Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conceptual Issues in Response-Time Modeling.

Two different traditions of response-time (RT) modeling are reviewed: the tradition of distinct models for RTs and responses, and the tradition of model integration in which RTs are incorporated in response models or the other way around. Several conceptual issues underlying both traditions are made explicit and analyzed for their consequences. We then propose a hierarchical modeling framework consistent with the first tradition but with the integration of their parameter structures as a second level of modeling. Two examples of the framework are presented. Also, a fundamental equation is derived which relates the RTs on test items to the speed of the test taker and the time intensity of the items. The equation serves as the core of the RT model in the framework. Finally, empirical applications of the framework demonstrating its practical value are reviewed. Test theorists have always been intrigued by the relationship between responses to test items and the time used by a test taker to produce them. Both seem indicative of the same behavior on test items. Nevertheless, their relationship appears to be difficult to conceptualize, let alone represent coherently in a statistical model. Although the computerization of educational tests has been a major impetus to the current interest in response-time (RT) modeling, it would be wrong to ignore its historical origins. One early development that has left traces in our current thinking about RTs was Woodbury’s (1951, 1963) treatment of test scores as the result of a time-dependent stochastic response process. His theory, which is summarized in Lord and Novick (1968, chap. 5), has linear axioms and theorems that are entirely parallel to those of regular classical test theory. But, more important to the scope of this article, it also lent statistical sophistication to the intuitive idea that total time and numbers of items completed are equivalent measures of the test taker’s performance (see the example in Lord & Novick, pp. 104‐105). The same idea was present in Gulliksen’s (1950, chap. 17) treatment of speed and power tests. He defined a pure speed test as a test with an unlimited number of items that are easy enough to be answered correctly. Such tests can be scored in two different ways, as (a) the total time used to complete a fixed number of items, and (b) the number of items completed in a fixed time interval. On the other hand, a pure power test was defined by him as a test with unlimited time but a fixed number of items of varying difficulty. Such tests can be scored only by counting the number of correct responses. A fundamental problem exists with respect to the asymmetry between Gulliksen’s scoring rules for speed and power tests. At a practical level, the problem becomes manifest when a test taker produces an incorrect answer on a speed test, which is not very likely for high-ability test takers and easy items but certainly possible. How should we treat such responses? And would it be fair to treat their RTs as equivalent
Statistical arbitrage with vine copulas

We develop a multivariate statistical arbitrage strategy based on vine copulas—a highly flexible instrument for linear and nonlinear multivariate dependence modeling. In an empirical application on the S&P 500, we find statistically and economically significant returns of 9.25% p.a. and a Sharpe ratio of 1.12 after transaction costs for the period from 1992 until 2015. Tail risk is limited, with maximum drawdown at 6.57%. The high returns can only partially be explained by common sources of systematic risk. We benchmark the vine copula strategy against other variants relying on the multivariate Gaussian and t-distribution and we find its results to be superior in terms of risk and return characteristics. The multivariate dependence structure of the vine copulas is time-varying, and we see that the share of copulas capable of modelling upper and lower tail dependences increases well over 90% at times of high market turmoil.
Clinical Relevance of CagA EPIYA Motifs In Helicobacter pylori Among the Dyspeptic Patients in Kenya

Introduction: The Helicobacter pylori cytotoxin-associated gene A (cagA) has been associated with disease severity and its oncogenic potential has been linked to its polymorphic EPIYA motifs whose combinations differ geographically. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of cagA-positive Helicobacter pylori isolated from dyspeptic patients in Kenya and to assess the association of cagA EPIYA motif patterns with clinical outcome. Materials and Methods: H. pylori positivity was determined by histology and molecular diagnostic method directly from the gastric pathologies. The cagA presence and EPIYA Motif patterns were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction from the H. pylori positive samples. Results: The cagA gene was identified in 48.75% of the H. pylori- patients. The cagA per se was not significantly associated with the gastroduodenal diseases. The most occurring EPIYA pattern was the ABC (56.41%) followed by ABCC at 43% and AB at 28.21%. The presumed virulent ABCCC pattern was rare (5.13%). Increase in the number of EPIYA C (more than one C repeat) repeats was significantly associated gastric cancer (OR=6.577 95% CI 1.620-26.704, p=0.008). Conclusion: All the Kenyan cagA EPIYA patterns were of Western type. We found that infection by H. pylori cagA strains with multiple EPIYA C repeats to be associated with gastric cancer but not peptic ulcer in Kenya; but the low prevalence of these strains might contribute to the low incidence of gastric cancer in this country. Determining the EPIYA motifs in CagA, rather than detecting cagA gene alone, would be a better marker for assessing the risk of serious gastric pathology.
Changes in the contents of micro- and trace-elements in wine due to winemaking treatments

