Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Educational Reforms and Implementation of Student-Centered Active Learning in Science at Secondary and University Levels in Qatar.

The Qatari government has made significant changes in the organization and staffing of schools over the past decade in an effort to improve the academic performance of school-aged citizens. Of interest is the need to encourage teachers to move from a didactic teacher-led mode of instruction to one that is more student-centred, but also teacher-guided, which encourages the development of critical thinking, problem solving, inquiry, and investigative skills. In this article, we discuss past and current educational changes and developments in Qatar with an emphasis on an initiative in chemistry that explored the utility and cultural transferability of student inquiry learning approaches to improve student conceptual understanding as well as their attitudes and self-efficacy. Based on the current activities described in this article, we argue that the developments and commitment to educational reform in Qatar can act as a guide for other nations that wish to move from a didactic teaching to a more student-centred approach.
Being Open Minded Without Knowing Why: Evidence from Nonconscious Goal Pursuit

Goal pursuit is a process that takes us from a certain state in the present towards a desired state in the future. Goal pursuits, then, are likely to require adaptation to changing circumstances and environments. The current paper reviews recent advances in the study of nonconscious goal pursuit. It argues that given the importance of adaptation, nonconscious goal pursuit ought to be much more flexible than previously thought. Two mechanisms that allow such flexibility are implicit learning and executive processes, and evidence for their involvement in nonconscious goal pursuit is reviewed. Two new studies that examine how nonconscious goal pursuit increases and decreases open mindedness, a form of flexibility, are described. Every parent to a young child must know how it feels when he tries to walk home from the car (or brush his teeth, or do shopping, or cook), yet the child simply won’t let him. First there is this smashed snail on the floor that the child must pick up and closely examine, then the climbable fence that simply has to be climbed, the neighbor’s dog, the neighbor himself, the autumn leafs and . and the list seems simply endless. In moments like this you often realize how goal directed is your behavior: You want to get home not in an hour, not in half an hour, and not even in ten minutes. The fact that your goal is not shared by your child—who introduces obstacle after an obstacle—makes the goal loom larger in consciousness: HOME. NOW. This fine-tuned awareness is less likely to occur on a childless day in which you quietly lock your car and silently stroll home. In other words, under the latter, more “normal” circumstances, goal pursuit is likely to be largely nonconscious. This paper reviews recent developments in the study of the mechanisms that underlie nonconscious goal pursuit, and it presents two new studies that examine them. We begin by describing the prevalent views, which hold that nonconscious goal pursuit is based on spreading of activation in pre-established networks of mental associations. We then argue that while using these networks may often be advantageous, it is also costly: They tie us to past experiences, and hence stand in
Thai and American Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes toward Older Adults

THAI AND AMERICAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD OLDER ADULTS by Apinya Sapsawangwong Several studies have revealed that European and American students hold less negative attitudes toward older adults than do Eastern and Southeast Asian students despite the tradition of filial piety in Asian countries. This study examined Thai and American undergraduate students’ negative and positive attitudes toward older adults and identified the sociodemographic variables associated with these attitudes. A questionnaire consisting of the Fraboni Scale of Ageism, the Allophilia Scale, and sociodemographic characteristics was administrated to undergraduate students from one public university in Thailand (n=164) and one in the US (n=171). Thai students had more negative and less positive attitudes toward older adults than their American counterparts. Having experience with older adults was associated with positive attitudes in both countries. Health-related students had the highest positive attitudes scores compared to students with other majors. Asian and Western researchers should collaborate and develop culturallysensitive scales to measure students’ attitudes toward older adults. THAI AND AMERICAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD OLDER ADULTS
Noise-Source Modelling for Robust Speaker Verification in Adverse Environments

(MMSE), a closed form solution for the spectral magnitude estimation task is derived. The estimated spectral magnitude is finally incorporated in the MFCC framework. A comparative study of the proposed technique in a variety of real-world noise types demonstrates a significant performance gain compared to the baseline speech features, and to spectral subtraction enhancement method.
ATTENTION AND LANGUAGE IN FRAGILE

