Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Network position and innovation capability in the regional innovation network

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the positioning of actors characterized by different natures in a regional innovation network and explores how these actors improve their innovation capabilities by assuming prominence or brokering positions. Innovation capability is widely seen to be the driving force in building regional competitive advantage, therefore investigating how the positioning of actors improves their innovation-related activities is relevant in terms of regional competitiveness. This paper builds on a survey conducted on the Sicilian regional area in Italy. A questionnaire was used to collect data concerning the relationships established between actors and the extent to which these relationships impact actors’ innovation capability. Results suggest that regional actors cannot be considered as a homogeneous group regarding their positioning in a regional network and that the innovation benefits of assuming different network positions depend on their nature. This paper offers some theoretical implications to the literature on regional innovation network and practical suggestions to organizations and regional policy makers.
DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE LEARNING DEVICES IN THE TOPIC OF THE SCIENCE OBJECT AND ITS OBSERVATION

2013 Curriculum Learning requires an educational process that provides opportunities for students to develop all their potential. For this potential to develop well, the teacher must be able to position himself as a guide and facilitator for students. The low level of critical thinking skills of students results in the slow development of potential within students. Therefore, efforts need to be made by the teacher to help students in developing critical thinking skills. One effort that can be done is to develop a learning tool that is expected to be able to improve critical thinking skills by applying a guided inquiry learning model. Research on the development of learning devices aims to produce integrated learning tools that are valid, practical and effective. The development research method follows a procedural development model at the preliminary research stage and applies the Mafumiko design at the formative evaluation stage. The development research subjects were experts, partner teachers, and seventh-grade students of SMPN 22 Banjarmasin, academic year 2017/2018. Data analysis was carried out descriptively through a categorical system. The results showed that: 1) the validity of the device based on expert judgment fulfilled the valid category, readability of teaching materials, LKPD and item items included in the good category, 2) the practicality of learning devices fulfilled the good category, and student responses were very positive, 3) the effectiveness of learning devices shown from the increase in cognitive learning outcomes and improvement of students critical thinking skills. Psychomotor performance, teacher activity, and student activities fulfill good categories. Article visualizations:
Geological Controls on High Production of Tight Sandstone Gas in Linxing Block, Eastern Ordos Basin, China

Tight sandstone gas in the Linxing Block, eastern Ordos Basin, has been successfully exploited. The high performance is mainly a result of the special geological conditions. The key geological controls for high production have been discussed on the basis of seismic data, field observation, sample features, mercury porosimetry, mechanical properties, and basin modeling. Firstly, the coal measures have good gas generation potential, not only because of the existence of coalbeds and organic‐rich shales, but also because coal laminae and microbial mats in the shales significantly increase their total organic carbon (TOC) contents. Secondly, except for the uplifted zone of the Zijinshan complex and the eastern fault zone, rare large faults develop in the Carboniferous–Permian sequence, ensuing the sealing capacity of cap rock. Small fractures generally concentrated in the sandstones rather than the mudstones. Thirdly, gas accumulation in the Linxing Block was controlled by the tectonic, burial and thermal histories. Gas accumulation in the Linxing Block started in the Late Triassic, followed by three short pauses of thermal maturation caused by relatively small uplifts; the maximum hydrocarbon generation period is the Early Cetaceous as a combined result of regional and magmatic thermal metamorphisms. Field profiles show abundant fractures in sandstone beds but rare fractures in mudstone beds. Mechanical properties, determined by lithostratigraphy, confine the fractures in the sandstones, increasing the permeability of sandstone reservoirs and retaining the sealing capacity of the mudstone cap rocks. The modern ground stress conditions favor the opening of predominant natural fractures in the NNW–SSE and N–S directions. These conclusions are useful for exploring the potential tight sandstone gas field.
Off the Rural Back Road: Describing the Experiences of Rural Students who Enrolled at an Urban 4-Year University

