Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emotional stimuli reduce the attentional blink in sub-clinical anxious subjects

It has been documented that high anxious subjects process emotional stimuli in a very special way that sometimes has been characterized as an attentional bias toward them. Our main purpose here is to test whether emotional and neutral words would produce different magnitudes of the effect known as attentional blink (AB) on high-trait anxious subjects, but not on low-trait subjects. Participants had to identify the only white word (target 1) in a stream of black words displayed using the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) technique, and detect if a probe word (target 2) is present in the series. The words used as target 1 could be emotional or neutral. The results show that the emotional information reduces the magnitude of the AB only for the high-trait anxiety group. The implications of these results for both theoretical and practical fields are discussed in terms of the subjects high level of automaticity to process emotional information.
The Plant Root

A unique integrative analysis is proposed to monitor changes in the developmental processes of a particular cell type in the root, i.e. the rates of cell differentiation, production, and elongation. As a model case, effects of exogenous ethylene on differentiation, division and elongation of endodermal cells were analyzed in maize primary roots. The distance from the lowest position of the Casparian strip, a morphological marker for endodermal cell differentiation, to the root tip decreased in response to ethylene in a dose-dependent manner. The endodermal cell flux in a single cell file, an indicator for cell division, decreased in response to ethylene, although the estimated time required for an individual cell to complete the formation of the Casparian strip, as an indicator for the cell differentiation rate, did not. As indicators for cell elongation, the mature cell length did not change in the presence of ethylene, although the period for cell elongation increased. The Casparian strip formed after the endodermal cell had ceased elongation, irrespective of the presence of ethylene.
Governing the Innovation

This article sums up the results of research oriented to analyze dynamics and outputs related to the development of two different technological parks in the North-East of Italy: the Area Science Park of Trieste and the Vega of Venezia. The research has tried to find an answer to the following question: what is the regulation model more efficient to implement good innovation policies? The article argues that, to achieve an efficient innovation governance, it is needed a strong regulation by the innovation broker – the central hub of the innovation network, able to support interactions among innovation-makers and innovation-takers. To test this hypothesis, the empirical research has used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. In the Area Science Park, good innovation performance appears strictly connected to strong regulation of the technological transfer process. In the Vega, differently, low innovation performances are combined with weak innovation regulation. The paper concludes that institutional settings at the local level can be powered by a model of governance innovation able to combine autonomous interactions among main actors involved in technological innovation with a strong regulation of the process by the innovation broker.
The role of Spanish schools in providing environmental knowledge in science

Previous studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between environmental education and pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes. The aim of this study is to describe an empirical approach to measuring aspects of environmental science literacy through using data from OECD PISA 2006 in Spain. Four that purpose, we use multilevel model is to analyze in detail the impact of school activities and other additional sources on the environmental education of 15-years-old students. Our findings show that schools have a secondary role in the provision of environmental knowledge, since only few activities have a significant influence on students’ environmental performance, while media seem to have a major role in providing that information.
Effects of sterilising filtration on microbiological stability, chemical composition and sensory properties of red wine

It was studied the effects of the sterilising fi ltration on the microbiological stability, chemical composition and sensory properties of a red wine that has not undergone malolactic fermentation and that needed to be bottled. The fi ltration was performed in a pilot-scale system composed by a set of membranes in series: a prefi ltration membrane of 5 m (fi berglass), followed by the sterilising membranes of 1 m (fi berglass), 0.6 m (fi berglass) and 0.45 m (polyethersulfone). The results obtained showed that the levels of microorganisms decreased considerably after the sterilising fi ltration, without detection of microorganisms at the wines fi ltered with the membranes of 0.6 m and 0.45 m. The total phenolic content and the chromatic characteristics of the fi ltered wines were affected by the procedure under study, varying over the time of storage. After two months of storage, the fi ltered wine cannot be distinguished from the non-fi ltered wine by their phenolic content, being the wine fi ltered with the 0.6 m membrane more similar to the control group. Except for lightness, there was a remarkable positive evolution of the chromatic characteristics of the wine, especially in the wine fi ltered with 0.45 m. This suggests that two months after fi ltration the wines have actually reached its balance, along with the required microbiological stability. From the sensory point of view, there were no signifi cant effects on the colour intensity, aroma quality, fl avour quality and overall quality of the fi ltered wines after one month of storage. After two months of storage, there was a signifi cant increment on colour intensity, which is in agreement with the effects observed in the chromatic characteristics. Although there were no signifi cant differences among wines in the other sensory properties, there was a preference, corresponding to high quality, for the wine fi ltered with 1 m membrane, followed by the wine fi ltered with 0.6 m membrane.
EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and their Actual Classroom Practices: Any Difference?

