Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Classroom Competitions to Prepare Students For the Competitive Business World

This paper describes how a university, collaborating with industry, integrated research with active learning (e.g., collaboration in teams and competitions) for fashion majors. The redesigned introductory course uses two strategies: team competitions and a genius bar to guide students, give ongoing feedback, and judge final competitions. Active learning brings reality to the classroom, guiding students to transform information into knowledge, and motivating students to apply textbook theories and practice skills in a real world business setting. The course is based on previous calls by academicians recommending students encounter real world work environments so they will not graduate inadequately prepared for work situations. The need for research skills and integrated thinking is reinforced by regional, national and international accrediting agencies (SACS, 2012).
Dead Sea evaporation by eddy covariance measurements vs. aerodynamic, energy budget, Priestley–Taylor, and Penman estimates

The Dead Sea is a terminal lake, located in an arid environment. Evaporation is the key component of the Dead Sea water budget and accounts for the main loss of water. So far, lake evaporation has been determined by indirect methods only and not measured directly. Consequently, the governing factors of evaporation are unknown. For the first time, long-term eddy covariance measurements were performed at the western Dead Sea shore for a period of 1 year by implementing a new concept for onshore lake evaporation measurements. To account for lake evaporation during offshore wind conditions, a robust and reliable multiple regression model was developed using the identified governing factors wind velocity and water vapour pressure deficit. An overall regression coefficient of 0.8 is achieved. The measurements show that the diurnal evaporation cycle is governed by three local wind systems: a lake breeze during daytime, strong downslope winds in the evening, and strong northerly along-valley flows during the night. After sunset, the strong winds cause half-hourly evaporation rates which are up to 100 % higher than during daytime. The median daily evaporation is 4.3 mm d −1 in July and 1.1 mm d −1 in December. The annual evaporation of the water surface at the measurement location was 994±88 mm a −1 from March 2014 until March 2015. Furthermore, the performance of indirect evaporation approaches was tested and compared to the measurements. The aerodynamic approach is applicable for sub-daily and multi-day calculations and attains correlation coefficients between 0.85 and 0.99. For the application of the Bowen ratio energy budget method and the Priestley–Taylor method, measurements of the heat storage term are inevitable on timescales up to 1 month. Otherwise strong seasonal biases occur. The Penman equation was adapted to calculate realistic evaporation, by using an empirically gained linear function for the heat storage term, achieving correlation coefficients between 0.92 and 0.97. In summary, this study introduces a new approach to measure lake evaporation with a station located at the shoreline, which is also transferable to other lakes. It provides the first directly measured Dead Sea evaporation rates as well as applicable methods for evaporation calculation. The first one enables us to further close the Dead Sea water budget, and the latter one enables us to facilitate water management in the region.
Development and Validation of Children's Environmental Affect (Attitude, Sensitivity and Willingness to Take Action) Scale.

Background:This study focuses on the design, development, validation, and psychometric properties of the Children’s Environmental Affect Scale (CEAS). The following steps were taken in developing the CEAS.Materials and methods:A substantial review of literature on environmental affect and EL helped the researchers identify several scales and questionnaires that, in turn, help establish the item pool. The initial scale derived from this item pool was reviewed by the selected experts (n=17) and then pilot tested with 673 students in 4th -5th grades. These pilot data were subjected to Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) to reveal the dimensions underlying these pilot items. Later, the revised version of the scale was administrated to 2412 students in 5th grade as part of a national assessment. The data from this full study were used to validate the factorial structure observed in EFA through using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) procedures in AMOS.Results:The final version of the CEAS employs a Likert-type scale to measure 14 items that reflect three sub-scales; Willingness to take environmental action (5 items, α= .87), Environmental Attitudes (5 items, α= .82) and Environmental Sensitivity (4 items, α= .67). Conclusions:-
Light distribution in Chinese solar greenhouse and its effect on plant growth

Chinese solar greenhouse (CSG) is universally applied in northern China for producing horticultural products. CSG is characterized by the unbalanced structures with an arched front roof face to the south side and a thick wall as well as back roof in the north side. Such structures affect light distribution in the greenhouse. This study aims to investigate the light distribution properties in CSG from north to south sections, and to investigate tomato plant growth performance in the corresponding locations. Experiments were carried out in a CSG which was divided into three equal sections from north to south side. Tomato was grown in the greenhouse. Results showed that PAR intensity in the south and middle sections of CSG was permanently higher than the north section. This resulted in a distinct plant growth performance in CSG. Specifically, plants grown in the north section of CSG exhibited a shade avoidance response with stem elongation phenotype and leaf expansion. Furthermore, the north-plants showed lower leaf photosynthetic capacity which correlated with a lower total nitrogen and chlorophyll contents in comparison with the plants grown in the middle and south sections. Taken together, plants in the north section of CSG produced less total biomass than the middle and south section plants. We conclude that plant growth is not uniform in CSG due to heterogeneous light distribution which was caused by unbalanced greenhouse structures. This study may provide sound evidence for exploring a proper lighting strategy as well as fine crop management in CSG.
A tactical asset allocation strategy that exploits variations in VIX

