Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Composition, Context, and Endogeneity in School and Teacher Comparisons

Investigations of the effects of schools (or teachers) on student achievement focus on either (1) individual school effects, such as value-added analyses, or (2) school-type effects, such as comparisons of charter and public schools. Controlling for school composition by including student covariates is critical for valid estimation of either kind of school effect. Student covariates often have different effects between schools than within schools. Econometricians typically attribute such differences to a form of endogeneity, specifically, “Level-2 endogeneity,” or the confounding of student covariates with unobserved school characteristics, whereas education researchers primarily interpret the differences as contextual effects or the effects of collective peer attributes on individual student achievement. This article considers both and makes connections between the econometric and education research literatures. We show that the Hausman and Taylor approach from panel data econometrics can be used for valid estimation of individual school or school-type effects when there is only Level-2 endogeneity but can lead to bias when there are also contextual or peer effects. In contrast, contextual effects are typically estimated by including school means of student covariates in addition to the student-level covariates (equivalent to the Mundlak device), but this leads to biased school comparisons in the presence of Level-2 endogeneity. We interpret the estimates from these two competing estimators in terms of the “Type A” and “Type B” school effects defined by Raudenbush and Willms and show that both estimators are preferable to the common group-mean-centering approach.
Popularizing science by the media ? How controversy framing and cultural predispositions affect people ’ s trust in science

In the debate of science communication public illiteracy is often held responsible for the low levels of trust in science these days. Therefore to revitalize the public’s trust in science, education by the media is seen as a crucial factor. In this paper this simplistic idea of science education is problematized as being too focused on an assumed knowledge deficiency of the public and the possibility to solve this by a unilateral process of science communication. This obscures the often ambiguous characteristics of media messages and how such media messages are culturally negotiated by the public. To overcome these shortcomings this study investigates how different scientific debates (controversial/harmonious) affect trust in science and how this effect is moderated by the cultural predispositions ‘science views’, ‘anti-elitism’ and ‘anomia’. In addition it is tested whether and how these interactions could explain the relationship between education (level and field) and trust in science. Testing the assumptions by means of a self-conducted vignette survey experiment it turned out that framing effects exist, though they depend on field of study and science views. Furthermore, none of the cultural variables could explain the relationship between education and trust in science. Though in the end it becomes clear that despite the moderate results science communication is nevertheless more complex than the Science Deficit Model assumes. The vignette experiment appears to be a good way to illustrate this.
Firm turnover, restructuring and labour productivity in transition: the case of Poland

This article explores the impact of turnover and restructuring on labour productivity in the Polish economy over the period 1988 to 1993. Changes in aggregate productivity are decomposed into elements corresponding to productivity growth among survivors, market share growth by survivors and the contributions of entering and exiting firms. The traditional entry and exit effects begin to work as transition to a market economy progresses. However, initial productivity improvements are due to changes in market shares of the existing firms following the break-up of large enterprises. Regression analysis shows that changes in the firm-level productivity are affected by restructuring and a more competitive economic environment.
Quality assessment of input data for emergency department simulation

Emergency Departments (EDs) constitute an important component in a healthcare system. Recently, they are confronted with a substantial growth in demand. Combined with the ever tightening budgets, this has led to the problem of overcrowding in many EDs. Simulation has been widely used in operations management research for analysing and improving patient flow in EDs. The quality of input data is of great importance to build a realistic simulation model. In this paper, data quality problems in healthcare records of emergency departments are identified based on a case study in a Belgian university hospital. The problems are categorised and data quality assessment techniques are developed for each category. A combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics is described to estimate the potential impact of the data quality issues on simulation.
Reproductive performance of a lacertid lizard at the core and the periphery of the species’ range