The present study investigated the possible difference between EFL teachers’ beliefs and their actual classroom practices. To this end, 210 Iranian EFL teachers (103 teachers from high schools and 107 from language institutes) participated in the study. The 45-item Likert-scale Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) developed originally by Horwitz, (1985) and validated by Kasraee Nejad (2014) for the context of Iran and an observation checklist, devised and validated by the researchers, comprised the data collection instruments adopted in the current study. The results of paired t-test revealed statistically significant differences between beliefs of Iranian EFL teachers and their actual classroom practices. Moreover, the results of Independent Samples t-test indicated that the two groups of high school and language institute teachers were significantly different with regard to their beliefs on language learning. In addition, the results of Chi-square analysis demonstrated 43 out of 45 teachers’ specific beliefs were significantly different from their actual classroom practices. In the light of the findings of the present study, educational policy makers and managers in both high schools and language institutes are recommended to introduce ways to raise EFL teachers’ awareness of their beliefs to enhance their efficiency in their actual classroom practices.
International Students' Choice Behavior for Higher Education at

The paper is to examine the selection criteria by international students of their higher education at private higher learning institutions in Malaysia. It focuses on factors which private international students considered important in their decision of choosing Malaysia as their educational destination. A questionnaire was designed to include 48 factors for selection of learning destination. Through judgmental sampling the data were solicited from 565 international students using survey instrument. These were analyzed on principal components factor analysis to ascertain factors related to their criteria to study in Malaysia. The results shown that six factors have a strong influence on international students’ decision-making process, namely, quality of learning environment, influencers, customer focus, cost, facilities, socialization and location. Further, through MANOVA, it was found that customer focus and facilities are the main factors used by respondents in their choice decisions. These factors should be considered by colleges’ managers to develop their marketing strategies in attracting foreign students to enroll at their institutions. It is also important for positioning strategy and strengthening higher learning institution offerings to the foreign market.
Sinthesis of polyphenol glycoside by using maltodextrin through enzymatic transglycosilation reaction of bacterial strain

Indigenous microbial strains produced a glycosyl transfer enzyme (CGTase EC. 2.4.1.19) of Bacillus licheniformis BL-1 in an acetate buffer pH 5.5 at 45EsC for 24h, yielding polyphenol glycoside as transfer product in the present of maltodextrins those were hydrolysed from different sources of starch as a donor-substrate and polyphenols from rhyzomes as an acceptor those were considered to have interesting biological activity such as antimicrobial and antioxidant. It was found that polyphenol-glycoside, as the transfer product, exhibited high antimicrobial activity at MIC 200ppm on the growth of Bacillus substilis, Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, however no effected when it was assayed on Candida tropicalis, while arbutin and flavonoid-aglycon showed very low inhibitory activity on the growth of two out of four tested microbial strains. We suggested that the polyphenol glycoside possessed antioxidative activity from the view point of retaining the bleaching value of I²-carotene. The result showed that polyphenol glycoside was found to be higher than of arbutin as authentic glycoside and polyphenol aglycone, however, it was lower than of BHT (butylated hydroxy toluene), a commercial antioxidant product. This result suggested that polyphenol glycoside possessed considerable antioxidative activity by chelating free radicals, and this effect seem to be available for practical use.
The Paradox of Success: An Archival and a Laboratory Study of Strategic Persistence Following Radical Environmental Change

An archival study of the airline and trucking industries over a ten-year period and a laboratory study revealed that greater past success led to greater strategic persistence after a radical environmental change, and such persistence induced performance declines. The laboratory study also demonstrated that dysfunctional persistence is due to greater satisfaction with past performance, more confidence in the correctness of current strategies, higher goals and self-efficacy, and less seeking of information ixom critics.
The roles of intermediaries in a regional knowledge system