Buy and hold strategies make staying disciplined difficult for investors, especially given the variability of returns for different asset classes/strategies during divergent market conditions. Market timing strategies, on the other hand, present significant theoretical benefits, but in reality these benefits are difficult to obtain. Tactical asset allocation, where limited deviations from the strategic allocation are allowed permits the portfolio manager to take advantage of market conditions fits between these two extremes. The authors correlate daily returns for each of eighteen separate asset classes typically used in diversified institutional portfolios and daily closing values of the VIX (the ticker symbol for the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index). This information is used to select those classes whose returns are most responsive to the level of the VIX. Portfolio allocations for eight selected asset classes are revised depending on the level of the VIX at the daily close of the market. The portfolio is rebalanced on the business day following the day the VIX hits the trigger value. The VIX tactical allocation overlay yields an increase in return over the buy and hold portfolio of approximately 38 basis points. The authors conclude that the tactical asset allocation strategy based on the level of VIX provides a higher return than the neutral buy and hold allocation with a higher Sharpe ratio and lower volatility.
Self-Monitoring of Skill Acquisition through Self-Evaluation of Capabilities.

Using a common methodology, two experiments examined the effects of learning and performance goals in conjunction with self-evaluation as fourth-graders acquired mathematical fraction skills. After a pretest on fractions, self-efficacy, skill persistence, and goal orientation, children in the first study--who were average achievers in mathematics--received instruction on addition and subtraction of fractions over seven sessions, and worked under conditions involving learning goals or performance goals. Six self-evaluations were conducted, and a posttest followed. In the second study, which was designed to explore conditions under which learning goals might be more effective than performance goals in raising achievement outcomes, self-evaluation and preand posttests were also included. The two studies showed that providing students with a goal of learning to solve problems enhances their self-efficacy, skill, motivation, and task orientation, and that these achievement outcomes also are promoted by allowing students to evaluate their performance capabilities or progress in skill acqu'sition. (DR) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Ottic ui . riocai Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 7,This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organizati. in originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality N Points of view or opinions stated in this C-4 document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy 00 Cn Self-Monitoring of Skill Acquisition Through Self-Evaluation of Capabilities Dale H. Schunk School of Education Purdue University "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAG BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC). " 1 Presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April 1995. (NI Correspondence should be addressed to: Dale H. Schunk, 1446 LAEB Room 5108, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
A Comparison Study of Students’ Performance in Pre and Post Result of A Mathematics Competency Test

The objective of this study was to compare the performance of Engineering Technology (ET) students’ in a Pre and Post Mathematics Competency Test during their first year of study at the Faculty of Engineering Technology (FTK), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM). This article also aims to examine the student’s understanding in the area of Mathematics, particularly in Algebra, Trigonometry and Functions. A total of 176 first year students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology (JTKM) were chosen to answer the Mathematics Competency Test. The pre-test was held in the first week of the semester, while the post-test was held during the second semester. The results showed that the students’ performance in post-test was better compared to that pre-test. However, statistical analysis on students’ performance by each question showed that most of the students did not understand the basic concepts in Algebra, Trigonometry and Functions.
Task trade and employment patterns: The offshoring and onshoring of Brazilian firms

ABSTRACT The present paper tackles the question whether firms in a middle-wage country offshore production to save labor costs or if they onshore tasks that were offshored from high-wage countries. To distinguish which is the empirically more relevant case, I analyze the effect of importing intermediate inputs on the labor composition using matched employer–employee data and information on trade transactions from the universe of Brazilian firms. Propensity score matching indicates that an intermediate import expansion at the extensive margin leads to employment growth, higher intensities in routine and non-routine manual tasks and an increased share of intermediates exports. These findings thus point out that Brazil's intermediate imports predominantly represent onshored tasks. This result holds regardless of whether intermediate imports from high- or low-wage countries are considered. In line with theoretical considerations, the data show that Brazil's comparative advantage is in medium-complex and routine manual intensive production stages.
ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES IN LEXICAL ACQUISITION

