Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can dogs increase children’s attention and concentration performance? A randomised controlled trial.

Many practitioners report that the presence of an animal, or interaction with an animal, increases the attention and concentration of children, elderly persons or patients. Previous studies support this impression via indirect variables, but direct effects on children’s attention performance have not yet been measured. We therefore designed a study that used neuropsychological concentration tasks to test the effect of the presence of dogs, and contact with dogs, on children’s performance. In a randomised, controlled crossover trial, 24 children between 10-14 years completed a memory task and three neuropsychological attention tests. We also used passive infrared hemoencephalography (PIR HEG) to assess a biological correlate of attention. The children interacted with either a trained therapy dog or the robotic dog AIBO for 15 minutes before they completed the tests. We found that the learning effect in the memory test, as well as in the neuropsychological attention test “Cancellation Screen”, was significantly enhanced ( p = 0.021) when children were in the presence of, or interacted with the dog. No such effect was found in the two attention tests, “Continuous Performance Test” and “Divided Attention Bimodal”. In the presence of the robotic dog, attention processes measured in frontal brain activity, via PIR HEG, were significantly reduced over time during the test “Divided Attention Bimodal” ( p < .001). These processes did not decrease in the presence of the real dog. We found no such difference during the two other attention tests. Moreover, the PIR HEG signal was significantly higher in general in all three attention tests in the presence of the dog. We conclude that interacting with a dog, or the presence of a dog, may increase children’s attention and concentration performance.
New model for determining criteria weights: Level Based Weight Assessment (LBWA) model

: This paper presents new subjective model for determining weight coefficients in multi-criteria decision-making models. The new Level Based Weight Assessment (LBWA) model enables the involvement of experts from different fields with the purpose of defining the relations between criteria and providing rational decision making. The method can be applied in practical cases in specialized decision-making support systems, as well as in alternative dispute resolutions in virtual environment. The LBWA model has several key advantages over other subjective models based on mutual comparison of criteria, which include the following: (1) the LBWA model allows the calculation of weight coefficients with small number of criteria comparisons, only n-1 comparison; (2) The algorithm of the LBWA model does not become more complex with the increase of the number of criteria, which makes it suitable for use in complex multi-criteria (MCDM) models with a large number of criteria; (3) By applying the LBWA model, optimal values of weight coefficients are obtained with simple mathematical apparatus that eliminates inconsistencies in expert preferences, which are tolerated in certain subjective models (Best Worst Method - BWM and Analytic Hierarchy Process - AHP); (4) The elasticity coefficient of the LBWA model enables, after comparing the criteria, additional corrections of the values of the weight coefficients depending on the preferences of the decision makers. This feature of the LBWA model enables sensitivity analysis of the MCDM model by analyzing the effects of variations in the values of the weights of criteria on final decision.
Improving the EFQM Model: An empirical study on model development and theory building using concept mapping

The aim of this study is to identify the elements and to design a structure for the Improved EFQM Model. This task was given to the Model Development Steering Group composed of 17 members from different European organizations. First the literature was reviewed and the different award programmes were analysed. In order to process all the information collected the method concept mapping was used. The result of the concept mapping were 13 distinct clusters, which were in large part a replication of the EFQM criteria but with more emphasis on customer, suppliers and partnership and a cluster measurement system and results. The comparison of the clusters with the international award schemes shows great resemblance concerning customer orientation, policy and strategy, leadership, process management and business results. The comparison with the empirical findings points in the same direction. The design team of the steering group proposes a prototype for the model and an Improved EFQM Model. The Improved EFQM Model Draft 1 has 11 criteria, a strong focus on customer orientation and a new measuring system. The Improved EFQM Model is the result of the first phase of the model development process. In the second phase the model will be tested in various ways. It is known that the results of the testing turned out differently from what was expected. The test phase and the final EFQM Excellence Model will be published later.
TAXUS-IV trial proliferation: A serial volumetric intravascular ultrasound analysis from the Polymer-based paclitaxel-eluting stents reduce in-stent neointimal tissue