Tinto (1993) argued that all students have different needs and require different resources and services to enable them to persist at the university level. One group of students that requires individualized attention is students from rural areas. During the 2010-2011 academic year, 57% of public school districts in the U.S. were in rural areas (U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, 2013). These rural school districts serve a quarter of the students who attend public schools in the U.S. (Schiess & Rotherham, 2015). Rural students have lower college enrollment and persistence rates than non-rural students (Aylesworth & Bloom, 1976; Koricich, 2014; U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). Rural students may be less prepared for college than their non-rural peers, which may lead them to decide not to enroll in college (Schiess & Rotherham, 2015). Additionally, they may possess many of the qualities, such as coming from a family that has a low level of education and belonging to a low socio-economic group, that increase a student’s risk of dropping out of college (Aylesworth & Bloom, 1976). There is little information available about the experiences of college students from rural areas. This study begins to fill this research gap by exploring the following question, “How do rural students perceive their experiences coming from a rural background and enrolling at a 4year urban university? ” A phenomenological study was conducted using data from in-depth interviews of rural students enrolled at a 4-year urban university between the fall of 2013 and the fall of 2016. Interview data was coded for common themes. Findings of this study include: 1) Rural students face isolation in their rural communities. This isolation includes both geographic and social isolation; 2) Rural students face many of the same challenges that students from other geographic locations, but these challenges appear to be more severe for students from rural backgrounds; 3) Rural students often struggle to fit into their college environment; and 4) Coming from a rural background can also be an advantage for students when enrolling in college. This report discusses these findings in more detail and suggests how the information gained from this study could help rural students in the future. Off the Rural Back Road: Describing the Experiences of Rural Students who Enrolled at an Urban 4-Year University By Michaele E. Webb BA Syracuse University, 2010 MSW Syracuse University, 2012 MS Syracuse University, 2015 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Instructional Design, Development, and Evaluation. Syracuse University May 2019 Copyright © Michaele E. Webb 2019
EFFECTS OF ABRASIVES DURING ACCELERATED SIMULATION OF MECHANICAL CORROSION OF CEMENT COMPOSITES USING ABRASIVE WATER FLOW

The paper deals with the use of the abrasive water flow technology in an accelerated simulation of the process of mechanical degradation of surface layers of cement-based composites by flowing liquids. Effects of the abrasive particle size and the mass flow rate of abrasives in an abrasive water flow impacting on the surface of concrete samples have been studied. In addition, suitability of the application of the abrasive water flow for the simulation of real situation of the surface wear by flowing liquids has been evaluated.
Hard Debt, Soft CEOs, and Union Rents

Purpose - This paper aims to derive insights about optimal managerial compensation and firm capital structure in unionized firms. Design/methodology/approach - This paper uses applied game theory to address problems of CEO motivation in companies with unionized workforces. Findings - Managers can use high levels of debt and costly bankruptcy to win wage concessions from workers. Alternatively, workers can obstruct management in the detection of poor work. CEO compensation that encourages rent sharing may reduce union hostility and associated deadweight losses. Shareholder value may be maximized by CEO incentive contracts with limited upsides, lower levels of pay, and some entrenchment protections. Originality/value - This is the only study to use applied game theory to look at how CEO pay and capital structure affects the productivity of a unionized workforce.
The Upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System

LICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is studying the physics of strongly interacting matter, and in particular the properties of the Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP), using proton–proton, proton–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions at the CERN LHC (Large Hadron Collider). The ALICE Collaboration is preparing a major upgrade of the experimental apparatus, planned for installation in the second long LHC shutdown in the years 2018–2019. A key element of the ALICE upgrade is the construction of a new, ultra-light, high-resolution Inner Tracking System (ITS) based on monolithic CMOS pixel detectors. The primary focus of the ITS upgrade is on improving the performance for detection of heavy-flavour hadrons, and of thermal photons and low-mass di-electrons emitted by the QGP. With respect to the current detector, the new Inner Tracking System will significantly enhance the determination of the distance of closest approach to the primary vertex, the tracking efficiency at low transverse momenta, and the read-out rate capabilities. This will be obtained by seven concentric detector layers based on a 50 μm thick CMOS pixel sensor with a pixel pitch of about 30×30 μm2. This document, submitted to the LHCC (LHC experiments Committee) in September 2013, presents the design goals, a summary of the R&D activities, with focus on the technical implementation of the main detector components, and the projected detector and physics performance.
Conditions that mediate teacher agency during assessment reform