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a well-recognized cause of mental retardation and developmental delay in males. Alongside the well-documented clinical characteristics of the condition, recent advances in technology and methodology have begun to define FXS at a number of different levels: genetic, brain structure and function, cognition, and behavior. This article suggests that the FXS phenotype is not merely a juxtaposition of spared and impaired functions but rather may be characterized by an inhibitory control deficit that interferes with the individual’s ability to modulate output causing perseverative responding across various skill areas. It is further suggested that an inability to modulate arousal may be at least one cause for the inhibitory control deficit that typifies the FXS phenotype. The approach to understanding atypical development outlined here holds exciting promise for future research in FXS and other developmental disorders. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. MRDD Research Reviews 2004;10:11–16.
CFS Working Paper No . 2008 / 52 The Diminishing Liquidity Premium *

Previous evidence suggests that less liquid stocks entail higher average returns. Using NYSE data, we present evidence that both the sensitivity of returns to liquidity and liquidity premia have significantly declined over the past four decades to levels that we cannot statistically distinguish from zero. Furthermore, the profitability of trading strategies based on buying illiquid stocks and selling illiquid stocks has declined over the past four decades, rendering such strategies virtually unprofitable. Our results are robust to several conventional liquidity measures related to volume. When using liquidity measure that is not related to volume, we find just weak evidence of a liquidity premium even in the early periods of our sample. The gradual introduction and proliferation of index funds and exchange traded funds is a possible explanation for these results. JEL Classification: G12, G14
The Hidden Costs of Downsizing

We analyze whether a principal s decision to layoff an agent affects the performance of the surviving agents. To study the impact of the decision in isolation, we conducted an experimental principal-agent game. We find that agents reduce their performance by 37% as a response to the decision. Heterogeneity in principals decisions can largely be explained by different beliefs about how agents react to layoffs.
Intensidade de jogos de futebol de uma competição real e entre jogadores de diferentes posições táticas. DOI: 10.5007/1980-0037.2011v13n5p341

Most investigations on soccer match intensity have evaluated friendly, simulated or a small number of games on a recreational basis or including a small number of players. There are no studies investigating real competitive situations including a considerable number of athletes and games or differences among player positions using heart rate as an intensity parameter. The aim of this study was to determine Brazilian soccer game intensity (GI) during official competitive matches and to compare GI among different player positions. Heart rate (HR) was measured in 26 under-17 (U-17) and 18 under-20 (U-20) soccer players (age 16.38 ± 0.5 and 18.24 ± 0.66 years, respectively) during 14 and 15 official games, respectively. Individual maximal heart rate (HRmax) and anaerobic threshold (AT) HR were evaluated in field tests. GI defined as %HRmax was monitored considering five intensity zones ranging from 1 = < 70% HRmax to 5 = 95-100% HRmax. Mean GI and AT intensity were 84.4 ± 5.1 and 86.3 ± 4.0% HRmax for the U-17 category and 84.1 ± 4.1 and 87.0 ± 5.1% HRmax for the U-20 category, respectively. Wingbacks (WB) spent more time in zone 5 than forwards (FW) (p<0.05). Midfielders (MF) spent more time in zone 3 than all other players and in zone 4 than defenders and FW (p<0.05). Mean GI and AT intensity were similar. WB performed more maximum effort than FW. MF did not participate as much in maximum effort as did WB and FW.
Simple measurement of surface free energy using a web cam

