Gonzalez-Bueno (1997), Lord (2005), Gaff and Loewen (2007), and Elliott (2003), which provides an overview of L2 studies in the acquisition of phonology. ) A notable exception to this is Sutter (1976), who found that having formal training in pronunciation did not correlate with better pronunciation.
Small to Medium Enterprise Cyber Security Awareness: An Initial Survey of Western Australian Business

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) represent a large proportion of a nation’s business activity. There are studies and reports reporting the threat to business from cyber security issues resulting in computer hacking that achieve system penetration and information compromise. Very few are focussed on SMEs. Even fewer are focussed on directly surveying the actual SMEs themselves and attempts to improve SME outcomes with respect to cyber security. This paper represents research in progress that outlines an approach being undertaken in Western Australia with SMEs in the northwest metropolitan region of Perth, specifically within the large local government catchments of Joondalup and Wanneroo. The high order goal of the project was to assist with measures to improve their cyber security resilience and resistance to threats. This paper documents outcomes of an initial survey of SMEs and its implications for interventions to improve information security and make the businesses less susceptible to computer hacking incidents.
School-Based Screening, Brief Interventions and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Significantly Decreases Long-Term Substance Abuse in 6,227 Students Aged 11-18

Background: Youth alcohol and drug misuse has multiple long-term consequences. Suggestions to reduce the frequency of this include combining Screening, Brief Interventions, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT). However, SBIRT has not been studied widely in children and youth. Methods: The present observational study was part of a larger school-based intervention program, termed Empowering a Multimodal Pathway towards Healthy Youth (EMPATHY), whose primary goal was to reduce depression, anxiety, and suicidal thinking in youth. A secondary goal was to determine if the EMPATHY program, which utilizes all aspects of SBIRT, might also decrease alcohol and substance abuse in children and youth. Here we examine data from the 6 items of the CRAFFT scale which was specifically designed for youth assessment, and a score of ≥ 2 indicates risk of substance abuse. We examined CRAFFT scores from 6,227 students who completed at least one assessment, either at Baseline, 3 months, 7 months, and 15 months. We also report on CRAFFT scores in the 1,884 students who completed CRAFFT assessments at all 4 times. Findings: We found that, as expected, rates of substance abuse increase with age. The EMPATHY program, which entails a version of SBIRT, led to a significant reduction in the total percentage of students who scored ≥ 2 over time, decreasing from 14% at Baseline to 7% at the 15 month follow-up. This occurred in all grades, specifically at Baseline 31% of Grade 12 students scored ≥ 2, but this decreased to 20% at 15 months, while reductions in Grade 11 were from 24% at Baseline to 15% at 15 months. Conclusions: The findings from this large long-term program may indicate good utility for an SBIRT approach in children and youth. This may help provide an effective pathway to minimizing future use of alcohol and drugs in children and youth; however, more specific randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm these promising, but preliminary, findings.
Potential Determinants of Top Income Inequality Saikat Sarkar

Using the data series produced from the collective research project on the dynamics of income distribution (Atkinson and Piketty 2007, 2010) we have studied the e¤ect of di¤erent economic factors on top income inequality in the AngloSaxon countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, USA). These e¤ects turn out to be di¤erent for individual countries. The bubbles of nancial market explain the surge in top income inequality in the United States. Our results reveal that the bubbles of nancial market increase top income inequality, although the economic growth rate fails to increase top income shares in the United States. The e¤ect of economic growth rate on top income inequality is also time varying in the Anglo Saxon region. The positive economic growth rate of post 1980 turns out to be pro rich but the economic growth rate of pre 1980 does not promote the top income inequality. The top marginal tax rate and government expenditure may have an equalizing e¤ect by reducing income of the rich, though the impact of nancial development on top income inequality is inconclusive. We have bene ted from comments and advice from Jukka Pirttilä, Ari Hyytinen and Hannu Tanninen. We also would like to thank Arto Luoma, Jani-Petri Laamanen, Jari Vainiomäki, Kaisa Kotakorpi, Elina Tuominen and seminar participants at the University of Jyväskylä.
A utility-based model of sales competition with informative advertising

This paper presents a generalised framework to understand mixed-strategy sales behaviour with informative advertising. By introducing competition in the utility space into a clearinghouse sales model, we offer a highly tractable framework that can i) provide a novel welfare analysis of intra-personal price discrimination in sales markets, ii) characterise sales in a range of new contexts including complex market settings and situations where firms conduct sales with two-part tariffs or non-price variables such as package size, and iii) synthesise past research and highlight its key forces and assumptions.
Effect of Tell Me More on EFL undergraduate students’ English Language achievement