The emergence of morphological patterns from lexical storage in language acquisition is conditioned by language-specific factors as well as extra-linguistic cognitive capacities. With particular reference to the acquisition of plural markers in German, in a memory-based perspective highlighting interesting theoretical implications for usage-based models, the paper analyses acquisitional strategies by focussing on emergent rela- tions between stored word forms and on dynamic expectation/competition of incoming input. In particular, we outline an adaptive multifactorial ac- count of morphological processing that includes both frequency and for- mal factors. Our investigation is supported by a computational model of morphology acquisition/processing based on self-organisation memories, where word representations are dynamically recoded as time-series.
Funding under Borrowing Limits in International Portfolios

I develop an open economy portfolio model to study how leveraged investors' wholesale funding affects the international transmission of shocks. Under binding borrowing limits, there is a link between the international investment positions of integrated economies as investors diversify the asset side of their balance sheets. Building on this mechanism, I introduce the liability side, allowing investors sell domestic and foreign bonds and capturing changes in counterparty risk in a stylized way (i.e., debt-to-asset ratios are specific to each borrower and time-varying). I model and parameterize these ratios, conditional on portfolio choice. I can solve for portfolios taking advantage of the link between assets and liabilities which is implied by the borrowing constraints. Equilibrium portfolios feature home funding bias, which is justified by a crucial interaction between the terms of trade and the tightness of the borrowing constraints. Dynamically, this interaction implies that the source of debt which is most sensitive to shocks is foreign funding. In fact, any shock creates a wedge between the cost of funding in different countries; the value of collateral must adjust accordingly through asset prices. Yet, asset prices are mainly affected by financiers' concern for counterparty risk: impact effects are deep and in line with the terms of trade effect. Combined, these effects have somehow novel implications for the net foreign asset positions. The cumulative effects have instead more mixed results on fluctuations.
Physiological assessment of growth regulators on growth, yield and quality traits of basmati rice (Oryza sativa L.)

In the present study, a field experiment with eleven treatments and three replications of each treatments was conducted with Randomised Block Design (RBD) inStudent Instructional Farm, C. S. Azad Uni. of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, (U.P), India, to explored new approach for yield and quality enhancement. Basmati rice plants were sprayed with growth regulators at tillering and before anthesis stage. Which were not only appreciate the yield but also increase the quality components. The treatments were;IAA 25 AND 50 ppm, Kinetin, 5 and 10 ppm, CCC 2000 and 4000 ppm, SADH 1000 and 3000 ppm and Ascorbic Acid 50 and 100 ppm. Results showed a conspicuous increase in yield components in treated plant. IAA and Kinetin, possessed a significant more number of tillers, leaves, biomass, grain starch conetnt (%), grain protein content (%), pre-anthesis leaf nitrogen content. IAA caused increase in grain starch content, pre-anthesis nitrogen content of leaves while Kinetin 5 and 10 appreciated grain protein content. The yield attributing traits like number of panicle/plant, number of grains/panicle, grain weight, biomass, Harvest Index (HI) and finally grain yield was improved by the treatment of IAA 50 ppm.
Transfusion Transmissible Infections among Voluntary Blood Donors at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

Background: HIV1&2, HBsAg, anti-HCV and syphilis antibody are mandatory disease marker tests of Transfusion Transmissible Infections (TTIs) conducted on every donated unit of blood in Zambia. Blood is donated by first time voluntary donors and repeat/regular donors of ages between 16 and 65 years. Both first time and regular blood donors undergo the same screening eligibility criteria in the form of medical questionnaire, history and physical examination prior to blood donation. Units, which test positive for any of the four TTIs, are discarded. The cost of producing one unit of blood in Zambia is about $40US and there is need to keep the discard rate to a minimum. The study aimed at finding out which sub-category of donors was responsible for the discards at the Lusaka Blood Transfusion Centre and conversely which was the safest. Methodology: A cross-sectional study involvingretrospective review of all blood donors and screening records of voluntary non-remunerated donors at the Lusaka Province/UTH Blood Transfusion Centre covering the period of January to December 2012. For each unit of donated blood, information on donor age, gender, whether first or repeat donor and test result of disease marker of the four TTIs was entered on a spreadsheet and subjected to descriptive and inferential analysis. Results: Of the 16,027 units donated in 2012, 11,516 (71.9%) were from males, and the majority (77.8%) were aged between 16-24 years. The proportion of first time donors was 60.4%. The overall discard rate due to TTIs was 10.1% (1,622). Most discards were for a single disease marker positivity (1526, 94.1%). Disease marker positivity for HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and Syphilis was: 2.9%, 6.0%, 0.6%, and 1.2% respectively. Using multivariate logistic regression, the safest donors (i.e. with a useable unit, not discarded due to a TTI) were females (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.11-1.41), repeat donors (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.23-1.53), and those in the age category 16-24 years (OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.95-2.84). Conclusions: Repeat/regular , female, young (16-24 years of age), voluntary blood donors were the safest source of tested blood at the UTH/Lusaka Province Blood Transfusion Centre in 2012. Hepatitis B remains the most common TTI as a cause for discard and points to the need for adequate prevention strategies. There is a small but significant discard rate due to hepatitis C. The overall 10.1% discard rate due to TTIs suggests an inevitable need to consider safer donor retention strategies as drivers for the sustainable blood transfusion program in Zambia. Keywords: Blood donors, Transfusion Transmissible Infections, voluntary donors, Zambia
Obstacles to productivity in Asia and Pacific region: finance reigns

