Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Structural Invariance of a Model of Washback to Test Takers’ Perceptions and Preparation: The Moderating Role of Institutions

Test washback is held to be complicated and multifaceted in that a host of cultural, social, individual, test, and institutional factors are involved in shaping it. Thus far, the majority of washback studies have had as their focus the role of teachers in test washback or washback to teachers. How educational environments or institutions might function in isolation or in interaction with other factors in shaping washback to the learners and test takers has not received adequate research attention. The current study examined the mediatory role of academic institutions in washback to learners' perceptions of test content and test preparation. To this aim, 86 senior English students from two universities, one a top tier and the other a low tier one, completed two questionnaires: one on test takers' preparation practices including test analysis, test taking skills, drilling target skills, and socio-affective strategies; and the other on test takers' construal of test demands and uses as well as their expectation of success on the test. The data analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling revealed that a washback model based on expectancy-value theory explains a moderate amount of variance in test preparation. Further, for test takers from the low tier university, favorable perceptions of test content were associated with more value placed on test taking. However, Multi-group analysis pointed to group-invariance of the model across the two institutions, indicating a lack of strong evidence for the mediatory role of educational environments in washback to test takers’ perceptions and preparation.
Investigation of chemo-mechanical actuation in polymer gels

The objective of this thesis is to investigate chemically – driven gel actuators and their usefulness to perform mechanical work. The thesis work has mainly concentrated on chitosan as the gel actuator material. Chitosan is a widely used biopolymer that shows a large volume transition through changing pH. The pH induced actuation behaviour of polymer gels makes these materials analogous to a biological muscle. From a mechanics viewpoint, polymers gels are very compliant, unlike more common engineering material such as metals or ceramics or even most polymers. The mechanical work output of an actuation system is determined from a combination of the displacement and force generated. A complication arises with gel actuators since prior work has shown that the application of an external force can change the gel volume transition. Very little information is available regarding the specific effect of an external load on the displacement generated by a gel actuator. The thesis included experiments on a homogeneous solvent swollen rubber as a model system. Actuation of the rubber was effected through solvent exchange. The mechanical actuation was investigated by three different approaches: Linear Elastic, Thermodynamic and Linear Elastic generalized to 3D (finite element model). These models are to account for both the mechanical properties and the actuation behaviour of these materials. Uniaxial mechanical testing has been conducted on natural rubber and chitosan gel in both the fully expanded and fully contracted states, and the material parameters from these mechanical tests were used in the various models. The model and material parameters are then used to predict the rubber/chitosan actuation behaviour under isotonic loading.
The Influence of Good Corporate Governance on Company Value in Jakarta Islamic Index Companies

The goal of this study is to assess the effect of the Board of Commissioner, Independent Commissioner, and Audit Committee to company value. The population in this study was all companies in Jakarta Islamic Index as many as 30 companies. This study is using purposive sampling method, there are 15 companies that listed in Jakarta Islamic Index on 2012-2016 that meets the criteria of the sample. The data analyzed by using multiple regression. The study states that the Board of Commissioner does not have a significant influence on firm value. Independent Commissioner has a significant impact on the corporate value. Audit committee has a significant effect on firm value.
An evaluation of the Worldwide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) using the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) as ground truth

[1] A performance assessment of the Worldwide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) is presented using the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) as ground truth, over unprecedented time and spatial scales. The study spans 3 years, from 5 April 2006 to 31 March 2009, throughout the contiguous United States. The capabilities of the network are shown to improve greatly from the first to the third year of the study, with an overall detection efficiency of cloud‐to‐ground flashes increasing from 3.88% in 2006 −2007 to 10.30% in 2008−2009. The WWLLN cloud‐to‐ground detection efficiency is found to be strongly dependent on peak current and polarity, attaining values larger than 10% (35%) for currents stronger than ±35 kA (−130 kA) and values less than 2% for currents between 0 and −10 kA. The location accuracy is found to have a northward and westward bias, with average location errors of 4.03 km in the north‐south and 4.98 km in the east‐west directions, respectively. The WWLLN is shown to have strong limitations in capturing the diurnal cycle, missing both the timing of the maximum and minimum lightning activity (around 1600 and 0900 LT, respectively), and the amplitude of the cycle as well. It is found that in 3 h intervals, the number of flashes in the WWLLN has some proportionality to the number of flashes in the NLDN, suggesting that the WWLLN has strong potential for meteorological applications. Citation: Abarca, S. F. , K. L. Corbosiero, and T. J. Galarneau Jr. (2010), An evaluation of the Worldwide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) using the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) as ground truth, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D18206,
Venture Capitalists’ Investment Selection Criteria in CEE Countries and Russia