The range boundaries of organisms are frequently interpreted in terms of a decline in the extent to which the life histories of outer populations are able to adapt to local environmental conditions. To test this hypothesis, we compared the reproductive characteristics of two Iberian populations of the lizard Psammodromus algirus (Linnaeus, 1758). One of them (Lerma) is close to the northern edge of the species’ range, whereas the other one (El Pardo) occupies a typical core habitat 200 km further south. Gravid females were captured in the field and transported to the lab for egg laying. Second clutches were less frequent at Lerma (where clutch size and clutch mass were larger for first than for second clutches) than at El Pardo. The total mass of both clutches combined was similar at both sites. Thus, the higher frequency of second clutches at El Pardo appeared to balance the between-sites difference in energy allocation to the first clutch. Females from Lerma laid more but smaller eggs than those from El Pardo. When incubated at the same temperature, eggs from Lerma hatched sooner even when controlling for between-sites differences in mean egg size. These differences are interpreted in the light of the advantages of early hatching and high fecundity in the northern population, as opposed to large offspring size in the core population. We conclude that the life-history traits studied show enough variation, presumably of an adaptive nature, to cope with environmental challenges at the edge of the species’ range. © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 92, 87–96.
Direct numerical simulations of forced and unforced separation bubbles on an airfoil at incidence

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of laminar separation bubbles on a NACA-0012 airfoil at Rec=5×104 and incidence 5° are presented. Initially volume forcing is introduced in order to promote transition to turbulence. After obtaining sufficient data from this forced case, the explicitly added disturbances are removed and the simulation run further. With no forcing the turbulence is observed to self-sustain, with increased turbulence intensity in the reattachment region. A comparison of the forced and unforced cases shows that the forcing improves the aerodynamic performance whilst requiring little energy input. Classical linear stability analysis is performed upon the time-averaged flow field; however no absolute instability is observed that could explain the presence of self-sustaining turbulence. Finally, a series of simplified DNS are presented that illustrate a three-dimensional absolute instability of the two-dimensional vortex shedding that occurs naturally. Three-dimensional perturbations are amplified in the braid region of developing vortices, and subsequently convected upstream by local regions of reverse flow, within which the upstream velocity magnitude greatly exceeds that of the time-average. The perturbations are convected into the braid region of the next developing vortex, where they are amplified further, hence the cycle repeats with increasing amplitude. The fact that this transition process is independent of upstream disturbances has implications for modelling separation bubbles.
Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis of (15-60 Years) of Far-Western Region of Nepal

Background: Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is tuberculosis that does not respond to Isoniazid and Rifampicin and remains one of the major public health concerns in the South-East Asia Region of World Health Organization.Methodology: A descriptive analytical design with an unmatched case-control study was conducted in Kailali district of Far-Western Nepal among purposively selected 50 cases and 50 controls.Results: Service, business, migrant labor and house wife were found three times more at risk of having MDR-TB than those who were involved in agriculture (OR 3.38; 95% CI 1.12-10.22). People who live in hill/mountain were also found three times more at risk than those who lives in Terai (OR 3.75; 95% CI 1.19-11.86). Similarly, people who had pulmonary tuberculosis were found eleven times more likely to have MDR-TB than those who had extrapulmonary tuberculosis (OR 11.39; 95% CI 1.10 to-117.3). Conclusion: The study revealed that there was significant association between occupation, place of residence, type of tuberculosis and MDR-TB.
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION, SENSORY QUALITY AND ACCEPTABILITY OF CREAM CHEESE FROM PURE BUFFALO’S MILK ADDED WITH MALUNGGAY (Moringa oleifera L.) LEAF POWDER

