Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epistemic Thinking in Action: Evaluating and Integrating Online Sources

This study examines epistemic thinking in action in order to shed light on the relation between students’ personal epistemologies and their online learning practices. The study is based on observations of the learning behaviors of 6th-grade students (n = 38) during two online inquiry tasks. Data were collected through think-aloud protocols and retrospective epistemic interviews. The study examines how absolutist and evaluativist epistemic perspectives come into play in two key online inquiry strategies—evaluation of website trustworthiness and critical integration of multiple online sources. The study explores students’ epistemic thinking on the cognitive and metacognitive levels and examines epistemic metacognitive knowledge about both persons and strategies. The findings demonstrate that epistemic thinking plays an important role in online inquiry learning. Participants’ epistemic metacognitive knowledge regarding online learning strategies correlated with their epistemic cognition. Evaluativists significantly outperformed absolutists in the integration strategy but no significant differences were found in the evaluation strategy. Furthermore, there was evidence for considerable variability in students’ epistemic thinking. The complex role of students’ epistemic thinking in online learning is analyzed and discussed.
Preliminary Study on Prevalence of Urinary Incontinence in Iranian Female Athletes

Research carried out over the past few decades has shown that urinary incontinence is observed among physically active women, including those involved in professional high impact sports. The purpose of this preliminary study was to investigate the prevalence of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and assess its risk factors among Iranian female athletes. A total of 195 volunteers comprising women athletes aged between 16.5 and 32.5 years (24.18 ± 8.70) completed the urinary incontinence questionnaire. Data from athletes with SUI were analyzed using the non-parametric KruskalWallis test. Among the study participants, only 21 (10.77%) had SUI. Statistically significant differences were observed between urinary incontinence during exercise and a history of childhood enuresis, genital infections, and prolonged standing ( > 1 h per day; P < 0.05). The current study demonstrated that among the factors that exert significant effects on urinary incontinence, childhood enuresis is an important risk factor to increase the risk of having SUI. This association may help to avoid exposing these female athletes to high impact exercise before starting a training program.
Determinants of Inflation in Nepal: An Empirical Assessment

This paper examines short term and long term effects of the macroeconomic variables on the inflation in Nepal during 1975-2011. The variables considered are budget deficits, Indian prices, broad money supply, exchange rate and real GDP. The regression results from Wickens-Breusch Single Equation Error Correction model suggest that all variables considered are significant in long run implying that these variables are the determinants of inflation in Nepal. However, only budget deficit, money supply and Indian prices cause inflation in the short run. The results are consistent with monetarists’ hypothesis of money matters and inflationary gap theory of Keynesian as well as supply constraints approach to inflation.
RF TESTS OF THE BETA=0.5 FIVE CELL TRASCO CAVITIES

Two complete 5 cell superconducting cavities at β=0.5 have been fabricated in the TRASCO INFN program. The cavities have been designed to minimize peak electric and magnetic fields, with a goal of 8.5 MV/m of accelerating gradient, at a Q > 5 10 9 . The cavities have been tested in vertical cryostats at TJNAF and Saclay and the results are summarized here.
Efficacy of the informal confidential voting interview in enhancing self-disclosure and reducing social desirability bias : a comparative analysis with the SAQ and FTFI.

