Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pre-service Teachers Characterization and Engagement Levels of Critical Reading

Pre-service teachers must be critical readers and thinkers if they are to prepare our future generations for the challenges of the 21st Century. Critical reading and thinking skills are essential to the evolution of a well rounded individual who can interpret information, challenge evidence, and assess diverse arguments. The following case study attempts to examine pre-service teachers’ characterization of critical reading and explore their level of responses in their application and engagement of critical reading/thinking. This paper discusses the research explored in the case study that incorporated an open ended survey and critical reading prompts that examined pre-service teachers’ engagement levels into reading and thinking critically while allowing the researcher to gain an understanding of teachers’ awareness and engagement of critical reading/thinking stance. Overall, the data findings presented support the on-going challenges of teaching critical reading/thinking as indicated by previous research studies. The information gathered by the researcher will provide insights into pre-service teachers’ critical reading/thinking and the importance of transmitting critical engagement habits to future generations of pre-service teachers.
Productizing Performance Measurement System for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This study strives to formulate a performance measurement system (PMS) for small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) and to offer guidelines for its productization. To achieve that end, a set of requirements for successful PMS for SMEs are derived from the literature, confirmed empirically and summarized into a outlining of a product. Additionally, this study provides a roadmap to productizing this performance measurement system. The evidence from previous literature suggests that a successful PMS for SMEs has following qualities: it is able to assist organization in strategy work, it provides a balanced view of the organization, it enables recognizing and incorporates causal relationships between results and determinants, is dynamically adaptable, clear and simple to operate, accounts for stakeholder perspective and is developed with and for its users. To productize such a system successfully one has to recognize a need for such a service, outline the service, pilot it, concretize it and finally collect feedback and develop it further. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study for a small Finnish company providing financial administration services. The empirical material for the study consisted of nine interviews within the case company and with the representatives of their clients. The data from the interviews was analyzed with thematic coding and complemented with financial statements and other readily available material. Based on the empirical and theoretical research, it is suggested that small and medium-sized enterprises base their performance measurement in proper budgeting tool. It can be stated that budgeting, when implemented properly, meets the qualities of successful performance measurement system for SMEs and can be employed to achieve multiple ends. Budgeting tool can be complemented with proper key performance indicators, forecasting tools and strategy development consultation to achieve even more comprehensive performance measurement.
An Investigation of the Relationship between Employees’ Emotional Intelligence and Performance

This paper examines the relationship between employees’ emotional intelligence and their performance. A total of 444 employees working in privately owned organizations were selected conveniently for this study. Emotional intelligence was measured through a scale consisting of 33 items and employee performance through a 16 items scale that measured their organizational citizenship behavior. These were self reported measures asking for responses on a five point Likert scale. Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses were applied to assess the association and prediction relation between independent and dependent variables. The results revealed a moderately high correlation between emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship behavior. It was also established that employees’ job performance can be predicted significantly based upon their emotional intelligence scores. The predictive power of emotional intelligence for performance suggests the use of emotional intelligence measure as a selection tool by human resource managers.
The Survey of Effectiveness of Group Counseling with Cognitive - Behavioural Method in Reducing Mother's Stress of Child with Mental Retardation under 6 Years Old Under Cover of Khorramabad Province Welfare Organization (2012)

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of group counseling with cognitive – behavioral method in reducing mother’s stress of child with mental retardation less than 6 years old covered of Khorramabad province welfare organization (2012). The statistical society of this study consisted of 52 mothers of child with mental retardation who their children had file in the welfare office. 30 persons were selected by simple random sampling and were divided into two groups including trial group (15 persons) and control group (15 persons). The method of study was quasi – experimental way with control group and random trial and data gathering tool such as Friedrich, Greenberg and Crink resources and stress questionnaire. To perform the study; the first step was pretest trial and control group and then 10 group counseling sessions with cognitive- behavioral method had hold among trial group. The control group’s mothers did not receive any counseling. Then, it established post – testing of both group again and another test provided to following – up step for two weeks after test. The result of variance analysis with repeated measurements showed that, there is significant difference in percentage1 level between control and trial groups post – test and follow – up scores, so, the first hypothesis of this study had approved upon group counseling efficacy with cognitive – behavioral method in reducing mother’s stress of child with mental retardation. In addition, these results showed that group counseling with cognitive – behavioral method has been established significant reduction in percentage 1 level physical and emotional symptoms of trial groups’ mothers, but it did not find the significant difference in the cognitive symptoms.
SA-E: Sentiment Analysis for Education