This article deals with findings of a survey in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) and Russian venture capital markets. The main aim of this study is to explore the following issues: Which criteria play an essential role in the selection of business proposals by firms investing venture capital in the CEE and Russian markets? What are the key characteristics of an investment selection process? And, in addition: Who are the investors in these markets? The nature of this study is explorative. It relies on primary data that were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The data were processed by statistical methods reflecting their nature and quantity. Descriptive methods served as basic statistical analyses. The survey results, which provide a number of unique insights into the field, are subsequently compared with findings which were published in similar studies undertaken in well-developed capital markets. This study supports the thesis that, when considering business proposals, above-average attention has been paid to criteria concerning the competitive advantage of the product and its potential to generate high returns. Our survey also confirms conclusions drawn from other studies which identify the size of the market and its growth rate as the most significant criteria characterizing the market. The crucial criterion in the category dedicated to management’s experience in the initial stage of the business life cycle is the management’s familiarity with the target market although investors emphasize its lower significance compared to the product and market characteristics. By publishing empirical data, an important signal regarding up-to-date evaluative criteria and their weight is sent both to prospective venture capitalists and investee companies operating under specific conditions of the CEE countries and Russia.
Is Price Dynamics Homogeneous Across Eurozone Countries

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether price dynamics is homogeneous across the Eurozone countries. Relying on monthly data over the January 1970-July 2011 period, we test for the absolute purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis through the implementation of second-generation panel unit root and cointegration tests. Our results show that price dynamics are heterogeneous depending on both the time period and the considered group of countries. More specifically, while PPP is validated for the core EMU countries, this hypothesis does not hold for Northern peripheral economies. Turning to the Southern countries, PPP is observed only before the launch of the euro.
Geodetic inversion for space–time distribution of fault slip with time-varying smoothing regularization

SUMMARY We have developed a new geodetic inversion method for space–time distribution of fault slip velocity with time-varying smoothing regularization in order to reconstruct accurate time histories of aseismic fault slip transients. We introduce a temporal smoothing regularization on slip and slip velocity through a Bayesian state space approach in which the strength of regularization (temporal smoothness of slip velocity) is controlled by a hyperparameter. The time-varying smoothing regularization is realized by treating the hyperparameter as a time-dependent stochastic variable and adopting a hierarchical Bayesian state space model, in which a prior distribution on the hyperparameter is introduced in addition to a conventional Bayesian state space model. We have tested this inversion method on two synthetic data sets generated by simulated aseismic slip transients. Results show that our method reproduces well both rapid changes of slip velocity and steady-state velocity without significant oversmoothing and undersmoothing, which has been hard to overcome by the conventional Bayesian approach with time-independent smoothing regularization. Application of this method to transient deformation in 2002 caused by a silent earthquake off the Boso peninsula, Japan, also shows similar advantages of this method over the conventional approach.
The effect of parents' physical activity and inactivity on their children's physical activity and sitting

Next to genetic predispositions, performance of physical activity (PA) in children is influenced by a variety of variables including the parents' PA. The aim of this study is to describe associations between PA and sitting in children aged 8-13 and their parents according to sex and to examine whether their participation in organized PA influences a higher level of total PA. The level of performed PA, time spent sitting and their participation in organized PA were examined in 193 children (84 girls and 109 boys) and their parents (183 mothers and 157 fathers) using the Czech version of the IPAQ questionnaire. We have indentified positive associations between parents' physical activities, which are the strongest in the duration of walking (rS = 0.48-0.71; p 0.05) than children whose mothers are without any participation in organized PA. Based on the associations found between physical activity, sitting and participation in organized PA, we can agree with the statement that "more physically active parents are bringing up more physically active children" (it is more apparent in sons). On the other hand "less physically active parents are bringing up less physically active children" (it is more apparent in daughters). Participation in organized PA in children and mothers positively influences higher levels of PA in total, especially of vigorous PA.
Combining Likelihood Information from Independent Investigations

Fisher [1] proposed a simple method to combine p-values from independent investigations without using detailed information of the original data. In recent years, likelihood-based asymptotic methods have been developed to produce highly accurate p-values. These likelihood-based methods generally required the likelihood function and the standardized maximum likelihood estimates departure calculated in the canonical parameter scale. In this paper, a method is proposed to obtain a p-value by combining the likelihood functions and the standardized maximum likelihood estimates departure of independent investigations for testing a scalar parameter of interest. Examples are presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method and simulation studies are performed to compare the accuracy of the proposed method with Fisher’s method.
Exploring Motivational Factors and Self-Regulated Learning Strategies as Predictors of Students’ Anxiety in Mathematics Learning