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide a tool to map the critical roles of intermediate organizations. To clarify the concept of intermediate organizations in a regional context, especially from the network dynamics point‐of‐view. Design/methodology/approach – Regional dynamics are presented as networks of production, development and innovation in the regional cluster. The intermediaries are divided into national, regional and local level actors. The roles of the intermediaries from the network dynamics point‐of‐view are then illustrated with examples from a case study in a medical technology cluster located in a sparsely inhabited area in Finland. Findings – According to the results of the case study, the regional intermediaries have the most important role in the creation and supporting of the network dynamics. The most critical roles include forming shared innovation strategies between the actors and attracting anchor tenants to the region. Research limitations/implications – The characteristics of the case region are discussed in a generic sense with the concepts of social capital and communities of practice. Practical implications – Conceptually, the article provides an approach to reducing the complexity of the regional networks to a more understandable level. The model provides a tool for the decision makers in a region to define the critical roles of the intermediaries from the network dynamics point‐of‐view. Originality/value – The novel approach introduced in this paper addresses three gaps in existing research: it helps to define the concept of an intermediary in a regional context; it shows that the intermediaries have a much broader role in a region than just knowledge transfer and that the roles of the intermediaries differ on national, regional and local levels.
Cognitive Impairment in Patients with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Objectives: To evaluate the frequency and the type of cognitive impairment (CI) in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and to determine eventual risk factors for its occurrence. Methods: We have conducted across-sectional study in TLE patients and healthy controls (HC). All of them underwent neuropsychological assessment by using a large battery of tests to detect CI. EEG and Cerebral MRI were performed for all patients. Results: Thirty-two TLE patients and thirty matched HC were enrolled. The mean age of our patients was 35 ± 8.3 yrs. The rate duration of evolution epilepsy until the appearance of CI was 14 ± 10 yrs. In our study, comparative neuropsychological assessment between TLE patients and controls demonstrates that epileptic patients have an impairment of many cognitive processes. The most common CI are: alteration of reaction and processing speed (100% of cases), attention deficit (93.6% of cases), deterioration in verbal episodic memory (87.5% of cases) and visual episodic memory (78.1% of cases). Verbal fluency and working memory are impaired in respectively 3/4 and about half (53.1%) of our patients. At the opposite, executive and visual-spatial functions are rarely affected. Neuropsychological scores worsen with advanced age, long duration of epilepsy, high seizure frequency, clonazepam intake and presence of temporal lesion at cerebral MRI. However, high level of education seems to be protective. TLE patients with lesion evolving the temporal lobe of the dominant hemisphere have had lower scores, especially in tests for verbal memory. At the opposite, when the other side is affected, only the episodic visual memory is impaired. Conclusion: CI is frequent in TLE and alters the quality of patient’s life. We emphasize the importance of periodical neuropsychological assessment to detect early CI and undertake the adequate measures to prevent patient to get worse.
Characterization of Community Composition and Forest Structure in a Madagascar Lowland Rainforest

This study documents the community composition and forest structure of lowland rainforest in eastern Madagascar, with a first quantitative description of the primary lowland rainforest of Reserve Naturelle Intégrale de (RNI) Betampona. An intensive field survey of vegetation and environmental factors was conducted over two consecutive field campaigns in RNI Betampona, an isolated primary forest reserve located ca. 40 km northwest of the city of Toamasina. One hundred 10 m-diameter vegetation survey plots were inventoried and re-measured in 2004 and 2005. Two hundred forty-four tree species belonging to 49 families comprised the 2,487 stems greater than or equal to 5cm diameter at breast height (DBH) measured in 2004, with an average of 19.27 species per plot (2,227 and 15.71 respectively in 2005). Stem density per plot ranged from 12 to 52 for trees ≥5cm-DBH in 2004 (12 to 38 in 2005), while regeneration stems less than 5cm-DBH had a per-plot average of 57.28 in 2005 (range 19 to 140) and 94.19 (range 22 to 224) per hectare in 2004. The substantial decrease in ≥5cm-DBH trees and in stems ≥5cm-DBH from 2004 to 2005 suggests a forest undergoing thinning, perhaps following recovery from gap formation. Importance Value Indices (IVI) calculated for tree species indicated that an unidentified Uapaca species, Ravenala madagascariensis, Anthostema madagascariensis, Canarium spp and Cassipourea lanceolata were the most important species according to their overall frequency, dominance and abundance values, and accounted for 10% of the overall IVI.
Effect of Matrix Cracks on Damping in Unidirectional and Cross-Ply Ceramic Matrix Composites