Educational data mining (EDM) is an important research area that is used to improve education by monitoring students performance and trying to understand the students’ learning. Taking feedback from students at the end of the semester, however, has the disadvantage of not beneﬁtting the students that have already taken the course. To beneﬁt the current students, feedback should be given in real time and addressed in real time. This would enable students and lecturers to address teaching and learning issues in the most beneﬁcial way for the students. Analysing students’ feedback using sentiment analysis techniques can identify the students’ positive or negative feelings, or even more reﬁned emotions, that students have towards the current teaching. Feedback can be collected in a variety of ways, with previous research using student response systems such as clickers, SMS and mobile phones. This paper will discuss how feedback can be collected via social media such as Twitter and how using sentiment analysis on educational data can help improve teaching. The paper also introduces our proposed system Sentiment Analysis for Education (SA-E).
The impact of a customs union with the EU on Turkey's welfare, employment and income distribution: An AGE analysis

The economic implications and the income distribution effects of the CU between Turkey and the EU have been studied by applying a general equilibrium model to the Turkish economy. The numerical results show that the CU is not trade diverting. Most importantly, urban (rural) groups are better (worse) off in the scenario with fixed wages, while urban (rural) groups are worse (better) off in the scenario with flexible wages. Despite the owners of basic skilled labour being better off than both the owners of skilled labour and the owners of capital, overall income inequality rises in the scenario with fixed wages, suggesting that analysis on income inequality based on the functional distribution of income and the full employment assumption (i.e. Stolper-Samuelson theorem), might be misleading. In addition, in the case of fixed real wages, the model predicts the creation of 148000 new jobs. Sensitivity analysis seems to support this overall conclusion.
VEHICULAR POPULATION EXPLOSION: AIR POLLUTION EXPOSURE DURING PREGNANCY AND LOW BIRTH WEIGHT

Indian cities are highly polluted, there are very few Indian studies which try to correlate air pollution to low birth weight. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between Nitrogen oxides (NOx), Particulate matter (PM 10) and Low Birth weight in a polluted coastal city of India. Information about low birth weight (< 2.5 kg) for both the sexes and air pollution data mainly Nitrogen oxides and Particulate matter were collected. Increase in number of registered vehicles in Chennai was also investigated. We compared our study result with other studies conducted in rural and semi-urban parts of Tamilnadu on Low birth weight. PM 10 levels was much higher than WHO prescribed limit since the year 2000. Low birth weight rate is high in Chennai when compared to other parts of Tamilnadu. However there is a significant decrease in Low birth weight rate during the study period of 14 years. A marginal increase in average weight at birth was also noted. When we compare our low birth weight rate with the same in a rural and semi-urban population of Tamilnadu, we see that LBWrate in Chennai is almost two to three times higher. Though a cause and effect relationship cannot be established from this observation we may safely conclude that a well designed study is needed to confirm or refute this finding.
Liking unfamiliar music: Effects of felt emotion and individual differences.

We examined liking for excerpts of unfamiliar music taken from a wide variety of genres. The excerpts varied in tempo (fast or slow) and mode (major or minor). Listeners provided liking ratings for each excerpt as well as ratings of their emotional responses (intensity, happiness, and sadness). We also measured personality and history of music lessons. In general, listeners tended to like music associated with stronger feelings and happy feelings, and to dislike music that evoked sad feelings. Mixed happy and sad feelings were evoked by music with inconsistent cues to happiness and sadness. Listeners who scored high on Agreeableness had more intense emotional responses to music in general, whereas stronger sad feelings were evoked among those who scored high on Agreeableness or Neuroticism. Listeners who liked music that made them feel sad tended to score high on Openness-to-Experience or low on Extraversion, whereas liking for music that evoked mixed feelings was associated positively with music training. The results confirm that liking for music varies as a function of the emotions it evokes and individual differences in personality and music training.
Poster Abstract: Self-organizing, Collision-free, Multi-channel Convergecast

Most of the existing sensor network deployments are convergecast applications where data is transmitted from multiple sources to a sink. In this paper, we present the design of a self-organizing, collision-free multi-channel convergecast protocol. We present experiments that show that our protocol works as expected and demonstrate its energy-efficiency for low duty cycle applications by comparing it to X-MAC.
Role of Organizational Ethics on Job Satisfaction: Case of Insurance Sector of Pakistan