Forty-four mineral elements quantified by ICP-OES and ICP-MS were measured in wines, (a) after wine fining, at three pH levels with 10 different bentonites (1 g·l -1 ), (b) after addition of yeast hulls from 2 suppliers to wine (180 and 360 mg·1 -1 ). Bentonite fining resulted in statistically significant increases of the large majority of elements, but in significant lower levels of Cu, K, Rb and Zn. The addition of yeast hulls caused a statistically significant depletion of the contents of Ce, Cu, Fe, La, Sb, U, V and Y.
Relationships in Patagonian species of Berberis (Berberidaceae) based on the characterization of rDNA internal transcribed spacer sequences

Sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of the 18S(ITS1)-5.8S-26S(ITS2) rDNA region was performed in order to analyse the phylogenetic relationships between 13 Patagonian species of the genus Berberis (Berberidaceae). The divergence values between the pairwise sequence in the studied Patagonian species were in the range 2.9–22.9%. The lengths of the ITS1 and ITS2 sequences were in the range 227–231 bp and 220–224 bp, respectively, and the 5.8S sequence was 159 bp throughout all species. B. microphylla sensu Landrum does not appear to be monophyletic based on current sampling. Indeed, we suggest that B. microphylla should be distinguished from B. buxifolia, B. parodii, and B. heterophylla. ITS sequences, together with data obtained from morphological, biochemical, amplified fragment length polymorphism, and cytological characterizations, support the existence of diploid and polyploid hybrid speciation in the genus. © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 153, 321–328.
The Effect of Varying Levels of Tryptophan on Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Growing and Finishing Broilers

The purpose of this experiment was to study the effect of varying levels of tryptophan on the performance and carcass character of broiler. Trial 1: Ninety-six, five-week-old male Hubbard chickens, average weight 1.97 kg,were used in the trial. All birds were allocated into 3 treatments of 32 birds each. Each bird was kept in an individual cage. The trial period was 3 weeks. Treatment 1: Tryptophan content 0.198%. Treatment 2: Tryptophan content 0.228%. Treatment 3: Tryptophan content 0.258%. Trial 2: Ninety-six, three-week-old male Hubbard chickens, average weight 1.23 kg, were randomly distributed into the following two treatments. Each treatment had 48 birds. Treatment 1: Tryptophan content 0.167%. Treatment 2: Tryptophan content 0.198%. Trial 3: Ninety-six, two-week-old Hubbard chickens, average body weight 0.72 kg, were used in this experiment. There were three treatments as follows. Treatment 1. Tryptophan content 0.136%. Treatment 2. Tryptophan content 0.167%. Treatment 3. Tryptophan content 0.198%. The result of Trial 1 showed that the feed intake, performance, and carcass characteristics were not influenced by tryptophan content in the diet which between 0.198% and 0.258% (p>0.05). There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in feed intake in either treatment in Trial 2. However, weight gain, feed conversion efficiency, and most carcass characteristics in the 0.198% treatment were significantly better (p<0.05) than in the 0.167% treatment. There was a trend that feed intake increased with increasing level of tryptophan, but there was no significant difference in Trial 3. The weight gain and feed conversion efficiency were significantly reduced for the broiler in the 0.136% treatment. This series of experiment showed that broilers need about 0.198% of tryptophan.
Age of Onset and Duration of Deafness Drive Brain Organization for Biological Motion Perception in Non-Signers