doi:10.1016/j.jacc. 2004.10. 078 J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2005;45;1201-1205 Mary E. Russell, Stephen G. Ellis, and Gregg W. Stone Greenberg, Michael Kutcher, S. Chiu Wong, Warren Strickland, Michael Mooney, O’Shaughnessy, James Tift Mann, Mark Turco, Ronald Caputo, Patrick Bergin, JoelNeil J. Weissman, Joerg Koglin, David A. Cox, James Hermiller, CharlesTAXUS-IV trial proliferation: A serial volumetric intravascular ultrasound analysis from the Polymer-based paclitaxel-eluting stents reduce in-stent neointimal tissueThis information is current as of October 14, 2011 http://content.onlinejacc. org/cgi/content/full/45/8/1201 located on the World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, isDownloaded from content.onlinejacc. org
The Influence of Personality Traits and Information Privacy Concerns on Behavioral Intentions

This study incorporates the Big Five personality traits into a theoretical model that explains and predicts individuals concerns for information privacy, computer anxiety, and individual behavioral intentions. Data was gathered via a survey, which was completed by 230 undergraduate college students, and analysis was conducted utilizing structural equation modeling. Agreeableness was found to have a significant influence on individual concerns for information privacy while neuroticism was found to have a significant influence on computer anxiety. In addition, intellect exerted a significant influence on both computer anxiety and behavioral intentions. Key insights for theory and practice are presented.
Meningkatkan Minat dan Hasil Belajar Peserta Didik Menggunakan Model Pembelajaran Inkuiri Terbimbing

Minat dan hasil belajar peserta didik kelas XI MIPA 3 SMA Negeri 6 Banjarmasin masih rendah. Oleh karena itu, dilakukan upaya untuk meningkatkan minat dan hasil belajar didik. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan keterlaksanaan RPP, minat , dan hasil belajar. Subjek penelitian ini adalah peserta didik kelas XI MIPA 3 SMA Negeri 6 Banjarmasin tahun pelajaran 2018/2019 yang berjumlah 30 peserta didik. Jenis penelitian ini merupakan penelitian tindakan kelas model Kemmis dan Mc Taggart terdiri dari 2 siklus setiap siklus meliputi perencanaan, tindakan dan observasi, serta refleksi. Teknik pengumpulan data berupa observasi, tes, dan angket. Data dianalisis secara deskriptif kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Hasil penelitian siklus I dan siklus II yaitu: 1) Keterlaksanaan RPP secara keseluruhan memperoleh kriteria sangat baik, 2) Minat peserta didik dengan menggunakan model pembelajaran inkuiri terbimbing meningkat dari 74 dengan kriteria baik menjadi 82 dengan kriteria sangat baik, dan 3) Hasil belajar peserta didik meningkat dengan ketuntasan klasikal sebesar 23,3% menjadi sebesar 80%. Diperoleh simpulan bahwa model pembelajaran inkuiri terbimbing dapat meningkatkan minat dan hasil belajar peserta didik kelas XI MIPA 3 SMA Negeri 6 Banjarmasin.
The Role of Pay Scheme and Ethics Level for Decreasing Budgetary Slack: Experiment Setting

Budgeting is an important tool for evaluating a manager’s performance. Unfortunately, budgets are susceptible to budgetary slack, in which a manager provides an overly pessimistic and conservative estimation of income and expenses. This study aims to investigate the effect of pay scheme and ethics level on budgetary slack creation. Hypotheses were tested using experiments with 2x2 factorial designs. The participants of this study were students who had completed a managerial accounting course. The main interaction effects were analyzed using a general linear model univariate. The results show that pay scheme plays a significant role in decreasing budgetary slack. Participants who scored high on the DIT instrument were more likely to create budgetary slacks than were low-scoring participants. This finding also shows that there is a significant impact of interaction between payment scheme and ethics level on budgetary slack.
EFFECT OF DIFFERENT WATER QUANTITIES ON GROWTH AND FRUIT QUALITY OF OLIVE TREES UNDER NEW RECLAIMED LANDS CONDITIONS