In this study, link between job satisfaction and top management’s support for ethical behavior, ethical climate and association between career success and ethical behavior has been probed. For this reason, perceptions of managers of non life insurance sector have been found out to examine the link between organizational ethics and job satisfaction. Overall, the results depicted that top management’s support for ethical behavior has no link with job satisfaction which is consistent with the findings of (Visweswaran et al., 1998). Furthermore, the findings imply that benevolent and principled climate can have positive and everlasting effect on job satisfaction.
Bridging river basin scales and processes to assess human‐climate impacts and the terrestrial hydrologic system

The increasing expression of human activity, climate variability, and climate change on humid, terrestrial hydrologic systems has made the integrated nature of large river basins more apparent. However, to date, there is no instrument platform sufficient to characterize river basins' hydrologic couplings and feedbacks, with many processes and impacts left almost entirely unobserved (e.g., snowmelt floods). Characterization at the river basin scale will require a more holistic vision and a far greater commitment from the environmental science community. It will require new designs and implementation of integrated instrumentation, a new generation of models, and a management framework that clearly addresses the human‐climate‐terrestrial interactions impacting our watersheds and river basins. Initially, we propose that existing “similarity classifications” (e.g., regional soil, geologic, ecologic, hydrographic digital products) can provide a starting point for organizing historical data and initiating a long‐term adaptive, multiscale observing strategy. This vision paper outlines instrumentation platforms for point, plot, reach, and hillslope scales that could be located within the “characteristic” landscapes of river basins. The network of observing platforms then forms the basis of a “Hydro‐Mesonet” that can potentially support multiscale, multiprocess scientific studies necessary to understand and improve forecasts of our water resources at the river basin scale. This paper concludes with a discussion of how a network of such sites can support research at the level of the individual researcher and scale to the level of community‐wide initiatives.
When Does Deliberating Improve Decisionmaking

The promise of deliberation in small-group settings is a key theme in the modern political theory of public decisionmaking. Scholars of various stripes have insisted that social welfare can be enhanced - indeed, considerably enhanced - by procedures that are discursive and deliberative. This hypothesis has seldom, however, been tested empirically. More often than not, the case for deliberation as a means for welfare-enhancement is defended on purely theoretical grounds. Frequently, the argument rests on exclusively normative assertions, such as the view that collections of individuals in should communicate candidly with one another in order to increase the information available within the group and to expand the feasible set of desirable policies. On other occasions, scholars advance the argument that deliberation will occur and will improve social welfare. These latter arguments, we show, rest on dubious empirical bases. Through experiments, we raise doubts about the empirical case for deliberation. And, in the end, we question whether any of the theories and results that support deliberation as an element in a fruitful decisionmaking process can be separated from "expertise" systems, systems more characteristic of the modern administrative state.
Level 1 algorithms for TANSO on GOSAT: processing and on-orbit calibrations

Abstract. The Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation Fourier-Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) onboard the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) (nicknamed "Ibuki") has been providing global space-borne observations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) since 2009. In this paper, we first describe the version V150.151 operational Level 1 algorithms that produce radiance spectra from the acquired interferograms. Second, we will describe the on-orbit characteristics and calibration of TANSO-FTS. Overall function and performance such as signal to noise ratio and spectral resolution are within design objectives. Correction methods of small on-orbit degradations and anomalies, which have been found since launch, are described. Lastly, calibration of TANSO Cloud and Aerosol Imager (TANSO-CAI) are summarized.
UV star-formation rates of GRB host galaxies

We study a magnitude-limited sample of 10 gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies with known spectroscopic red- shifts (0.43 < z < 2.04). From an analysis of the spectral energy distributions (SEDs), based on published broad-band optical and near-infrared photometry, we derive photometric redshifts, galaxy types, ages of the dominant stellar populations, internal extinctions, and ultraviolet (UV) star-formation rates (SFRs) of the host galaxies. The photometric redshifts are quite accurate despite the heterogeneous nature of the sample: the rms errors are σ(z) = 0.21 and σ(∆z/(1 + zspec)) = 0.16 with no significant systematic offsets. All the host galaxies have SEDs similar to young starburst galaxies with moderate to low extinction. A comparison of specific SFRs with those of high-redshift galaxies in the Hubble Deep Fields shows that GRB hosts are most likely similar to the field galaxies with the largest specific SFRs. On the other hand, GRB hosts are not significantly younger than starburst field galaxies at similar redshifts, but are found to be younger than a sample of all types of field galaxies.
Population dynamics of a nonindigenous epiphytic bryozoan Membranipora membranacea in the western North Atlantic: effects of kelp substrate