We used fMRI to characterize the neural responses to biological motion in adults who became deaf at a wide range of ages, none of whom were fluent sign language users. Although hearing people showed stronger activation for communicative than non-communicative gestures throughout the occipito-temporal biological motion and frontal-parietal action perception networks, deaf people showed equivalent levels of activation to both types of stimuli, suggesting an enhanced sensitivity to biological motion. Deaf people exclusively showed responses to communicative gestures in the left superior temporal gyrus (associated with speech processing) and right inferior parietal lobe. Further, earlier onset and longer duration of deafness led to stronger cortical responses in the biological motion and action perception networks, and extended into left superior temporal lobe areas associated with speech and other auditory processing. Together these results demonstrate that auditory deprivation, in the absence of sign language experience, can profoundly change the sensitivity of cortical networks for communicative biological motion processing. Furthermore, we demonstrate for the first time that neuroplastic reorganization of the visual system can occur even in people who became deaf after childhood.
Basic Psychological Needs : Determinants or Correlates of subjective Vitality and Fatigue ?

3 Introduction . 4 1.1 Basic psychological needs . 7 1.2 Subjective vitality and subjective fatigue . 8 Method . 10 2.1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria . 10 2.2 Information sources and search strategy . 11 2.3 Selection of eligible studies . 12 2.4 Data collection . 14 2.5 Quality assessment . 14 2.6 Data analysis . 15 2.7 Data management . 16 Results . 16 3.1 Aims, settings, samples, examined relationships and manipulation procedures . 16 3.2 Definitions and measurement tools . 18 3.3 What is the current causal evidence for a positive relationship between satisfaction of the basic psychological need for autonomy, competence and relatedness and subjective vitality? 19 3.4 What is the current causal evidence for a negative relationship between satisfaction of the basic psychological need for relatedness and subjective fatigue? 21 3.5 Regarding subjective vitality, what is the current causal evidence for the assumption that the three basic psychological needs are related but and yet distinct necessary psychological nutriments? 21 Discussion . 22 4.1 Basic psychological needs: determinants or only correlates of subjective vitality and subjective fatigue? 23 4.2 Does current causal evidence support the assumption that the basic psychological needs are related but yet distinct necessary psychological nutriments for subjective vitality? 25 4.3 Variety in samples and contexts . 26 4.4 Operationalization of the basic psychological needs and subjective vitality . 26 Thieler, I. (2017). Basic Psychological Needs: Determinants or only Correlates of subjective Vitality and Fatigue? A systematic review of the literature: University of Twente. 2 4.5 Psychometric quality of the measurement tools . 26 4.6 Ways to manipulate satisfaction of the basic psychological needs . 28 4.7 Strengths and limitations . 29 4.8 Practical implications and directions for future research . 29 Conclusion . 31 Literature . 33 Appendix . 43 Appendix A . 43 Appendix B . 43 Appendix C . 44 Thieler, I. (2017). Basic Psychological Needs: Determinants or only Correlates of subjective Vitality and Fatigue? A systematic review of the literature: University of Twente.
The impact of alternative food for education programs on learning achievement and cognitive development in Northern Uganda

This brief summarizes the impact of alternative food for education programs on learning achievement and cognitive development in Northern Uganda. Food for education (FFE) programs, including free or subsidized on-site school feeding programs (SFP) and take-home rations conditional on school attendance (THR), are often used to improve school attendance, but the ultimate goal is to improve student learning. Improving the nutrition of malnourished students while they learn may also improve cognitive function. This paper presents evidence from a randomized prospective field experiment conducted in Northern Uganda from 2005-2007 on the impacts of alternative primary school FFE programs on learning and cognitive development. The evaluation compares outcomes between three randomly assigned groups: beneficiaries of World Food Program SFP program, beneficiaries of an experimental THR program giving equivalent food transfers, and a control group. Learning achievement is measured by math and literacy test scores and by results of the national Primary Leaving Exam (PLE). Neither program has a significant impact on math or literacy test scores for 6-14 year olds. Both nutrition programs have a significant positive impact on math scores of 11-14 year olds. Take home ration recipients had a significant decline in literacy test scores. For math, both programs lead to a significant increase in scores for boys but no impact for girls. For literacy exams, boys exhibit no impact while the program leads to a significantly negative impact for girl's literacy. Neither program had a significant impact on the raven's reasoning and perception tests or on the digit span forward, although girls exhibit a mild positive impact. The nutrition programs had a significant impact on digit span backwards test.
On the cause of the 1908 Messina tsunami, southern Italy