This descriptive study aimed at finding the impact of Tell Me More (TMM), an online language-learning program, on English as a foreign language (EFL) undergraduate learners’ achievement in a University in Thailand. The study also looked at whether the time of use of TMM had an effect on learners’ achievement. Data was collected from the scores of students at four proficiency levels who did the placement, progress and achievement tests in the TMM program for the 2015 academic year. The analysis of the data indicated an improvement in English language achievement for the beginner and advanced proficiency levels after the use of the TMM program. However, TMM did not have any effect on students of intermediate+ and intermediate proficiency levels. The ANOVA and pairwise comparison analysis revealed a significant difference between the proficiency levels. The analysis of the time on task was striking. It raises concerns about the use of time as the sole indicator for assessment. The findings suggest that learning goals and assessment have the capacity to influence the use of computer-assisted language learning technologies. The study therefore will guide instructors on how to design curriculums for autonomous online learning and improve ways of assessment.
Norms for a Pictographic System: The Aragonese Portal of Augmentative/Alternative Communication (ARASAAC) System

Different systems are used to facilitate communication for people with speech problems. Among these, pictographic systems offer an extraordinary solution for many people with severe communication disorders; for example, people with autism spectrum disorders, aphasia, cognitive impairment, cerebral palsy, etc. The pictographic system called Aragonese Portal of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ARASAAC http://arasaac.org), freely distributed under the Creative Commons License (BY-NC-SA), is an important reference in many countries. Although these images are widely used, there are no previous studies on their reliability and validity. In order to obtain a useful tool in the clinical context, scores of name agreement, H index, tip-of-the-tongue responses, conceptual familiarity, image agreement, visual complexity, and response times were collected for the 295 most frequent images in the ARASAAC dataset. The psychometric analyses showed adequate validity and reliability values. The regression analysis indicated that naming times were explained by picture-name agreement, age of acquisition, and conceptual familiarity, while the tip-of-the-tongue states were mainly predicted by picture-name agreement and name agreement. In conclusion, these norms from the ARASAAC dataset offer a valuable tool for clinical intervention as well as for psycholinguistic research.
Maths Anxiety Does Not Moderate the Link Between Spatial and Maths Ability

Spatial ability (SA) is known to be closely related to mathematical ability (Tosto et al., 2014). Maths anxiety (MA) has been shown to affect both mathematical and spatial ability (Maloney, 2011). The present study investigated the relationship between maths performance and spatial ability, as well as the effects of MA and gender on the association between them. General cognitive ability and trait anxiety were added as control variables. Data were collected from 146 twins (32% males) aged 17-33. Maths performance was measured with Problem Verification Task (PVT). SA was measured with Mental rotation task. MA was measured with sMARS questionnaire. General cognitive ability was measured with Raven’s matrices. Trait anxiety was measured with Spielberger anxiety rating scale. There were no correlations between SA and maths performance, except a negative correlation between SA and PVT reaction time variance. MA did not moderate the association between SA and maths performance. Interestingly, the interaction term between trait anxiety and SA was significant as a predictor for PVT reaction time. Posthoc analysis showed that higher spatial ability was associated with lower reaction time in PVT for high trait anxiety individuals only. Neither main effects of gender and maths anxiety, nor the interaction term between them were significant while predicting spatial ability. Altogether, our results indicate that the interplay between anxiety and mathematical cognition is complex and requires further research.
Nash Equilibrium for Risk-Averse Investors in a Market Impact Game with Transient Price Impact

We consider a market impact game for [Formula: see text] risk-averse agents that are competing in a market model with linear transient price impact and additional transaction costs. For both finite and infinite time horizons, the agents aim to minimize a mean-variance functional of their costs or to maximize the expected exponential utility of their revenues. We give explicit representations for corresponding Nash equilibria and prove uniqueness in the case of mean-variance optimization. A qualitative analysis of these Nash equilibria is conducted by means of numerical analysis.
Individual and Composite Effects of Chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens) and Neem (Azadirachta indica) Based Botanical Powdered Formulations Against Stemborer Damage on Sorghum in North Eastern Nigeria

This experiment examines the use of chilli pepper and neem based botanical formulations which are being promoted more intensively in Africa due to their effectiveness and safety in application. This study was therefore aimed at comparatively assessing the efficacy of chili pepper and neem based botanical formulations in controlling sorghum stemborer damage. Pure Neem Kernel Powder (NKP), Pure Chili Pepper Powder (CPP); 1:1, w/w: NKP + Finesand, CPP + Finesand and Carbaryl dust (a recommended synthetic insecticide) were evaluated for control of sorghum stemborers. The result shows that sorghum stemborer damage symptoms were significantly (p<0.05) controlled by the treatments when compared with the control. NKP + Finesand however, gave the best result with lowest percentage (%) of dead heart (0.03) at 35DAS, 0.05 at 45DAS and stem tunneling length percentage (6.03). NPK + Finesand also gave the highest grain yield (6.39kg/plot) Keywords: Stemborer Botanicals Deadheart Finesand Chilli
The Different Intensity of Maximum Strength Enhancement in Young Males After Ten Weeks of Weightlifting Training