The addition of malunggay leaf powder (MLP) in cream cheese produced from pure buffalo’s milk was investigated to compare the nutritive value, sensory quality and consumer acceptability and determine the optimum level of inclusion of MLP. The cream cheese was produced from pure buffalo’s milk and was mixed with 0% MLP (T1), 0.5% MLP (T2), 1% MLP (T3) and 1.5% MLP (T4). Moisture, fat, protein and calorie content of the cream cheese did not differ significantly among treatments while crude fiber content increased significantly with the addition of MLP. The sensory characteristics of pure cream cheese were significantly higher than those with added MLP. The inclusion levels of MLP had significant negative quadratic relationship with the color and general acceptability of the cheese. Texture, aroma, flavor and aftertaste had significant negative linear relations with the levels of MLP. Consumer acceptability of cream cheese with 0.5, 1 and 1.5% MLP was lower than 0% MLP. This indicates that malunggay leaf powder cannot be added to cream cheese from buffalo’s milk at the levels used in the study. Inclusion rate for malunggay powder lower than 0.5% should be considered in the production of cream cheese. Keywords: buffalo’s milk, cream cheese, malunggay, sensory quality
Can a single dose of biochar affect selected soil physical and chemical characteristics?

Abstract During the last decade, biochar has captured the attention of agriculturalists worldwide due to its positive effect on the environment. To verify the biochar effects on organic carbon content, soil sorption, and soil physical properties under the mild climate of Central Europe, we established a field experiment. This was carried out on a silty loam Haplic Luvisol at the Malanta experimental site of the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra with five treatments: Control (biochar 0 t ha−1, nitrogen 0 kg ha−1); B10 (biochar 10 t ha−1, nitrogen 0 kg ha−1); B20 (biochar 20 t ha−1, nitrogen 0 kg ha−1); B10+N (biochar 10 t ha−1, nitrogen 160 kg ha−1) and B20+N (biochar 20 t ha−1, nitrogen 160 kg ha−1). Applied biochar increased total and available soil water content in all fertilized treatments. Based on the results from the spring soil sampling (porosity and water retention curves), we found a statistically significant increase in the soil water content for all fertilized treatments. Furthermore, biochar (with or without N fertilization) significantly decreased hydrolytic acidity and increased total organic carbon. After biochar amendment, the soil sorption complex became fully saturated mainly by the basic cations. Statistically significant linear relationships were observed between the porosity and (A) sum of base cations, (B) cation exchange capacity, (C) base saturation.
Customized and Value-added High Quality Alfalfa Products: A New Concept

This article presents a comprehensive summary of research performed in the area of postharvest fractionation and processing of alfalfa crop. The aim was to develop alfalfa products that could cater to diverse demands of the market as well as improve their quality. A novel process of fractionation (separation of leaves and stems) was explored to improve dehydrated and sun-cured alfalfa pellet and cube quality. Fractionation and dehydration of alfalfa was achieved by modifying a small-scale industrial three-pass rotary drum dryer. Fractionated leaves and stems were later combined in different proportions and densified to form pellets and cubes. Various physical characteristics such as density, hardness, durability and colour of pellets and cubes were determined. Regression equations were derived by considering these physical characteristics as dependent variables, while leaf content, grind size (for pellets), chop pre-heat temperature (for cubes), moisture content, applied pressure, die temperature and holding time were the independent variables. Studies were also conducted to determine volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted during industrial drying of alfalfa crops as a function of drying temperature, time and specific plant fractions (leaf, stem or flower).
Effect of carnitine supplementation on growth performance and economics in pigs fed high fat diet

Thirty two weaned piglets were randomly divided into three groups allotted to the three dietary treatments, T1- control ration, T2- control ration plus 5 per cent fat and T3- T2 plus 150 mg/kg carnitine. The total dry matter intake, fortnightly body weight of each individual animal and economics were recorded. There was a significant improvement (P<0.01; and 0.05) observed for pigs under supplemented group (T2 and T3) than that of control group (T1) with regards to all growth parameters studied during growing phase than finisher phase and overall period. The cost of feed per kg weight gain during the overall period was found to be comparable among treatments (T1, T2, and T3). It may be concluded that primary response of pigs to dietary supplements were more during growing stage than finisher and inclusion of 5 % fat would be beneficial for improving growth in weaned LWY piglets.
UTAUT’S performance consistency: Empirical evidence from a library management system