A field experiment was conducted during two successive seasons (2014 and 2015) in a private orchard farm, located at the 6 4 km on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, to study the effect of different irrigation levels, irrigation methods and olive cultivars on plant growth and yield of olive trees(Olea europara, L.). Treatments were: athree irrigation levels: 4384 m 3 /feddan(100%), 3740 m 3 /feddans (85%) and 3089 m 3 /feddan (70%); btwo drip irrigation methods: on-line surface irrigation and in-line sub surface irrigation and ctwo olive cultivars, Picual and Manzanillo. The experiment was designed in a split-split plot with three replicates. Estimated irrigation water was calculated, using FAO method, in order to compare between applied and estimated irrigation regime. Data revealed that using 3740m 3 /fed irrigation level gave the highest growth and yield compared with other treatments. The Estimated irrigation water was close to applied treatment 3740 m 3 /fed. In-line (surface irrigation) method recorded the highest yield and oil during the two successive seasons. The oil content in fruit increased with water decrease. The Picual cultivar showed the highest oil content while, Manzanillo cultivar gave the highest yield. The interaction between the three tested factors show that the 3740m 3 /fed treatment with the In-line surface irrigation combined with Manzanillo cultivar was the best combined treatment. The highest WUE was found in 3089 m 3 / fed. with subsurface irrigation combined with Manzanillo cultivar.
Seismicity Pattern Changes Prior to the 2008 Ms7.3 Yutian Earthquake

Seismicity pattern changes that are associated with strong earthquakes are an interesting topic with potential applications for natural hazard mitigation. As a retrospective case study of the Ms7.3 Yutian earthquake, which was an inland normal faulting event that occurred on 21 March 2008, the Region-Time-Length (RTL) method is applied to the seismological data of the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) to analyze the features of the seismicity pattern changes before the Yutian earthquake. The temporal variations of the RTL parameters of the earthquake epicenter showed that a quiescence anomaly of seismicity appeared in 2005. The Yutian main shock did not occur immediately after the local seismicity recovered to the background level, but with a time delay of about two years. The spatial variations of seismic quiescence indicated that an anomalous zone of seismic quiescence appeared near the Yutian epicentral region in 2005. This result is consistent with that obtained from the temporal changes of seismicity. The above spatio-temporal seismicity changes prior to the inland normal faulting Yutian earthquake showed similar features to those reported for some past strong earthquakes with inland strike faulting or thrust faulting. This study may provide useful information for understanding the seismogenic evolution of strong earthquakes.
DETERMINING OIL PRICE DRIVERS WITH DYNAMIC MODEL AVERAGING

Modelling spot oil price is a hard but important task. Various researches has previously shown that oil price drivers can vary in time. In other words, it is hard to find one oil price model which would perform well in every period. On the other hand, usually the best performing model changes in time. From the econometric point of view such a situation requires building a model with two features. First, there is an uncertainty about the “true” model. Therefore, supposing there is initially given some set of models, the “true” model should be allowed to change with time. Secondly, suppose that the methodology is narrowed just to regression models arising from some set of initially given explanatory variables (drivers). Then, also the regression coefficients of these models should be allowed to vary in time. Such a construction is already known. It is Dynamic Model Averaging (DMA). This methodology arose as a certain extension and improvement of Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA). Indeed, this method comes from the Bayesian econometrics. As the initial set of oil price drivers the following factors have been chosen: stock market index, interest rates, economic activity index, exchange rates, supply and demand, import quotas, inventories level, and stress market index. The paper is organized as follows: First a brief overview about the oil price drivers is given. Next, a brief description of Dynamic Model Averaging is provided. Finally, the results are presented and conclusions are formulated.
Revisiting the role of imported intermediates on productivity : a firm-level analysis for Uruguay