Purpose A new senior curriculum and assessment policy in Queensland, Australia, is changing the conditions for teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to consider the personal, structural and cultural conditions that mediated the agency of Senior English teachers as they negotiated these changes. Agency is conceptualised as opportunities for choice in action arising from pedagogic negotiations with students within contexts where teachers’ decision-making is circumscribed by other pressures. Design/methodology/approach An action inquiry project was conducted with English teachers and students in two secondary schools as they began to adjust their practices in readiness for changes to Queensland senior assessment. Four English teachers (two per school) designed a 10-week unit of work in Senior English with the aim of enhancing students’ critical and creative agency. Five action/reflection cycles occurred over six months with interviews conducted at each stage to trace how teachers were making decisions to prioritise student agency. Findings Participating teachers drew on a variety of structural, personal and cultural resources, including previous experiences, time to develop shared understandings and the responsiveness of students that mediated their teacher agency. Teachers’ ability to exert agentic influence beyond their own classroom was affected by the perceived flexibility of established resources and the availability of social support to share student success. Originality/value These findings indicate that a range of conditions affected the development of teacher agency when they sought to design assessment to prioritise student agency. The variety of enabling conditions that need to be considered when supporting teacher and student agency is an important contribution to theories of agency in schools, and studies of teacher policy enactment in systems moving away from localised control to more remote and centralised quality assurance processes.
Expanding the Swiss‐Norwegian chironomid training set with Polish data

The Swiss‐Norwegian training model established in 2011 has been used across Europe to infer past mean July air temperatures using Chironomidae subfossils. It combines reference sites from Norway and the Swiss Alps but lacks representative localities from the central European plains belt. This gap complicates reconstructions from temperate European latitudes, and thus, a Polish training set (TS) was developed. Data from 102 lakes, mainly from Pomerania and the Masurian Lakelands, as well as the Polish Plain, the Sudetes, and the Carpathian Mountains were included. After selecting and merging suitable chironomid taxa, the Swiss‐Norwegian‐Polish TS includes 357 lakes and 134 chironomid morphotypes, and it has a mean July air temperature range of 3.5 to 20.0 °C. The weighted averaging‐partial least squares (WA‐PLS) and artificial neural network (ANN) transfer function based on the extended TS performs well: R2jack = 0.91/0.95 and root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) = 1.39 °C/1.34 °C, respectively. The transfer function applied to the Żabieniec Lake sequence (central Poland) reveals higher summer temperatures (2.5–4.0 °C) for the Lateglacial and for the Holocene (1.0 °C) compared to the Swiss‐Norwegian model. The reconstruction based on the Swiss‐Norwegian TS shows an increasing trend from the Bølling‐Allerød Interstadial to the Meghalayan period, whereas the new model reconstruction shows no increasing trend when using WA‐PLS and a slightly decreasing trend when using ANN. Summer temperatures in the Lateglacial in Żabieniec inferred using the Swiss‐Norwegian TS are consistent with other temperature reconstructions for 50–55°N in Europe, while those based on the Swiss‐Norwegian‐Polish TS (SNP TS) show closer affinity to more western sites than the eastern European ones. Despite being uncommon, the application of ANN can be a good equivalent of the WA‐PLS technique especially in situations where the available database is limited to fewer than a few hundred variables.
The Attitudes of Second Year EFL Students at Dr Moulay Tahar University towards Learning English Pronunciation through Mobile Assisted Language

Teaching and learning pronunciation has become a neglected issue because it is regarded as an abstract science, although it is a peripheral ingredient in English oral production. With the dawn of technology and its various tools, exploring pronunciation and its effectiveness in successful communication attracts a bunch of scholarly attention. The use of Computer Assisted Language Learning opens the gateway for the possibility to integrate other tools in language learning as mobiles and gives birth to mobile learning or free education. In this vein, the incentive behind the current research work is in twofold: to investigate the attitudes of both teachers and students towards the inclusion of mobiles in language learning, and to prove the effectiveness of this new approach in improving the listening and speaking skills of foreign language learners. To fulfill these aims, the researcher held an interview with 15 teachers teaching English at Dr Moulay Tahar University of Saida. The researcher also conducted a pretest and a posttest with 95 students of the second year from the same university. To this end, the findings revealed that both teachers and students have positive attitudes towards the introduction of mobile technology in language learning, even though some teachers still favor the traditional approaches of language teaching and learning. The results also demonstrated that the applications, used in the experiment, showed the usability of Mobile Assisted Language in learning English pronunciation.
Differential effects of sleep on explicit and implicit memory for potential trauma reminders: findings from an analogue study