Background and Objectives Self-report data is known to be unreliable and susceptible to factors such as social desirability bias. Methods used for collecting self-report data has thus far been unsuccessful in ameliorating known obstacles to honest self-disclosure. Considering the current HIV/AIDS pandemic and related health crises, it is imperative that self-report data is an accurate depiction of reality, since it informs research requirements and designs as well as intervention designs and the evaluation of the efficacy of the interventions. Aim To evaluate and compare the efficacy of the Informal Confidential Voting Interview (ICVI) to the FTFI (Face-to-Face Interview) and the SAQ (Self-Administered Questionnaire) in enhancing selfdisclosure and minimizing social desirability bias on sensitive topics of sexual experience and sexual activity. Study Design A sample of 110 undergraduate and post-graduate students at various tertiary education institutions in Pietermaritzburg were randomly allocated to the ICVI, the SAQ or the FTFI. The ICVI combined a face-to-face interview with a voting box method devised to enhance response anonymity. The FTFI and the SAQ were administered according to a standardized procedure to maximize confidentiality and self-disclosure. Results The self-disclosure scores were significantly higher for the ICVI in comparison to the FTFI and the SAQ, with a p = 0.005. Post-hoc tests revealed that the ICVI performed significantly better in selfdisclosure scores than the FTFI with p = 0.022 and the SAQ with p = 0.015. There was no significant difference in self-disclosure scores between the SAQ and the FTFI. Using the Marlowe-Crowne scale of social desirability bias, a significant difference in social desirability bias scores were achieved with p = 0.043. However, the post-hoc analysis indicated no affirmative significant mean difference in social desirability score among any of the methods. Males displayed greater self-disclosure than females with p = 0.013, but for both sexes the ICVI group achieved the highest mean self-disclosure scores than the FTFIand the SAQ group. Conclusion The results of this study concluded that the employment of ICVI fundamentally resulted in better quality data than the SAQ and the FTFI on topics of sensitivity and controversial behaviours. The findings are suggestive of the successful implementation of the ICVI method across potentially diverse research contexts that rely on self-report data, as the method is adaptable to the target population and its characteristics. Further research is warranted to build on its current design and facilitate the implementation of the ICVI across the wide disciplines of self-report data.
Further work on the Kitaigorodskii roughness length mode : a new derivation using Lettau's expression on steep waves

A model for the roughness of the sea surface is derived by a combination of two ideas: a) Kitaigorodskii's (1973) about wavelets being roughness elements that move with their associated phase speed; b) Lettau's (1969) about the roughness of a field of roughness elements with characteristic dimensions. The resulting sea surface roughness is related to a wave spectrum consisting of a Kitaigorodskii (1983) inertial form and a Phillips (1958) saturation form. The variation of roughness with wave age is discussed and related to the corresponding variation of the Phillips constant B.
Water-soluble chitosan nanoparticles inhibit hypercholesterolemia induced by feeding a high-fat diet in male sprague-dawley rats

Chitosan, a deacetylated product of chitin, has been demonstrated to lower cholesterol in humans and animals. However, chitosan is not fully soluble in water which would influence absorption in the human intestine. In addition, water-soluble chitosan (WSC) has higher reactivity compared to chitosan. The present study was designed to clarify the effects of WSC and water-soluble chitosan nanoparticles (WSC-NPs) on hypercholesterolemia induced by feeding a high-fat diet in male Sprague-Dawley rats. WSC-NPs were prepared by the ionic gelation method and the spray-drying technique. The nanoparticles were spherical in shape and had a smooth surface. The mean size of WSC-NPs was 650 nm variing from 500 to 800 nm. Results showed that WSC-NPs reduced the blood lipids and plasma viscosity significantly and increased the serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities significantly. This paper is the first report of the lipid-lowering effects of WSC-NPs suggesting that the WSC-NPs could be used for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia.
Spirulina platensis (Arthrospira spp.): A Potential Novel Feed Source For Pasture-Based Dairy Cows

The Australian dairy industry is heavily reliant on pasture as the main feed base for milk production. However, dietary energy intake is limited in pasture-based dairy systems and lactating cows tend to suffer from negative energy balance due to insufficient dry matter intake. As a result, low milk production and reproduction performances occur later on in the cow’s life-cycle. Spirulina is a highly nutritious feed source rich in proteins, lipids, minerals and vitamins, thus meeting the criteria as a potential and novel alternative feed source for the dairy industry. To our current knowledge, experimental and anecdotal information on the productive response of pasture-based dairy cows to the inclusion of Spirulina to lactating diets is lacking and warrants further elucidation. There is the need to understand the influence of Spirulina inclusion in a lactating cow’s diet on lactation and Live-weight parameters. This paper reviews the past and present research results on the effect of supplementation with Spirulina on animal production outcomes, summarises identified knowledge gaps and highlights future directions for research in the dairy industry.
Preliminary evaluation of the mathUP curriculum