Learning is a complex process that involves interaction of factors which are too numerous to count. The purpose of this study is to determine whether motivational factors and self-regulated learning strategies are significant predictors of students’ mathematics anxiety in secondary schools in Malawi. The subscales for the motivation investigated in this study were intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control of learning beliefs, self-efficacy for learning, and anxiety. While the subscales for the self-regulated learning strategies scale are rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, self-regulation, time and study environment management, effort regulation, peer-learning, and help-seeking. The study group was comprised of 184 secondary school students. It was found that students’ motivational factors and self-regulated learning strategies were significant predictors of students’ mathematics anxiety. The findings are useful to educators in the research areas of mathematics education. It is hopeful that the proposed model will become a useful reference for further investigations of factors influencing mathematics anxiety.
BAYESIAN HYPOTHESIS TESTS USING NONPARAMETRIC STATISTICS

Traditionally, the application of Bayesian testing procedures to classi- cal nonparametric settings has been restricted by difficulties associated with prior specification, prohibitively expensive computation, and the absence of sampling densities for data. To overcome these difficulties, we model t he sampling distri- butions of nonparametric test statistics—rather than the sampling distributions of original data—to obtain the Bayes factors required for Bayesian hypothesis tests. We apply this methodology to construct Bayes factors from a wide class of non- parametric test statistics having limiting normal distributions and illustrate these methods with data. Finally, we consider the extension of our methodology to non- parametric test statistics having limiting � 2 distributions.
Going against the flow: maintenance of alongshore variation in allele frequency in a coastal ocean

Understanding the processes that develop and maintain diversity in coastal communi- ties is an important challenge, particularly given the conservation and management needs of these ecosystems. Such diversity patterns include not only species distributions and interactions, but also variation in genetic diversity. Alongshore variations in allele frequency along coastal oceans are con- trolled by interactions between physical and biological forces. Here we model these interactions in terms of Lagrangian descriptors of nearshore physical oceanography, the life history dynamics of an individual species and habitat quality. This model allows us to define population boundaries within the species range as a function of ocean circulation, spatial habitat variability and larval characteris- tics. From this, we can find quantitative criteria for the persistence of regions of alongshore genetic variation. Our results show quantitatively that the existence of phylogeographic patterns in species with high dispersal capacity along uniform coasts with typical mean currents is surprising, and requires either strong selection gradients, alongshore variation in ocean currents and/or habitat quality, or a mixture of both. Our model suggests that marine reserves and the harvesting of marine recources can dramatically modify spatial gradients in genetic diversity.
Pre-slaughter effects on bleed-out times and some behavioural and physiological responses of Nguni and non-descript steers.

The effect of loading, transportation, lairage and slaughter conditions on bleed-out times, behavioural and physiological responses of Nguni and non-descript steers reared extensively on natural pastures was investigated. Twenty Nguni (NG) and 20 non-descript (ND) steers were loaded and transported 120 km from the farm to the abattoir in two groups (TG1 and TG2), each comprised of both genotypes. Some environmental conditions and steer behavioural responses were monitored during on- and off-loading, transportation, lairage, and stunning. Trained observers recorded the posture of the steers during transportation, time-budgets during lairage, avoidance-related behaviour, and vocalization scores at stunning were recorded. The steers were slaughtered in four groups (SG1, SG2, SG3 and SG4) and the number of attempts to stun each steer was recorded. Blood samples were collected from each steer during exsanguination for cortisol, glucose and lactate analysis. It took less time to load (370 s) and off-load (602 s) TG1 than TG2 (420 s and 782 s, respectively). All steers were standing throughout transportation and during the lairage observation period. Avoidance-related behaviour and vocalization in the stunning box were not influenced by genotype. The TG1 steers showed more avoidance behaviour (63.2%) and higher cortisol (140.6 ± 14.50 nmol/L) and lactate (12.4 ± 0.83 nmol/L) levels than TG2 (23.9%; 92.8 ± 15.38; 9.0 ± 0.88, respectively). All SG2 steers showed minimal avoidance behaviour with higher cortisol (175.9 ± 17.24 nmol/L) and lactate (13.5 ± 1.12 mmol/L) levels than other groups. Generally, cortisol and lactate levels were positively correlated (r = 0.70). The 5% vocalization recorded was observed from ND steers, TG1 and SG2. In conclusion, steers of different genotypes displayed similar behavioural and physiological responses to identical pre-slaughter conditions that they were exposed to. Keywords : Cortisol, lactate, lairage duration, on- and off-loading, stun-attempts, transportation
Development and Performance Evaluation of AVCSS Deployment Sequences to Advance from Today's Driving Environment to Full Automation