This paper aims to investigate the use of an adapted UTAUT model to explore librarians’ acceptance of Radio-frequency Identification based Library Management System (RFID-LMS) and to determine the performance consistency of UTAUT when applied in a context other than its original intent. Causal relationships between the five identified constructs and their significances are determined using multiple regression method. The results are then compared to the performance of UTAUT as reported in the originating article. The relationship between external variables, attitude and selfefficacy, along with UTAUT constructs and RFID-LMS acceptance were found to be significant. The reliability of the modified UTAUT was found to be consistent with the original UTAUT. These findings have implications on the theoretical foundations of UTAUT and supports the notion of a unified view of examining technology adoption and diffusion.
Submillimeter-wave emission of three Galactic red novae: cool molecular outflows produced by stellar mergers

Red novae are optical transients erupting at luminosities typically higher than those of classical novae. Their outbursts are believed to be caused by stellar mergers. We present millimeter/submillimeter-wave observations with the Atacama Large (sub)Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the Submillimeter Array (SMA) of the three best-known Galactic red novae, V4332 Sgr, V1309 Sco, and V838 Mon. The observations were taken 22, 8, and 14 yr after their respective eruptions and reveal the presence of molecular gas at excitation temperatures of 35–200 K. The gas displays molecular emission in rotational transitions with very broad lines (full width ~400 km s−1). We found emission of CO, SiO, SO, SO2 (in all three red novae), H2S (covered only in V838 Mon), and AlO (present in V4332 Sgr and V1309 Sco). No anomalies were found in the isotopic composition of the molecular material, and the chemical (molecular) compositions of the three red novae appear similar to those of oxygen-rich envelopes of classical evolved stars (RSGs, AGBs, post-AGBs). The minimum masses of the molecular material that was most likely dispersed in the red-nova eruptions are 0.05, 0.01, and 10−4 M⊙ for V838 Mon, V4332 Sgr, and V1309 Sco, respectively. The molecular outflows in V4332 Sgr and V1309 Sco are spatially resolved and appear bipolar. The kinematic distances to V1309 Sco and V4332 Sgr are 2.1 and 4.2 kpc, respectively. The kinetic energy stored in the ejecta of the two older red-nova remnants of V838 Mon and V4332 Sgr is of the order of 1046 erg, similar to values found for some post-AGB (pre-PN) objects whose bipolar ejecta were also formed in a short-duration eruption. Our observations strengthen the link between these post-AGB objects and red novae and support the hypothesis that some of the post-AGB objects were formed in a common-envelope ejection event or its most catastrophic outcome, a merger.
RAPD-based genetic relationships in different Bougainvillea cultivars

The present study deals with authenticating existing knowledge about 21 Bougainvillea cultivars comprising of 9 hybrids and their parents through RAPD analysis. The 19 degenerate primer sets generated 234 bands from which 158 (67.5%) were polymorphic. The UPGMA based dendrogram divided 21 cultivars into two major groups with Jaccard's similarity coefficient ranging from 0.51 to 0.942. Group A had three cultivars namely Trinidad, Formosa and Dr. H. B. Singh in which Dr. H.B. Singh was confirmed as a hybrid of other two cultivars. Group B was sub divided into 8 clusters. The parentages of 7 out of 8 hybirds have been confirmed based on clusters. The study concluded that the RAPD technique is suitable for confirmation of parent-hybrid relationship.
The Key Factors Influencing Internet Finances Services Satisfaction: An Empirical Study in Taiwan