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the novel math curriculum, mathUP, on math development for pupils receiving this instruction. Two Rhode Island schools participated: a charter school that had implemented mathUP and a suburban control school located in a higher socioeconomic (SES) community. Kindergarten students (n=41) were assessed on the following measures: two for early numeracy skills, one for visuospatial working memory (WM), and one for math achievement. Fifth-grade students (n=73) were administered a standardized measure of math achievement and an experimenter-generated math test. In addition, kindergarten and fifth-grade teachers in each school completed a brief questionnaire about their math instruction practices. Teacher reports revealed that the mathUP curriculum incorporated many research-based characteristics associated with improved math achievement. Findings also showed that early numeracy skills and visuospatial WM are important for kindergarten math achievement. In contrast to known academic achievement gaps between students from low and high SES circumstances, there were no significant differences between the kindergarten students on early numeracy skills, visuospatial WM, and math achievement. Additionally, fifth-grade students demonstrated comparable math achievement and performance on the math test. Overall, these results provide preliminary evidence that mathUP is an effective math curriculum with many evidence-based characteristics that may offset disadvantages usually associated with lower SES circumstances.
The use of lead isotope composition as a tool to investigate the anthropogenic impacts on the environment in the metropolitan region of Belém (PA)

The lead isotope composition of sediment and soil samples was used to investigate the anthropogenic impacts on the environment in the metropolitan region of Belem (MRB), state of Para, Brazil. The sampling program was conducted in three different areas, including a sediment core in the city water reservoir, with indications of anthropogenic contribution of heavy metals to the environment. The 206 Pb/ 207 Pb ratio of the samples ranged between 1.20 to values lower than 1.16. The highest ratio values were related to bedrock erosion while the lowest values were associated with human induced lead in the environment due to industrial activities and/or urban occupation. As the geogenic and anthropogenic lead isotope composition of the studied sediments and soils samples are quite different, the lead isotopic ratios can be used to investigate anthropogenic impacts on the environment in the MRB. As the changes in the isotopic ratios were more evident than changes in the lead concentration, it is suggested that the use of the lead isotope composition may be more effective for monitoring the anthropogenic heavy metal input to the environment.
Radial Toeplitz Operators on the Unit Ball and Slowly Oscillating Sequences

In the paper we deal with Toeplitz operators acting on the Bergman space A(B) of square integrable analytic functions on the unit ball B in C. A bounded linear operator acting on the space A(B) is called radial if it commutes with unitary changes of variables. Zhou, Chen, and Dong [9] showed that every radial operator S is diagonal with respect to the standard orthonormal monomial basis (eα)α∈Nn . Extending their result we prove that the corresponding eigenvalues depend only on the length of multi-index α, i.e. there exists a bounded sequence (λk) ∞ k=0 of complex numbers such that Seα = λ|α|eα. Toeplitz operator is known to be radial if and only if its generating symbol g is a radial function, i.e., there exists a function a, defined on [0, 1], such that g(z) = a(|z|) for almost all z ∈ B. In this case Tgeα = γn,a(|α|)eα, where the eigenvalue sequence ( γn,a(k) )∞ k=0 is given by γn,a(k) = 2(k + n) ∫ 1 0 a(r) r2k+2n−1 dr = (k + n) ∫ 1 0 a( √ r) rk+n−1 dr. Denote by Γn the set {γn,a : a ∈ L∞([0, 1])}. By a result of Suarez [8], the C∗algebra generated by Γ1 coincides with the closure of Γ1 in ` ∞ and is equal to the closure of d1 in ` ∞, where d1 consists of all bounded sequences x = (xk) ∞ k=0 such that sup k≥0 ( (k + 1) |xk+1 − xk| ) < +∞. We show that the C∗-algebra generated by Γn does not actually depend on n, and coincides with the set of all bounded sequences (xk) ∞ k=0 that are slowly oscillating in the following sense: |xj − xk| tends to 0 uniformly as j+1 k+1 → 1 or, in other words, the function x : {0, 1, 2, . } → C is uniformly continuous with respect to the distance ρ(j, k) = | ln(j + 1) − ln(k + 1)|. At the same time we give an example of a complex-valued function a ∈ L([0, 1], r dr) such that its eigenvalue sequence γn,a is bounded but is not slowly oscillating in the indicated sense. This, in particular, implies that a bounded Toeplitz operator having unbounded defining symbol does not necessarily belong to the C∗-algebra generated by Toeplitz operators with bounded defining symbols. AMS (MOS) subject classification: Primary 47B35; Secondary 32A36, 44A60.
THE 18 ㎛ LUMINOSITY FUNCTION OF GALAXIES WITH AKARI