A century after the catastrophic event, the sources of the 1908 Messina, Southern Italy, earthquake and tsunami, which caused at least 60,000 deaths, remain uncertain. Through a simple backward ray‐tracing method, we convert the tsunami travel‐time data reported in a 100‐years‐old paper into distances and find that the sources of the earthquake and tsunami are different. Overturning a long‐held assumption, reconsideration of the available tsunami, bathymetric, seismic, and seismological data indicates that the tsunami was generated by an underwater landslide.
Agency Issues in a Family - Controlled Corporate Governance Structure - The Case of Italy

This study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between dividend payout ratios, executive compensation and agency costs in Italy. Corporate governance in Italy is distinguished by the fact that a large number of Italian firms are family controlled, which may theoretically reduce asymmetry of information and associated agency costs. Using a panel of listed manufacturing firms we find evidence that family control plays a significant role in resolving agency issues, i.e. that increases in family control of the firm lead to a higher dividend payout. Nevertheless, as we also find that managerial compensations are negatively related to dividend payout ratios, even in this family controlled environment, dividends do play their role in mitigating agency problems.
The Rise and Decline of Economic Policy as an Autonomous Discipline: A Critical Survey

After Smith’s statement of the market virtues the process of gestation of economic policy as a consistent set of rules for public agenda has been rather slow. Until not so long ago economic policy as a discipline was confined to prescribing practical rules intended to explain technical procedures of government intervention. Economic policy as a coherent and to some extent autonomous discipline emerged in the late 1950s in Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and Italy, when solid foundations indicating market failures and a theory about conditions for policy effectiveness and design had been developed. This paper intends to explain the reasons for its emergence, the circumstances which helped it to be taught in many Scandinavian, Dutch and Italian universities and a few other European ones, the reasons for its apparent setback and some factors that could facilitate its diffusion in the next years.
Vegetation structure and small-scale pattern in Miombo Woodland, Marondera, Zimbabwe

The aim ol this paper is to describe woodland structure and small-scale patterning of woody plants at a miombo site, and to relate these to past disturbance and soil properties. Brachystegia spiciformis Benth. and Julbemardia globiflora (Benth.) Troupin were the most frequent woody plants at the five hectare site, with size-class distributions which were markedly skewed towards the smaller size classes. The vegetation structure at the site and the increase in basal area over the past thirty years point to considerable disturbance prior to the present protected status. Six woodland subtypes were identified, grouped into two structural types: open and closed woodland. The distribution of woodland subtypes related closely to certain soil properties. It was hypothesized that the distribution of open and closed woodland is stable and a positive feedback mechanism by which this occurs is postulated.
Prion protein gene polymorphisms and breeding for scrapie resistance in the Black-headed sheep