International trade is considered a vehicle for technology diffusion, which in turn can induce productivity growth. Particularly, imports may give domestic firms access to a larger variety and/or better quality of intermediate or capital inputs in which new technologies are embodied. However, the lack of sufficiently skilled labor, an issue especially relevant for small developing countries, may prevent firms from taking advantage of these technologies. Using a panel of Uruguayan manufacturing firms for the period 1997-2008, we explore the impact of imported inputs on firms’ productivity and evaluate whether the effect is mediated by the firm’s absorptive capacity, proxied by the proportion of skilled labor. We use two alternative approaches. Firstly, we apply a two-stage approach by first estimating firms’ productivity and then using impact evaluation techniques to analyze causality between imported inputs and productivity. Secondly, we use a direct approach, estimating TFP with imported inputs as a state variable. Our results show that imported intermediates have an enhancing effect on Uruguayan firms’ productivity, and that absorptive capacity plays an important role on this effect.
Evaluation of the relation between TMJ disorders and oral habits on the 1st year students at a faculty of dentistry: A questionnaire study

Amac: Bu calismanin amaci Dis hekimligi fakultesine yeni baslayan ogrencilerde Temporomandibular eklem (TME) problemlerinin degerlendirilmesi ve bu problemlerin agiz aliskanliklari ile olan iliskisinin olup olmadiginin karsilastirilmasidir. Materyal ve Metot: Harran Universitesi Dis Hekimligi Fakultesi 1. sinifta egitim goren 37 kiz 26 erkek toplam 63 ogrencide TME problemleri prevalansi ve siddeti Fonseca anketi kullanilarak degerlendirilmistir. Bunun yaninda TME problemlerini agiz aliskanliklari ile olan iliskisini degerlendirmek icin Oral Behaviour Checklist (OBC) anketi ayni ogrencilere uygulanmistir. Bulgular: Calismanin sonucunda ankete katilan tum ogrencilerde Fonseca anketin sonucuna gore katilimcilarin %73’ unde herhangi bir derecede TME problemi oldugu ortaya cikmistir. Kiz ve erkek katilimcilar ayri ayri incelendiginde ise erkek katilimcilarin %73.2’sinde kiz katilimcilarin ise % 73’ unde herhangi bir derecede TME probleminin oldugu gozlemlenmistir. OBC ve Fonseca arasindaki korelasyonun pozitif yonde oldugu gozlemlenmistir. Sonuc: Calismamiz da oral aliskanliklarin artmasi, TME rahatsizligi gorulme sikligini arttirdigini ortaya cikarmistir. Anahtar kelimeler: Temporomandibular eklem, Fonseca, oral aliskanliklar
Efficacy of a monothermal warm water caloric screening test.

: The validity of using monothermal caloric screening tests to shorten bithermal caloric test time has been disputed by several investigators. The purpose of this study was to reexamine the efficacy of a monothermal warm caloric screening test. Two retrospective investigations (n = 130) served to generate normative data and provide an estimate of the false-negative rate of the warm monothermal caloric screening test. A prospective investigation (n = 30) was also conducted. Predictions were made regarding bithermal caloric test normality from warm monothermal data, and the bithermal test was completed. The results of this prospective investigation suggested that a warm monothermal screening test can predict normal bithermal caloric responses with greater than 97% accuracy. Criteria for normality include less than 29.54% warm caloric maximum slow phase eye velocity (SPEV) interaural difference, maximum SPEVs that are greater than 11 degrees/s for each ear, absence of significant positional or spontaneous nystagmus, and normal ocular motility.
Entropic Approach to the Detection of Crucial Events

In this paper, we establish a clear distinction between two processes yielding anomalous diffusion and 1/f noise. The first process is called Stationary Fractional Brownian Motion (SFBM) and is characterized by the use of stationary correlation functions. The second process rests on the action of crucial events generating ergodicity breakdown and aging effects. We refer to the latter as Aging Fractional Brownian Motion (AFBM). To settle the confusion between these different forms of Fractional Brownian Motion (FBM) we use an entropic approach properly updated to incorporate the recent advances of biology and psychology sciences on cognition. We show that although the joint action of crucial and non-crucial events may have the effect of making the crucial events virtually invisible, the entropic approach allows us to detect their action. The results of this paper lead us to the conclusion that the communication between the heart and the brain is accomplished by AFBM processes.
A case study about regional differences of Hungarian pupils' achievement