ABSTRACT Background: Recent findings suggest that disruptions of sleep-related memory processing are involved in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms. More specifically, exposure to an analogue traumatic event resulted in fewer intrusive memories, when it was followed by sleep instead of continued wakefulness. However, competing evidence suggests that sleep deprivation may reduce intrusive re-experiencing. To address these conflicting accounts, we examined how sleep – as opposed to partial sleep deprivation – modulates explicit and implicit trauma memory using an analogue procedure. Methods: Healthy participants (N = 41) were assigned to a Sleep or Partial sleep deprivation group. Prior to nocturnal sleep, both groups were exposed to “traumatic“ picture stories. After sleep or partial sleep deprivation, participants were subjected to tests of explicit and implicit memory for potential trauma reminders. Thereafter, participants completed an intrusion triggering task that was embedded in a distractor task. Results: Analyses revealed higher explicit memory for potential trauma reminders after sleep as compared to partial sleep deprivation. No group differences were found for implicit memory. Participants responded with fewer intrusions after sleep than following partial sleep deprivation. Conclusions: The current findings support a protective role of sleep in trauma memory processing, which may be evident after the first night of sleep post-trauma. Although more research is needed, our results corroborate the importance of promoting restful sleep in trauma-exposed individuals. HIGHLIGHTS • Sleep enhanced voluntary trauma memory. • Sleep did not enhance implicit trauma memory. • Sleep was associated with decreased intrusions. • Future studies should investigate effects of sleep-based interventions on PTSD symptoms.
Nonseismic Signals in the Ocean: Indicators of Deep Sea and Seafloor Processes on Ocean‐Bottom Seismometer Data

Ocean‐bottom seismometers (OBSs) commonly record short‐duration events (SDEs) that could be described by all of these characteristics: (i) duration <1 s, (ii) one single‐wave train with no identified P nor S wave arrivals, and (iii) a dominant frequency usually between 4 and 30 Hz. In many areas, SDEs have been associated with gas‐ or fluid‐related processes near cold seeps or hydrothermal vents, although fish bumps, instrumental, or current‐generated noise have been proposed as possible sources. In order to address some remaining issues, this study presents results from in situ and laboratory experiments combined with observations from two contrasting areas, the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) and the Chilean subduction zone. The in situ experiment was conducted at the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory‐Molène submarine observatory (near Brest, France) and consisted in continuously monitoring two OBSs with a camera. The images revealed that no fish regularly bumped into the instruments. Laboratory experiments aimed at reproducing SDEs' waveforms by injecting air or water in a tank filled by sand and seawater and monitored with an OBS. Injecting air in the sediments produced waveforms very similar to the observed SDEs, while injecting air in the water column did not, constraining the source of SDEs in the seafloor sediments. Finally, the systematic analysis of two real data sets revealed that it is possible to discriminate gas‐related SDEs from biological or sea state‐related noise from simple source parameters, such as the temporal mode of occurrence, the back azimuth, and the dominant frequency.
The Efficient IPO Market Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence

We derive the optimal underwriting method and the quantitative initial public offering (IPO) pricing rule that this method implies in a market with informational frictions consisting of fully rational banks, issuers, and investors. In an efficient IPO market, an issuer’s expected initial return will be determined entirely by the combination of this pricing rule and issuer fundamentals. Applying this rule, we find that we can explain the quantitative magnitude of the principal aspects of the time-series and cross-sectional variation in IPO average initial returns. We conclude that the IPO market is efficient.
Shifting From Wellness at Work to Wellness in Work: Interrogating the Link Between Stress and Organization While Theorizing a Move Toward Wellness-in-Practice

Guided by the theoretical underpinnings of the whole-person approach to wellness, we critique and adapt this framework to explain the combined complexities of organizational stress and wellness communication processes in a pediatric residency program. Using a qualitative, thematic analysis, we explore the link between employee stressors and participation in wellness resources found in a workplace wellness program (WWP). We find that despite good intentions, the organizational resources reproduced institutional norms, work, and stress, not wellness. Our findings suggest having a WWP that meets the four whole-person dimensions is not enough to ensure employee well-being and program success. Rather, WWPs must be connected to employees’ daily experiences and address the structural constraints of work. We conclude by proffering wellness-in-practice, a practice-theory extension to the whole-person approach, which weaves wellness into the everyday fabric of organizational life and promotes meaningful connections between work, stress, and WWPs.
Do Better Institutions Improve Bank Efficiency? Evidence from a Transitional Economy

The pace of transition in China over the last two decades has led to great variation across the country in terms of institutional and financial development. In this paper, using a panel of Chinese provinces during the period 1993–2006, we empirically investigate the determinants of the efficiency of the banking sector from an institutional perspective. The most important institutional developments in China are the emergence and gradual dominance of the market economy, financial deepening, the growth of a private sector, the establishment of secure property rights, and rule of law. We find that institutional variables play an important role in affecting banking efficiencies, and that banks tend to operate more efficiently in those regions with a greater private sector presence and more property rights awareness, while the role of financial deepening and rule of law is less straightforward.