Firms face difference obstacles for their development. This paper investigates which obstacle is the largest to firmsâ€™ productivity using micro-level data for the Asia and Pacific region. Access to finance shows the most robust result in our investigation, being stronger for SMEs. Removing SMEsâ€™ credit constraints seem to be a powerful tool to promote economic growth in the region, particularly in the manufacturing sector.
Therapeutic Promise of Dabigatran Etexilate, an Oral Direct Thrombin Inhibitor in a Preclinical Model of Colon Carcinogenesis

Clinical observations suggest that there is activation of the coagulation system in patients of colon cancer. The resulting thrombin is implied in further exacerbation in the progression of colon cancer. We evaluated the effect of dabigatran etexilate (DE), an oral direct thrombin inhibitor in a preclinical model of 1, 2-Dimethylhydrazine (DMH) induced colon carcinogenesis in rats. DE reduced carcinogenesis induced gross morphological changes and colonic edema as compared to induced control. DE treatment significantly reduced levels of VEGF and ERK/MAPK and displayed a significant increase in colonic E-cadherin and reduction in N-cadherin, Twist and mTOR expression. Histopathologically, DE prevented the DMH induced adenocarcinomatous changes in the rat colon. Dual treatment of DE+5FU provided an additive effect as compared to the single treatment schedules of DE and 5FU, respectively. The preclinical study provides preliminary evidences on the promise of DE in treating DMH induced colon carcinogenesis in rats. The study portrays the effective role of DE treatment schedules both alone and in combination with 5FU in abating the parameters associated with progression of colon carcinogenesis expressing amelioration of factors mediating EMT, an important prelude to disease aggression and metastasis. A temporal association was drawn between administration of DE and improvement in colon cancer associated clinical end points. This investigation strongly suggests the role of thrombin in progression of carcinogen induced colon cancer and substantiates the role of direct thrombin inhibitors in treating colon cancer.
The quantum perturbed cat map and symmetry

We investigate a class of quantum symmetries of the perturbed cat map which exist only for a subset of possible values of Planck's constant. The effect of these symmetries is to change the spectral statistics along this positive-density subset. The symmetries are shown to be related to some simple classical symmetries of the map.
Evaluación de los incentivos para participar en el proceso de consulta pública del proyecto de arrendamientos

El articulo evalua los factores que incentivan la participacion en el proceso de consulta publica del proyecto de contabilidad de arrendamientos. El objetivo es examinar el efecto de las caracteristicas de cada pais en la intensidad de la participacion en el proceso de elaboracion de normas internacionales de contabilidad. Para ello, llevamos a cabo un estudio empirico utilizando la nueva norma de contabilidad de arrendamientos. En particular, examinamos 1.630 cartas de comentarios recibidas de 46 paises diferentes en respuesta al primer documento de discusion (DP 2009) y a los dos borradores de la norma (ED 2010 y 2013). Los resultados sugieren que el marco institucional, el contexto economico, los valores culturales y otras variables sociales de cada pais actuan como incentivos para participar a traves de cartas comentario en el caso de la norma de contabilidad de arrendamientos elaborada conjuntamente por el IASB y el FASB.
A Functional Application of the Gut-Brain Axis: a Proposed Nutrition Intervention for the Treatment of Depression

In the last 10 years, research on the human microbiome has grown exponentially due to the increasing understanding of its effects on human health. The gut-brain axis has become one area of focus, linking gut health and mental disorders. This review of the literature will examine the connection between depression and gut health, primarily mediated by the gut microflora. Due to the complex nature of studying the gut-brain axis and the heterogeneity of depression, recent studies have faced some difficulty in finding significant results based on isolated nutrients, foods, supplements, or probiotics. This proposal seeks to build on prior research to produce an inclusive whole food-based nutrition intervention that potentially will have a more significant impact on depressive disorders. This research will be combining well studied probiotics with a beneficial dietary pattern in the hopes of creating a protocol that yields a more pronounced reduction on depressive symptoms, which could be used in a clinical trial or as an adjuvant treatment.