The global innovation of information technology fundamentally reshaped the finance technology and the flourishing development over the past decade. The high coverage of both the internet network and the mobile phone has facilitated Taiwan to become one of the most potential internet finance regions. This study aims to empirically validate the technology acceptance model (TAM 3) for exploring the key factors that influence the internet finance development. SEM was adopted to investigate both the hypothesis and the path coefficient associations among the constructs and their significance. Confirmed factor analysis for the instrument validity and reliability assessment was made. Hierarchy regression was performed to test the moderator effect of experience and voluntariness. This study result found that Taiwan finance customers had high expectations of information security and preferred high technology products with complex functions. The result demonstrated that customer’s Use Behavior was influenced by Perceived of Usefulness, not Perceived of Ease of Use. The moderator effect result in Experience had a positive moderator effect on Objective Usability to Perceived Ease of Use. This research extracted the key factors that influenced the internet finance development in Taiwan for providing both local government and internet finance developing countries guidelines while concurrently developing an internet finance development strategy.
The exotic crab Percnon gibbesi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853) (Decapoda, Grapsidae) in the Central Mediterranean

The grapsid crab Percnon gibbesi (H. Milne Edwards, 1853), not previously recorded in the Mediterranean, has been found by underwater observations in several localities of Linosa, Pelagie Islands, (Italy). This presence increases the list of alien Decapods in the Mediterranean, with a form which can be considered a western migrant.
Bioactive constituents and biochemical composition of the egyptian brown alga Sargassum Subrepandum (Forsk)

During our search program for bioactive compounds from Egyptian marine sources, we isolated a spatane diterpene tetraol (1), fucosterol (2) and linoleic acid (3) from the brown alga Sargassum subrepandum (Forsk) C.Ag. In addition to those compounds, the four hydrocarbons were detected by using GC-MS named heptadecane, 2,6,10,14-tetramethyl-hexadecane, nonadecane and heneicosane. The chemical structure of 1 is assigned here definitely to first time by spectroscopic analyses including mass spectrometry (EI-MS, HR/EIMS), 1D and 2D NMR experiments. Phytochemical study of the unsaponified fraction of the algal extract and analysis by GC-MS confirmed the existence of nine compounds, among them 4,4,7a-trimethyl5,6,7,7a-tetrahydrobenzofuran-2[4H]-one (6). In this article, we report as well the biochemical composition of Sargassum subrepandum (including ash, fibre, lipid, carbohydrate, total protein, and amino acids compositions) together with biological activities of its extract and the isolated compounds using diverse assays. www. relaquim.com
Bounds Estimation for Trade Openness and Government Expenditure Nexus of ASEAN-4 Countries

Southeast Asia countries are encountering several challenges as they are moving towards the globalization and trade liberalization era. Due to that, government intervention is essential in ensuring that the economy is resilience against the severe implications of trade openness. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between trade openness and government expenditure of ASEAN-4 countries using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag [ARDL] bounds testing approach that covers a sample period of annually data from 1974-2006. Empirical results indicate that there is an existence of a significant positive long-run linkage between trade openness and government expenditure of all the ASEAN-4 countries under study. This means that government intervention in an open economy is crucial as to cushion the risks associated with trade liberalization.
Temperature dependence in nanoindentation of a metal substrate by a diamondlike tip

In this investigation, we simulated the nanoindentation of a copper substrate by a diamondlike tip, using molecular dynamics method. A series of simulations according to distinct system temperatures were performed to analyze the temperature dependences of some important physical quantities occurring in the indentation. We found that the maximal normal forces on the tip atoms, both the repulsive and the attractive, the elastic modulus of the indentation system and the network done by the tip during the indentation cycle all decrease with increasing system temperature. By these dependences, we then identified the critical temperature for the transition of plastic flow mechanism in the substrate. The evolution of the crystalline structure in the substrate was analyzed by examining the variation of the structure factor, which measures the perfection of the crystalline structure, during the indentation cycle. An important physical quantity is the difference between the equilibrium absolute values of structure factor before and after the indentation, which can be used to measure the permanent deformation in the substrate produced by the indentation. We found that the difference increases with increasing temperature if the system temperature is below the critical temperature.