We present the 18 ㎛ luminosity function (LF) of galaxies at 0.006 < z < 0.8 (the average redshift is~0.04) using the AKARI mid-infrared All-Sky Survey catalogue. We have selected 243 galaxies at 18 ㎛ from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic region. These galaxies then have been classified into five types; Seyfert 1 galaxies (Sy1, including quasars), Seyfert 2 galaxies (Sy2), low ionization narrow emission line galaxies (LINER), galaxies that are likely to contain both star formation and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) activities (composites), and star forming galaxies (SF) using optical emission lines such as the line width of Hα or the emission line ratios of [OIII]/Hβ and [NII]/Hα. As a result of constructing the LF of Sy1 and Sy2, we found the following results; (i) the number density ratio of Sy2 to Sy1 is 1.64 ± 0.37, larger than the results obtained from optical LF and (ii) the fraction of Sy2 in the entire AGN population may decrease with 18 ㎛ luminosity. These results suggest that most of the AGNs in the local universe are obscured by dust and the torus structure probably depends on the mid-infrared luminosity.
The L1 Context Embedding Method in Foreign Language Vocabulary Instruction: A Comparative Study with the Keyword Method

The L1 Context Embedding Method that has been proposed and tested by Zi-Gang (2015), consists of inserting target L2 vocabulary, with translations in brackets, into an L1 story text. It has been demonstrated by Zi-Gang (2015) to be more effective than rote memorization. This current study tested the L1 Context Embedding Method against the Keyword Method (Atkinson, 1975) to see if the two methods are comparable. Sixteen university students from an Elementary Spanish class were taught 10 novel Spanish words using each method in a counterbalanced presentation order. They were administered an immediate posttest for each set of 10 words according to each method, then a combined delayed posttest a week later. The test scores showed that the two methods are comparable, since outside factors affected the scores more than the methods themselves. The results also indicated that the L1 Context Embedding Method was slightly more effective in the immediate posttest, but the Keyword Method was moderately more effective in the delayed posttest.
Impoliteness in English as a Foreign Language Complaints: Exploring Its Intentions and Motivating Factors.

The study investigated intentions and motivating factors of using impoliteness in interlanguage complaints by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Empirical data were elicited by means of oral discourse completion tasks and questionnaires from 42 Indonesian learners of English. Post-structured interviews were conducted to obtain the intentions and reasons of deploying impoliteness in the complaints. The results reveal that impoliteness is triggered by three general motivating factors; speaker-related factors, target person-related factors, and contextual factors. A number of intentions of deploying impoliteness are found, and they suggest that impoliteness is a mean to an end rather than an end itself.
Factors Affecting Treatment Outcome of Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumor: A Retrospective Study