The paper elucidates the methodsof estimating damping in ceramic matrix composites (CMC) with matrix cracks. Unidirectional composites with bridging matrix cracks and cross-ply laminates with tunneling cracks in transverse layers and bridging cracks in longitudinal layers are considered. It is shown that bridging matrix cracksdra matically increase damping in unidirectional CMC due to a dissipation of energy along damaged sections of the fiber–matrix interface (interfacial friction). Such friction is absent in the case of tunneling cracks in transverse layers of cross-ply laminates where the changes in damping due to a degradation of the stiffness remain small. However, damping in cross-ply laminates abruptly increases, if bridging cracks appear in the longitudinal layers.
Factors Influencing Employees’ Intention to Leave Current Employment in the Ministry of Information in Kuwait

The main purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence the employee’s intention to leave the current employment in the Ministry of Information in Kuwait. A descriptive survey design was conducted and data were collected using a self-administrative questionnaire. Based on convenience sampling, a sample of 200 was drawn from the employees who work in different departments of the Kuwait ministry of information to make the sample representative. The results of this study demonstrated that employees’ perception of commitment and job satisfaction are the two main factors that negatively affect the employees’ intentions to leave. The results also showed a negative relationship between job engagement and the intention to leave the job. The employees’ perception of support and complexity were shown to be positively affecting the intention to leave. This research concludes that understanding the factors that influence the employee’s intention to leave current employment is crucial for improve the human resources practices in the public organizations particularly the ministry of information in the Kuwait. Keywords: Intention to Leave, Support, commitment and complexity, Job Engagement, Job Satisfaction.
Is restorative justice conferencing appropriate for youth offenders?

While many studies on restorative justice conferencing (RJC) for youth offenders have shown favourable outcomes such as victim satisfaction and fairness, and offender accountability and perceived legitimacy, other studies have demonstrated more problematic outcomes in terms of mutual understanding, sincerity of apology and reoffending. Given the complexity of RJC as a concept and as a process, such ‘limits’ might be attributed to the capacity and characteristics of youth offenders. To date, however, there has been little examination of developmental, cognitive or environmental impediments on the part of youth offenders in terms of achieving restorative outcomes in RJC. This article discusses the potential impacts of limited developmental and cognitive capacities of youth offenders on the RJC process and outcomes.
TRASCRIPTOME ANALYSIS REVEALS GENES COMMONLY INDUCED BY BOTRYTIS CINEREA INFECTION, COLD, DROUGHT AND OXIDATIVE STRESSES IN ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA

Signaling pathways controlling biotic and abiotic stress responses may interact synergistically or antagonistically. To identify the similarities and differences among responses to diverse stresses, we analyzed previously published microarray data on the transcriptomic responses of Arabidopsis thaliana to infection with Botrytis cinerea (a biotic stress), and to cold, drought, and oxidative stresses (abiotic stresses). Our analyses showed that at early stages after B. cinerea inoculation, 1498 genes were up-regulated (B. cinerea up-regulated genes; BUGs) and 1138 genes were down-regulated (B. cinerea down-regulated genes; BDGs). We showed a unique program of gene expression was activated in response each biotic and abiotic stress, but that some genes were similarly induced or repressed by all of the tested stresses. Of the identified BUGs, 25%, 6% and 12% were also induced by cold, drought and oxidative stress, respectively; whereas 33%, 7% and 5.5% of the BDGs were also down-regulated by the same abiotic stresses. Coexpression and protein-protein interaction network analyses revealed a dynamic range in the expression levels of genes encoding regulatory proteins. Analysis of gene expression in response to electrophilic oxylipins suggested that these compounds are involved in mediating responses to B. cinerea infection and abiotic stress through TGA transcription factors. Our results suggest an overlap among genes involved in the responses to biotic and abiotic stresses in A. thaliana. Changes in the transcript levels of genes encoding components of the cyclopentenone signaling pathway in response to biotic and abiotic stresses suggest that the oxylipin signal transduction pathway plays a role in plant defense. Identifying genes that are commonly expressed in response to
Isolation and identification of microorganism from polyhouse agriculture soil of Rajasthan

The present work deals with the isolation and characterization of microorganisms from polyhouse agriculture soil of Jharna village (Rajasthan). Several bacteria and fungi were isolated from polyhouse soil, using serial dilution method. These bacterial isolates were Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter aerogenes, Shigella sp. , Proteus mirabilis, Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis species which were further identified on the basis of colony morphology, Gram staining, biochemical tests and using selective and differential media. Identification of fungi such as Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium oxysporum, Trichoderma sp. and Rhizopus sp. was carried out by culturing on potato dextrose and sabouraud’s dextrose agar media and microscopic method. Microorganisms play an important function in biodegradation of solid agriculture waste and also help in the crop production. Key words: Bacteria, fungi, agriculture, polyhouse.