The number of sets in resistance training program which required to produce maximal strength gain were still controversial. We examined the changes in maximal strength between groups with different weight training workouts in the present study. 22 untrained young males were divided into three groups randomly, each group perform a different sets of weightlifting squats; the groups did one set, three sets, six sets, respectively; all groups used 8 repetitions at maximum weight, for each; all groups lifted weight two times per week, and the study lasted ten weeks. The 1 repetition maximum of each subject was tested at the beginning of the training period, at the 4 th week, the 7 th week and at the 10 th week. The result showed there were no significantly differences in 1 repetition maximum between the three groups after ten weeks of training. It could be conclude that, in untrained individuals, there were no difference in maximum strength, regardless of whether they practiced one set, or for multiple sets of exercises.
Managerial Expertise, Corporate Decisions and Firm Value: Evidence from Corporate Refocusing

This paper investigates how managerial expertise—specifically, industry expertise—affects firm value through divestiture. Using CEOs’ managerial experiences in industries throughout their careers as a measure of their industry expertise, I find that CEOs in diversified conglomerates are more likely to divest divisions in industries in which they have less experience. This finding is consistent with CEOs who divest such divisions in order to refocus on those divisions in which they have specialized—that is, to achieve a better match between their expertise and their firms’ retained assets. Firms that divest for a better CEO-firm match experience significant improvements in operating performance, as well as significant abnormal stock returns that persist for an average of three years following a divestiture. Further, among firms that divest for a better match, those firms with more experienced CEOs realize greater gains in firm value. In contrast, divestitures that increase corporate focus, but do not improve the expertise-asset match, do not lead to long-run increases in firm value.
Crowding Out of Disadvantaged Young Adults in Germany: Background Matters Depending on Local Labour Market

Research on socio-economic mobility focuses on how background affects later labour market outcomes. Growing up in a disadvantaged household does not always lead to the same outcomes however, and the extent to which this matters depends on the local labour market. Using multilevel models on the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, this article shows that disadvantaged young adults (16? 35 years old) are more affected by the business cycle than their similarly educated counterparts from more advantaged backgrounds. We propose that a disadvantaged background lowers desirability on the labour market, which matters more to employers as the labour market worsens. When the local labour market is slack, disadvantaged young adults get crowded out of good jobs by their more advantaged but similarly qualified peers. Among the higher qualified, this means the disadvantaged work on lower paying jobs, while those who are less educated are most at risk of unemployment. These results are robust to using different specifications. As the early career has long-term effects, the conditions during which young adults enter the labour market can play a large role in their labour market outcomes and can affect inequality by background overall.
Isolation, screening and statistical optimizing of L-methioninase production by Chaetomium globosum

Egyptian soil sample was screened for isolation methioninlytic fungi by a rapid plate assay procedure. Eighteen strains of different isolated fungi were screened quantitavely for their L-methioninase activity. Chaetomium globosum was the most efficacious isolate and a dematiaceous filamentous fungi, it was identified at the molecular level by ribotyping 18S rRNA along with the biochemical characterization, and lastly completed by BLAST analysis by structure of a phylogenetic tree. Results showed that, the optimum levels of the incubation period, temperature, pH, methionine, sucrose and sodium nitrate concentrations were 3 days, 30°C, 7, 0%, 30 g/l and 1g/l, respectively. According to the produced model, at these levels, C. globosum produce L-methioninase with predicted specific activity of (≈2225 U/mg); so L-methioninase could be a good source for clinical therapeutic application. The rRNA sequence of C. globosum was deposited to gene bank under accession number KXO24450 Key words: L-methioninase, Chaetomium globosum, 18S rRNA, enzyme optimization, soil.
Incidence and Causes of Physical Failure of Artificial Habitat Structures in Streams of Western Oregon and Washington

Abstract In recent years an increasing share of fishery management resources has been committed to alteration offish habitat with artificial stream structures. We evaluated rates and causes of physical impairment or failure for 161 fish habitat structures in 15 streams in southwest Oregon and southwest Washington, following a flood of a magnitude that recurs every 2–10 years. The incidence of functional impairment and outright failure varied widely among streams; the median failure rate was 18.5% and the median damage rate (impairment plus failure) was 60%. Modes of failure were diverse and bore no simple relationship to structure design. Damage was frequent in low-gradient stream segments and widespread in streams with signs of recent watershed disturbance, high sediment loads, and unstable channels. Comparison of estimated 5–10-year damage rates from 46 projects throughout western Oregon and southwest Washington showed high but variable rates (median, 14%; range, 0–100%) in regions where peak discharge .