In this paper we describe a simple and pedagogical experiment to measure surface free energy (SFE), which is a mainstream subject to teach undergraduate and graduate level Physics science. Beyond this, the advantage of this work relies on the simplicity of the materials used, namely non-harmful and low cost products such as water, glycerol, ethylene glycol and propanol, offering a useful pedagogical opportunity to discuss basic but relevant concepts regarding surface science phenomena. As example, contact angle measurements were used to estimate SFE and the wetting behavior of distinct solid surfaces such as glass and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Teflon®).
TITLE : When proactivity fails : An electrophysiological study of establishing reference in schizophrenia SHORT TITLE : Referential processing in schizophrenia

word count: 250 Word count: 3,906 Tables: 2 Figures: 4 Supplementary materials: 1 Kuperberg GR, Ditman, S, Choi Perrachione, A. (In Press). When proactivity fails: An electrophysiological study of establishing reference in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 2 KUPERBERG Abstract Background: Schizophrenia is characterized by abnormalities in referential communication, which may be linked to more general deficits in proactive cognitive control. We used eventrelated potentials (ERPs) to probe the timing and nature of the neural mechanisms engaged as people with schizophrenia linked pronouns to their preceding referents during word-by-word sentence comprehension. Methods: We measured ERPs to pronouns in two-clause sentences from 16 people with schizophrenia and 20 demographically-matched control participants. Our design crossed the number of potential referents (1-referent, 2-referent) with whether the pronoun matched the gender of its preceding referent(s) (matching, mismatching). This gave rise to four conditions: (1) 1-referent matching (“.Edward took courses in accounting but he.”), (2) 2-referent matching (“.Edward and Phillip took courses but he.”), (3) 1-referent mismatching (“.Edward took courses in accounting but she.”), and (4) 2-referent mismatching (“.Edward and Phillip took courses but she.”). Results: Consistent with previous findings, healthy controls produced a larger left anteriorlydistributed negativity between 400-600ms to 2-referent matching than to 1-referent matching pronouns (the “Nref effect”). In contrast, people with schizophrenia produced a larger centroposterior positivity effect between 600-800ms. Both patient and control groups produced a larger positivity between 400-800ms to mismatching than to matching pronouns. Conclusions: These findings suggest that proactive mechanisms of referential processing, reflected by the Nref effect, are impaired in schizophrenia, while reactive mechanisms, reflected by the positivity effects, are relatively spared. Indeed, patients may compensate for proactive Kuperberg GR, Ditman, S, Choi Perrachione, A. (In Press). When proactivity fails: An electrophysiological study of establishing reference in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 3 KUPERBERG deficits by retro-actively engaging with context to influence the processing of inputs at a later stage of analysis. Kuperberg GR, Ditman, S, Choi Perrachione, A. (In Press). When proactivity fails: An electrophysiological study of establishing reference in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging
Level of Belief in Afterlife and Four Categories of Fear of Death in a Sample of 60+-Year-Olds

Studies investigating a correlation between fear of death and belief in afterlife have reported equivocal results (Martin & Wrightsman, 1964; Lester, 1967). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between a non-religious belief in afterlife measure and four categories of fear of death in a sample of 60+ year olds. Subjects were contacted through senior centers, social service agencies, and private contact. The sample included 30 females and 10 males, ranging in age from 60 to 82 yr. (M.,. = 67.5) and coming from a middle to upp-r socioeconomic level. Subjects completed the Belief in Afterlife Scale (Osarchuk & Tatz, 1973) and the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale (Collett & Lester, 1969), which consists of four subscales: Fear of Death of Self, Fear of Death of Others, Fear of Dying of Self, and Fear of Dying of Others. Product-moment correlations were computed between scores on the Belief in Afterlife Scale and each of the four subscales of the Collect-Lester Fear of Death Scale. No significant correlation was found between level of belief in afterlife and Fear of Death of Self (r = -.08), Fear of Dying of Self (r = .15), or Fear of Dying of Others (r = .05). A significant positive correlation was found between level of belief in afterlife and Fear of Death of Others (r = .44, p < .01). The Fear of Death of Others, of all of the four subscales of the Collett-Lester scale, represents the most concrete manifestation of death. An individual cannot actually experience his or her own death but can experience the loss of another. The older mcmbers of our society, the group sampled here, experience proportionately more deaths of others than do younger age groups. To interpret from the results of this study that the more an individual fears the loss of others the more likely that person is to formulate a higher level of belief in life after death would lend support to Feifel's (1959) belief thar many individuals who strongly fear death may resort to religious values to cope with this fear. This interpretation could gain support from the study by Osarchuk and Tatz (1973), in which viewing a death-threat movie apparently affected one group of subjects such that they elevated their reported Belief in Afterlife Scale scores significantly. The death of another (especially a significant other) can be considered as a personal "death-threat" to an individual. Replications using larger samples and diverse age groups would help clarify these results.
A MULTIWAVELENGTH STUDY ON THE FATE OF IONIZING RADIATION IN LOCAL STARBURSTS