Canine transmissible venereal tumor (TVT) is a contagious neoplastic disease commonly seen in tropical and subtropical areas in the countries where the control of stray dog population is poor. This study aimed to summarize the current disease status and evaluate factors affecting treatment outcome to vincristine sulfate, which is the chemotherapeutic drug of choice. Studied factors were divided into three categories; general background (i.e. age, gender, breed), specific descriptions (i.e. tumor diameter, tumor site, season of the year), and treatment details (number of vincristine shots, meteorological parameters). One hundred and fifty-seven medical records were included with 100 achieved complete treatments and enrolled in the investigation of treatment outcome. Treatment outcome was classified as complete remission (CR) and partial remission (PR) at the eighth week of treatment. Moreover, the corresponding factors affecting number of vincristine shot to commit CR were evaluated. The age, gender and breed had no effect on treatment outcome or number of vincristine shots. The tumors at the genital area were prone to be recovered (CR) than the others (P = 0.08). The tumors with diameter >6 cm required higher number of vincristine shots than that of diameter <2 cm (P = 0.05). Moreover, there was a tendency that CR was observed with lower mean temperature at 60 days after enrolled (Temp60) and lower maximal temperature (MaxTemp60) than the PR cases (P = 0.08 and P = 0.07, respectively). These results may contribute to the prognosis of the treatment with vincristine sulfate particularly when the treatment is influenced by tumor site, tumor size, and climate.
Characterization of the spawning area of tuna species on the northern Tunisian coasts

Early life stages of tuna species were investigated along the northern coasts of Tunisia in the summer of 2010, from 7 to 14 July. A total of 74 stations, distributed on a regular grid, were sampled. Larvae of five tuna species were identified: the Atlantic bluefin tuna, the bullet tuna, the Atlantic black skipjack, the Atlantic bonito and the albacore tuna. Larval distribution patterns show that Atlantic bluefin tuna and albacore tuna usually spawn in offshore oligotrophic waters and Atlantic black skipjack larvae on the continental shelf. The widespread distribution of bullet tuna larvae, suggests that it spawns on the entire continental shelf and over the shelf break. The results from the quotient analysis carried out to characterize the spawning habitat of each species, show that the input of recent surface Atlantic water (AW) masses play a key role in the spawning strategy of tuna species, particularly in the case of the Atlantic bluefin tuna, whose larvae were mainly caught in the mixed waters resulting from the interaction between recent AW and resident AW, as demonstrated by their preference for salinity values between 36.9 and 37.4.
Literature review on total rewards: An international perspective

The objective of this research endeavour is to design an expatriate reward strategy for the employees based in China, as they are the blend of UK/European offshore nationals and Chinese locals. It aims to identify the likelihood of “total rewards” for a diverse workforce. Companies have to draw a compensation strategy in order to attract, retain and motivate expatriates considering the existing concept of total rewards because the firms primarily does not have any sort of “fit” compensation strategy. While reviewing the literature, it is revealed that the idea of total reward is nothing but the amalgamation of conventional ‘compensations and benefits’ and it leave a qualm on part of its lucidity. Even the concept of total reward does not seem to differentiate it from merely the reward system, as the same benefits in shape of “reward mix” blending all sorts of rewards together in order to disengage the flexibility of the workforce. To support the concept (total reward) different modules, strategies and models are presented which are not only questionable but invite the further research in this area. Key words: Rewards, compensation systems, performance appraisal, culture, China.
GENOMIC ANALYSIS BY PULSED-FIELD GEL ELECTROPHORESIS OF ERWINIA AMYLOVORA STRAINS FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION INCLUDING ITALY

Erwinia amylovora strains from the Mediterranean region including Italy, and from eastern Europe were assayed for their PFGE patterns after an XbaI digest of the genomic DNA. The strains from eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region were placed into the same group (Pt2), although a strain from Bulgaria and two strains from Israel carried an RFLP-pattern which distinguished them from the other strains in that regions. Strains from Austria and Czechia belonged to the central European type (Pt1), whereas strains from Italy could be divided into three groups, i.e. with patterns observed before for strains from northern France (Pt3), the Mediterranean region (Pt2), and central Europe (Pt1). Grouping of E. amylovora strains from northeastern Italy to strains from northern France was confirmed by PFGE analysis after SpeI digests. With an increasing number of E. amylovora strains isolated in the Mediterranean region, their differentiation by PFGE could possibly give clues about the distribution of fire-blight in the surrounding European countries.