The goal of the study was to determine the frequenc y of prion protein (PrP) alleles and genotypes in a flock of the Blackheaded sheep, carrying out the simulation of classi cal scrapie resistance breeding, as well as to inve stigate the association between PrP genotypes and lifetime prolificacy in the first , second, and third year of reproductive performanc e in this sheep. The study covered 95 sheep (79 ewes, 16 rams). Polymorphisms in codons 136, 154, and 171 of the prion protein ge ne were detected by means of PCR-RFLP method, using the following enzymes: Bsp HI ( Pag I), Bsp DI and Bs eLI. Based on obtained frequencies of PrP alleles, the classical scrapie resistance mating simulation was carried out. The relationship between PrP genot ype and lifetime prolificacy was analysed by the means of χ-square test of independence. Two alleles - ARR and ARQ, and two genotypes - ARR/ARR and ARR/ARQ were identified in the investigated sheep. The most frequent was ARR allele (82.6%) in both ewes (81%) and rams (90.6%). The study on the simulation of classical s crapie resistance breeding revealed a continuous gr owth of frequency of ARR/ARR individuals, starting from generation F1. The result of χ-square test did not confirm the hypothesis of asso ciation between PrP genotype and lifetime prolificacy, which sugges ts that classical scrapie resistance breeding shoul d not have an influence on reproduction traits of Black-headed sheep, at least on the analysed ones.
Various FSH Administration on Superovulatory Response and Embryo Yield in Anatolian Black Heifers

Bu calismanin amaci Yerli Kara duvelerde superovulasyon olusturma ve embriyo elde etme yonunde iki farkli follikul uyarici hormonunun etkinligini gozlemlemekti. Duvelere 1.56 g progesteron iceren Cue-mate uygulandi. Duveler dort gruba ayrildi. Folltropin (F) grubuna control olarak 400 mg folltropin diger taraftan Ovagen (O) grubuna ise sirasiyla 8.8 mg (O1), 11.4 (O2) ve 17.6 (O3) olmak uzere Ovagen uygulandi. Superovulasyon protokolunun 9. gununde Cue-mate cikarildi ve gruplardaki tum ineklere 500 μg prostaglandinF2α yapildi. 11. gun aksam ve 12. gun sabah olmak uzere 12 saat ara ile tum ineklere Yerli Kara bogalardan alinan spermalar ile suni tohumlama yapildi. Suni tohumlama uygulamasindan 7 gun sonra embriyo elde etme calismasi ile embriyolar toplandi. Ortalama CL sayilari F grubunda 6.33 ± 0.718 belirlenirken, O grubunda uygulanan uc farkli dozdan (sirasiyla 3.82 ± 0.502, 3.50 ± 0.513, 3.58 ± 0.448; p 0.05). Sonuc olarak, bulgular F grubunda yapilan uygulamanin CL, elde edilen embriyo ve ovum sayisini artirmasina ragmen transfer edilebilir embriyo sayisina olumlu bir etkisinin olmadigini gosterdi.
Improvements in the Modeling of the Self-ignition of Tetrafluoroethylene

In order to prevent incidents in the industrial production of Teflon® from Tetrafluoroethylene (TFE), the safety related aspects of the self-heating process of TFE must be taken into account. Simulations of this self heating process were performed with COMSOL Reaction Engineering Lab® and COMSOL® COMSOL Multiphysics®. A complex reaction net was employed, resulting in a model allows for a good agreement with experimentally achieved results.
Critical Thinking: A Literature Review Research Report

Critical thinking includes the component skills of analyzing arguments, making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning, judging or evaluating, and making decisions or solving problems. Background knowledge is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for enabling critical thought within a given subject. Critical thinking involves both cognitive skills and dispositions. These dispositions, which can be seen as attitudes or habits of mind, include openand fair-mindedness, inquisitiveness, flexibility, a propensity to seek reason, a desire to be wellinformed, and a respect for and willingness to entertain diverse viewpoints. There are both generaland domain-specific aspects of critical thinking. Empirical research suggests that people begin developing critical thinking competencies at a very young age. Although adults often exhibit deficient reasoning, in theory all people can be taught to think critically. Instructors are urged to provide explicit instruction in critical thinking, to teach how to transfer to new contexts, and to use cooperative or collaborative learning methods and constructivist approaches that place students at the center of the learning process. In constructing assessments of critical thinking, educators should use open-ended tasks, real-world or “authentic” problem contexts, and ill-structured problems that require students to go beyond recalling or restating previously learned information. Such tasks should have more than one defensible solution and embed adequate collateral materials to support multiple perspectives. Finally, such assessment tasks should make student reasoning visible by requiring students to provide evidence or logical arguments in support of judgments, choices, claims, or assertions.