Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Kick in the Pants: Influence of Dark-Triad Personality Traits and Gender on Violence Intention among Teenagers in Yobe State, Nigeria

The study examined the influence of the dark triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) and gender on violent intentions among teenagers. The design adopted for the study is the survey design. A total of 300 participants took that cut across the three Senatorial districts of Yobe State participated in the study. The subejects were examined on a battery of standardized psychological tests. The sample comprised of 155 (51.7%) male and 145 (48.3%) female, standardized paper and pencil questionnaire was employed for data collection. The influence of the dimensions of the dark triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy, and gender and socioeconomic status were examined on the violent intention of the teenagers using hierarchical regression analysis. The results showed that each independent variable can jointly and independently predict violent intentions. It was recommended that government, law enforcement agencies, psychologists, teachers and individuals should be aware of the relationship existing between dark triad personality traits, aggression and violent intentions so as to reduce deviant behaviours and handle criminals appropriately.
tYPeS OF uNCONVeNtiONAl iNStRuMeNtS

Similarly to the original objective of central banks, the ultimate goal of the unconventional monetary policy instruments applied during the financial crisis is to achieve or maintain price stability (in several cases the avoidance of deflation) as well as to prevent the collapse of the financial intermediary system and in doing so to reduce the extent of economic contraction. Accordingly, unconventional instruments can be interpreted as ones that support the main objectives of monetary policy. Their application may be justified by the existence of financial market friction, turmoil, failure or constraint, when instruments that change the size and/or composition of central bank balance sheets may be more effective than traditional monetary or fiscal instruments.
Analysis of behavior of car stabilizer bushing

bar. Abstract—The goal of this work is to create numerical model, which will be used for design and optimization of a rubber bushing for stabilizer bar. Thanks this model we are able to predict the mechanical behavior of the bushing. To get material constants for the model, the material of bushing (rubber) was tested in special deformations modes. A hyperelastic material model was set and it was implemented into the numerical model of the bushing. Critical points in the construction of bushing were reveled by the analysis of the numerical model.
RESTORATION OF SOIL MICROBIAL BIOMASS USING MULTIPURPOSE TREES

Planting of multipurpose tree species (MPT’s) are the imperative option for rehabilitating the vast degraded lands in the coastal agroecosystems. Soil microbes are strongly altered by numerous factors including abiotic environmental conditions and plant characteristics. Field experiments were conducted in coastal degraded agricultural lands with eight MPT’s. The highest bacteria, fungi and actinomycete populations were recorded in the rhizosphere of Pongamia pinnata, Ceiba pentandra, Tamarindus indica and Casuarina equisetifolia planted degraded soils. It exhibited that plants have species-specific effects on their associated living microbial biomass, activity and communities.
Energy, Protein Intake and Mid-Upper Arm Circumference in Pregnant Women in Boyolali Regency, Indonesia

Introduction: : Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) of pregnant women is an indicator to assess the chronic energy deficiency (CED) in ensuring healthy outcomes in women and newborns. This research aims to analyze correlation between energy protein intake and MUAC of pregnant women. Methods: The design of this research was an observational cross-sectional study. The study population included a total of 164 pregnant women in second and third trimester in a Community Health Center in Indonesia. The samples were chosen by a simple random sampling technique. Energy and protein intakes were assessed by interviewing the subjects’ meal intake in the past three months using the semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (SQ-FFQ) form. MUAC of pregnant women was assessed using a measuring tape by a trained researcher. Pearson product-moment tests were applied to analyze correlation between energy intake, protein intake and MUAC. Result: Majority of pregnant women experienced energy and protein intake deficiency, 97.6% and 73.2%, respectively. CED was found to be 17.1%. There were correlations between energy intake and MUAC (p=0.0215, r=0.181), and between protein intake and MUAC (p=0.001, r=0.319) in pregnant women. Conclusion: This study discovered that majority of pregnant women suffer from lack of energy and protein intake. Effective community nutritional program is still needed as the effort to reduce prevalence of inadequate energy and protein intake and prevent the CED among the pregnant women.
Inflation expectations, learning and DGSE model estimation