The fate of ionizing radiation is vital for understanding cosmic ionization, energy budgets in the interstellar and intergalactic medium, and star formation rate indicators. The low observed escape fractions of ionizing radiation have not been adequately explained, and there is evidence that some starbursts have high escape fractions. We examine the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of a sample of local star-forming galaxies, containing 13 local starburst galaxies and 10 of their ordinary star-forming counterparts, to determine if there exist significant differences in the fate of ionizing radiation in these galaxies. We find that the galaxy-to-galaxy variations in the SEDs are much larger than any systematic differences between starbursts and non-starbursts. For example, we find no significant differences in the total absorption of ionizing radiation by dust, traced by the 24 μm, 70 μm, and 160 μm MIPS bands of the Spitzer Space Telescope, although the dust in starburst galaxies appears to be hotter than that of non-starburst galaxies. We also observe no excess ultraviolet flux in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer bands that could indicate a high escape fraction of ionizing photons in starburst galaxies. The small Hα fractions of the diffuse, warm ionized medium (WIM) in starburst galaxies are apparently due to temporarily boosted Hα luminosity within the star-forming regions themselves, with an independent, constant WIM luminosity. This independence of the WIM and starburst luminosities contrasts with WIM behavior in non-starburst galaxies and underscores our poor understanding of radiation transfer in both ordinary and starburst galaxies.
Energetic adjustments in freely breeding-fasting king penguins: does colony density matter?

1. For seabirds that forage at sea but breed while fasting on land, successful reproduction depends on the effective management of energy stores. Additionally, breeding often means aggregating in dense colonies where social stress may affect energy budgets. 2. Male king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) fast for remarkably long periods (up to 1 center dot 5months) while courting and incubating ashore. Although their fasting capacities have been well investigated in captivity, we still know very little about the energetics of freely breeding birds. 3. We monitored heart rate (HR, a proxy to energy expenditure), body temperature and physical activity of male king penguins during their courtship and first incubation shift in a colony of some 24000 freely breeding pairs. Males were breeding either under low but increasing colony density (early breeders) or at high and stable density (late breeders). 4. In early breeders, daily mean and resting HR decreased during courtship but increased again 3days before egg laying and during incubation. In late breeders, HR remained stable throughout this same breeding period. Interestingly, the daily increase in resting HR we observed in early breeders was strongly associated with a marked increase in colony density over time. This finding remained significant even after controlling for climate effects. 5. In both early and late breeders, courtship and incubation were associated with a progressive decrease in physical activity, whereas core body temperature remained unchanged. 6. We discuss the roles of decreased physical activity and thermoregulatory strategies in sustaining the long courtship-incubation fast of male king penguins. We also draw attention to a potential role of conspecific density in affecting the energetics of breeding-fasting seabirds, that is, a potential energy cost to coloniality.
An Investigation of Simulated Core Muscle Activation during Running and its Effect on Knee Loading and Lower Extremity Muscle Activation Using OpenSim

ii Acknowledgments. iv Vita . vi List of Tables . x List of Figures . xiii Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1 Running Activity and Injury Background and Statistics . 1 1.2 Mechanisms of Common Overuse Running Injury. 3 1.3 The Core and its Relation to Running . 7 1.4 OpenSim Capabilities . 9 1.5 Focus of Thesis. 11 1.6 Significance of Research . 12 1.7 Overview of Thesis . 13 Chapter 2: Methods . 14 2.1 Experimental Data Collection . 14
Kaposi ’ s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus ORF 54 / dUTPase downregulates a ligand for the NK 1 activating receptor NKp 44 2

Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus ORF54/dUTPase downregulates a ligand for the NK 1 activating receptor NKp44 2 Alexis Madrid and Don Ganem# 3 4 1 Howard Hughes Medical Institute and GW Hooper Foundation Laboratories 5 University of California, San Francisco CA 94143 6 7 2 Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research 8 Emeryville, CA 94608 9 10 #Corresponding Author 11 Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research 12 Emeryville, CA 94608 13 Phone: 510-923-3400 14 Fax: 510-923-3747 15 Email: don.ganem@novartis.com 16 17 18 Condensed title: KSHV downregulation of NKp44L 19 20 21 22 Copyright © 2012, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.00252-12 JVI Accepts, published online ahead of print on 6 June 2012
Cabin air quality in commercial aircraft : exposure, symptoms and signs.

The objective of the dissertation was to study the cabin environment, and identify personal and environmental risk factors, associated with symptoms, and perception of cabin air quality. Another objective was to study if ban of smoking, and increased relative air humidity on intercontinental flights, could have a beneficial health effect. The studies were performed among Scandinavian cabin crew in one Airline Company. Office workers from the same company served as controls. Exposure differed between cruise and non-cruise conditions. Air humidity was very low during intercontinental flights (3-8 per cent). Concentration of moulds, bacteria, formaldehyde, and ozone was low. Tobacco smoking increased respirable particles in the cabin air, from 3 to 49 microgram per cubic metre, and increased cotinine in urine. The ETS-exposure was highest in the aft part of the cabin. Symptoms and environmental complaints were more common among flight crew than office workers. We could identify personal factors of importance, and certain conditions that could be improved, to achieve a better cabin environment. There was an association between symptoms and environmental perceptions and work stress, lack of influence on working condition, and a history of atopy. After ban on smoking in aircraft, there was a decrease of ocular and general symptoms, and increased tear-film stability in aircrew. Air humidification reduced headache and ocular, nasal, and dermal dryness symptoms, increased tear-film stability, and increased nasal patency. Our result indicates that ETS and low air humidity are important environmental factors in aircraft, and that atopy, and work stress could be significant risk factors for symptoms and environmental perceptions. (A). http://www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocument? urn_nbn_se_uu_diva-3462-1__fulltext. pdf
A Comparative Investigation of South Africa’s High-performing Learners on Selected TIMSS Items Comprising Multiplicative Concepts

South Africa participated in TIMSS from 1995 to 2015. Over these two decades, some positive changes have been reported on the aggregated mathematics performance patterns of South African learners. This paper focuses on the achievement patterns of South Africa’s high-performing Grade 9 learners (n = 3378) in comparison with similar subsamples of learners from Australia (n = 6581) and England (n = 3439) whose education systems are regarded as comparable. The aim of this study is to describe the relative strengths and weaknesses of these learners with reference to a selected subset of the TIMSS-2011 items comprising multiplicative concepts. The focus is on a specific though important content subdomain, the multiplicative conceptual field, which is considered a crucial learning area at this phase of schooling. The percentage correct scores were compared. In addition a Rasch analysis was applied to render both item difficulty and person proficiency on a single scale. In particular, the research outcome shows that this subset of South African Grade 9 students is able to solve routine problems, but lacks proficiency when it comes to application-type or reasoning-type problems. The Australian and English subsets show comparable strengths across all three problem types. We conclude that the factors determining performance include mathematical difficulty. However, where radically different outcomes across the three countries emerge, such differences may be explained by country-specific curricula implementation.