This report presents the findings of its investigation into deployment sequences to better understand the paths that could be taken from today's driving environment to vehicle-highway automation. One of the most vexing problems has always been that of determining how to advance from the present-day manually-controlled vehicles to the future fully automated vehicles. Considerable research attention has been devoted to defining the architecture and operating protocols, as well as the technology, of automated highway systems. Rather less attention has been devoted to defining the steps by which we can get there. Initially, targets of opportunity were identified for accelerating progress toward highway automation, taking account of the operational constraints. Next, after reviewing existing literature on automated highway systems deployment, a set of principles to govern the design of deployment strategies is suggested followed by proposed deployment sequences for automated highway systems, beginning with adaptive cruise control and then adding elements of vehicle-vehicle cooperation and lane protection to build toward automated highway systems capabilities within constraints of technological, human factors and economic feasibility. A general deployment staging sequence is then presented along with example deployment "roadmaps" shown for transit buses, heavy trucks and light-duty passenger vehicles. Finally, we discuss the findings of our modeling and evaluation work for the beginning stages of a specific deployment sequence for light-duty passenger vehicles in the setting of a single highway lane. This sequence incorporates the use of cooperative adaptive cruise control along with conventional or autonomous adaptive cruise control and manual-driven vehicles. The evaluation assesses the impact of each of these three operational driving modes on traffic flow dynamics and highway capacity as well as of increasing proportions of both autonomous and cooperative adaptive cruise control vehicles relative to manually driven vehicles. Such effects are difficult to estimate from field tests on highways because of their necessarily low market penetration of these vehicles. Our approach uses Monte Carlo simulations based on detailed modeling work to estimate the quantitative effects of varying proportions of vehicle control types on lane capacity and on queue lengths and wait times at on-ramps.
Development of efficient micropropagation protocol for Withania coagulans (Stocks) Dunal

The present study describes the development of efficient micropropagation protocol for a commercially important medicinal plant Withania coagulans. Nodal segments were immersed in various concentrations of cefotaxime, viz 100, 250, 500 and 750 mgl -1 for 5 min and implanted on Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) medium fortified with 6-benzyladenine (BA) (2 to 4 mgl -1 ) or indolebutyric acid (IBA) (0.25 to 0.5 mgl -1 ) either alone or in combination with different concentrations. Of the four concentrations of cefotaxime tested, the 250 mgL -1 showed nonphytotoxic effect on cultures and completely eliminated bacterial infection. Direct multiple shoots differentiation occurred in cultured explants without intervening callus phase and the maximum number of shoots (7.2 ± 1.0 per explant) and elongation (7 ± 1.4 cm) were achieved on MS media containing 2 mgl -1 BA + 0.5 mgl -1 IBA. For induction of stout root system, the shoot buds were cultured on 1⁄2MS medium fortified with different concentrations of IBA (1 to 4 mgl -1 ), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) (0.25 to 1.0 mgl -1 ) and kinetin (Kin) (1 to 2 mgl -1 ). MS medium with 2 mgl -1 IBA was found most effective for the induction of stout root system. Well-rooted plantlets were transferred to outside pots containing sterile soil, and sand mixture (2:1) showed 75% survival.
Adsorptive removal of phenol by thermally modified activated carbon: Equilibrium, kinetics and thermodynamics

A The purpose of this study was to remove phenol from aqueous solution using carbonized coir pith in batch mode technique. Batch adsorption studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of various parameters such as pH, contact time, concentration of phenol, adsorbent dose and temperature. The carbonized coir pith showed high surface area and best adsorption capacity. Lagergren first-order, second-order, Bangham’s and intra particle diffusion model were used to fit the experimental data. Results of the kinetic studies show that the adsorption reaction is second order kinetic model with respect to phenol solution concentrations. The equilibrium time was obtained as 80 and 100 min for 10 and 20 mg/L and 120 min for 30 and 40 mg/L phenol concentrations. The adsorption equilibrium data obeyed the Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, and Tempkin isotherms. The adsorption capacity was found to be 48.31 mg/g, according to the Langmuir isotherm. Acidic pH was favorable for the adsorption of phenol. Studies on pH effect and desorption revealed that chemisorption was involved in the adsorption process. The change in entropy (∆S0) and heat of adsorption (∆H0) of coir pith carbon were determined as 85.76 J/mol/K and 24.99 kJ/mol, respectively. The negative value of change in Gibbs free energy indicates a feasible and spontaneous adsorption of phenol on coir pith carbon.