Hungary, if a high student performance can be measured in a test, then there will be higher test results in other tests in the same area as well. We divided Hungary ’ s 175 districts into 5 clusters based on the pupils ’ achievement. The pupils ’ achievements show the same pattern in Hungary as the development patterns of different geographical areas in the country. The undeveloped parts of Hungary had worse results and the best results came from the well-developed areas. There is a cluster “ on the way ” because we do not know yet that it will develop or its result will be getting worse. It depends on its neighbors ’ districts too. The data showed that well-educated parents chose secondary grammar school for their children and the pupils of parents with lower quali ﬁ cations went to secondary vocational schools. There was a big difference in the pupils ’ achievement in these school types. The pupils in the secondary grammar schools had better results in the mathematical competence and in the language school-leaving exam on middle level.
The Impact of a Low-Fat Diet and the Use of Fat Substitutes on Fat Preferences Among Overweight Women Seeking Weight Loss Treatment

Abstract : Overweight and obesity form the basis of the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States and are on the rise (NIH, 1998). Traditionally, recommendations for weight loss include a reduction in dietary fat (Drewnowski, 1990). However, adherence to low-fat diets remains a challenge. Hedonic responses to food may be important to understand the adherence problem. When compared to bland-tasting foods, nutritionally-equivalent foods that are flavorful are more satiating (Rolls, 1995; Warwick et al., 1993). Two previous studies that examined the sensory impact of dietary fat modification reported conflicting results (Mattes, 1993; Guinard et al., 1999). The current study evaluated the impact of dietary fat modification on fat preference in three weight loss groups. The impact of changes in fat preference on shortterm adherence to a 6-week weight loss program was assessed. Sixty-one otherwise, healthy overweight women (BMI 25-37 kg/m2) between the ages of 18-60 were randomly assigned to one of three brief, 6-week weight loss programs. All three groups were asked to reduce dietary intake to 1800 kilocalories per day, but one group was asked to maintain fat at 36%, and two additional groups were asked to consume 20-25% of kilocalories in fat. One low-fat group was instructed to use fat substitutes and the other was instructed to avoid substitutes. It was hypothesized that decreased fat intake and sensory exposure to fat would cause a decrease in preference for high fat foods. Excellent adherence was observed with over 91% of participants completing treatment. In addition, guidelines regarding kilocalories, respective fat intake, fat substitute use were followed. Taste changes that occurred were subtle and did not affect on short-term dietary adherence. More time on the prescribed fat levels might be required to induce a change in fat preference.
Influence of Previous Moderate Training on the Elevated Serum Levels of Growth Factors and Inflammatory Mediators in Rats Exposed to Acute Exhausting Physical Exercise

Appropriate physical exercise improves both mental and physical health. However, strenuous exercise can cause muscle damage and inflammation. The mechanism of muscle adaptation to physical exercise is in some way unclear. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of previous moderate training on the generation of growth factors and inflammatory cytokines following an acute bout of exhausting physical exercise. Forty eight male Wistar albino rats were used in the present study. Rats were randomly assigned (24/group) to untrained (UT), and trained (T, subjected to 6 week swimming training) groups. Each group was equally subdivided into pre- and post-exercise groups. Blood samples were collected either immediately before or after acute exhausting swimming exercise session (60 minutes continuous swimming). Strenuous exercise induced a significant increase (P < 0.05) in serum levels of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in (UT) and (T) rats when compared to the corresponding baseline values. Exercise-induced increase in the circulating levels of growth factors and inflammatory cytokines was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in the (T) group when compared to the (UT) group. We concluded that prior moderate exercise training protects against the deleterious effects of acute strenuous physical exercise by influencing exercise-induced rise in the serum growth factors and inflammatory cytokines.