In rocky subtidal ecosystems of the western North Atlantic, the nonindigenous epiphytic bryozoan Membranipora membranacea facilitates the introduction of other nonindigenous benthic species by defoliating kelps. Susceptibility to infestation by the bryozoan varies among kelp species, although the causes of this variability are not known. We monitored the percent cover of the bryozoan on Saccharina longicruris, Laminaria digitata, and Agarum clathratum, at 2 to 3 depths within 3 sites over 15 mo in 2005 to 2006. To infer mechanisms of observed differences in cover, we examined patterns of colony settlement and abundance, size-frequency distributions, and the proportion of plants with overwintering bryozoans on the respective kelp species. We also quantified the distributions and abundances of kelps before and after a major defoliation event in the fall of 2006. During the peak in abundance in fall, the highest percent cover of the bryozoan was consistently observed on L. digitata, which was achieved by colonies attaining larger sizes. The lowest cover and abundance were observed on A. clathratum, a pattern that we attributed to lower recruitment. Following an outbreak of the bryozoan in the fall of 2006, defoliation of the kelp bed was due to losses of individuals of S. longicruris, and to a lesser extent, A. clathratum, but not to losses of L. digitata, which increased in abundance at 1 location. Our results suggest that differences in the abundance of this introduced species among its algal hosts arise as a result of both differential settlement and survival. In turn, differential susceptibility among hosts to infestation may result in alteration of the algal community structure.
Proportion: Science, Philosophy, Architecture

The Harmony of the World Made Manifest in Form and Number. Abstraction and Empathy. Unit and Multiplier. The House as Model for the Universe. The Proportions of the Parthenon. Plato: Order Out of Chaos. Aristotle: Change, Continuity and the Unit. Euclid: The Golden Section and the Five Regular solids. Vitruvius. Gothis Proportions. Renaissance Artchitecture. Renaissance Cosmology. The World as a Machine. Turning from the Outer to the Inner World. The Golden Section and the Golden Module. Knowing by Not Knowing. Where Do We Go From Here?
A Little Learning in Dangerous: The Influence of Agricultural Literacy and Experience on Young People's Perceptions of Agricultural Imagery

Agricultural knowledge gaps are forming between American agricultural producers and the consumers they feed and clothe. These divides in agricultural literacy and firsthand experience in the food and fiber industry may affect how consumers perceive images of modern production practices presented in the news media and, subsequently, the industry itself. In a quantitative study, researchers surveyed students at a large public university about their agricultural literacy — knowledge and awareness of and familiarity with agriculturerelated issues — and agricultural experience, their firsthand interactions with agricultural production. The students also responded to images taken from a television news broadcast about antibiotic use in livestock production. Using these three variables, an analysis of variance was conducted that revealed significant differences between students experienced in agricultural production and those somewhat inexperienced, indicating that those with minimal exposure to agriculture may have done so in a context related to traditional, rather than modern, production. A regression analysis also revealed agricultural literacy was a significant predictor of reaction score. The researchers suggest, given the ability of agricultural literacy to influence perceptions, agricultural literacy initiatives should be promoted, while experiences with agriculture may be enhanced by hands-on learning at agritourism sites and agricultural fairs and expositions.
Stellar dust production and composition in the Magellanic Clouds

The dust reservoir in the interstellar medium of a galaxy is constantly being replenished by dust formed in the stellar winds of evolved stars. Due to their vicinity, nearby irregular dwarf galaxies the Magellanic Clouds provide an opportunity to obtain a global picture of the dust production in galaxies. The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds have been mapped with the Spitzer Space Telescope from 3.6 to 160 μm, and these wavelengths are especially suitable to study thermal dust emission. In addition, a large number of individual evolved stars have been targeted for 5–40 μm spectroscopy, revealing the mineralogy of these sources. Here I present an overview on the work done on determining the total dust production rate in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, as well as a first attempt at revealing the global composition of the freshly produced stardust.
The Financial Reporting Consequences of Proximity to Political Power

In this study, we apply a new concept, corporate proximity to political power, to accounting research and examine its consequences on corporate financial reporting. Prior literature shows that higher proximity to political power leads to higher policy risk, i.e., uncertainty regarding the impact of future administration policies on the cash flow of the firm. An increase in policy risk implies an increase in the opaqueness of the information environment and in the expected volatility of future operating profitability; we argue that these effects both encourage and facilitate earnings management. Drawing on recent research in finance and political science, we use a measure of the alignment along party lines between politicians elected at the state level and the federally elected President as our main measure of proximity to political power. We find a significant positive association between the political alignment of firms’ home states and their level of absolute discretionary accruals. Consistent with the idea that firms engage in corporate political activities (lobbying and financial contributions) to hedge against policy risk, our results only hold for firms not engaging in such activities.