Inflation expectations receive a lot of attention in the academy and industry because of their effect on actual inflation and on central banks’ ability to achieve price stability. Surprisingly, few studies have investigated the capacity of state-of-art models for monetary policy analysis to match the data on inflation expectations. I find that the benchmark New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model, Smets and Wouters (2007), under rational expectations does not reproduce neither the evolution of the series of survey expectations nor its cross correlation with respect to inflation and the interest rate. Estimates of this model under learning fit these problems but only when the forecasting models of inflation include just inflation for the period of high inflation (1968Q4-1983Q4) and the interest rate and hours worked for the period of low inflation (1989Q1-2008Q2). Additionally, these estimates imply that agents discard past information pretty fast, give support to the existence of inflation scares as pointed by Orphanides and Williams (2005) and show that learning per se does not generate higher levels of persistence than under rational expectations estimation. Finally, I find evidence of a significant increase in the response of interest rate to inflation expectations by the central bank at least since the late 80s. This study employs quarterly US macroeconomic data for the period 1968Q4 – 2008Q2. JEL classification no: C11, D84, E30, E50, E52
Measurements of fast alpha decays in the 100Sn region

The α decaying nuclei near Sn can provide a unique opportunity to study how the proximity to the N = Z line effects the α decay probability. It was hypothesized that these decays near Sn would have an increased preformation probability and thus higher α emission probability. Te is a special example where the effects manifest most drastically. The α decay of Te can provide useful insight into how proton-neutron interactions affect the formation of an α particle in the nucleus. The effects on α decay from particles interactions between particles in the same orbitals can be studied because of the selfconjugate and doubly magic nature of Sn. From previous experiments, the half-lives of nuclei in the region are found to be very short. In a recent experiment, the lifetime of Te was given an upper limit of 18 ns. For the half-life of Te to be accurately measured, a new detection technique will be implemented and a fast detector system has been built. Performance tests were carried out to prove the ability of a position-sensitive scintillator system, to measure the fast half-lives in the Xe to Sn α decay chain at an approved experiment at the RIKEN facility in Japan. Along with studying the Xe decay chain, the experiment will be able to study the lifetime of the first excited state of Sn populated in the α decay of Te. The detector system will have dual capabilities, with the inclusion of LaBr3 γ ray detectors, allowing for fast α-γ coincidence measurements to study excited states.
Identifying English Text Reading Comprehension Problems in Senior High School Students

The Indonesian government allocates English as a compulsory subject for junior and senior high school. However, the English language skills of students in Indonesia are still weak compared to the neighbouring countries of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam. Among the English language skills, reading comprehension skills are the most focused upon skill for high school students. The aims of this study are to identify the problems in reading comprehension of English texts. The data analysis used is thematic analysis. The results of this study show that there were three major problems in reading comprehension faced by the student, including internal and external problems. The internal problems faced by students were related to three sub-themes; students’ limited understanding of the vocabulary in the reading texts, and a lack of motivation to learn English caused by inappropriate teaching techniques for reading comprehension. The external problems were lack of teaching materials and environment. These problems have been overcome by implementing cultural components into English learning and by providing appropriate teaching methods based on the genre of texts, student need and characteristics.
Classes of Garbling Schemes

—Bellare, Hoang and Rogaway elevated garbled circuits from a cryptographic technique to a cryptographic goal by deﬁning several new security notions for garbled circuits [3]. This paper continues at the same path by extending some of their results and providing new results about the classes of garbling schemes deﬁned in [3]. Furthermore, new classes of garbling schemes are deﬁned and some results concerning them and their relation to earlier classes are proven.
The bright side of the moon: Unemployment insurance generosity and post-unemployment wages∗

This paper assesses the gains from unemployment insurance (UI) by measuring its impact on post-unemployment wages. It takes advantage of a quasi-natural experimental setting generated by a reform of the Portuguese UI system that increased the entitlement period for some age-groups, while leaving it unchanged for other age-groups. This reform strongly increased the observed duration of subsidized unemployment. However, its impact was quite heterogeneous as a result of the income effect of UI: the impact was stronger for low income individuals. This paper finds that the new law had a small positive effect on reemployment wages, resulting in a wage distribution with higher mean and variance. Furthermore, there is evidence that the income effect of UI generated a stronger impact on reemployment wages of unemployed at the bottom of the pre-unemployment wage distribution. This evidence reinforces the interpretation of the UI income effect as a non-distortionary impact on the search behavior of the unemployed.
Two-dimensional speckle tracking of the abdominal aorta: a novel approach to evaluate arterial stiffness in patients with Turner syndrome.

Background Turner syndrome (TS) is an X-chromosomal disease affecting one in 2,500-3,000 female newborns. Girls and women with TS show multiple cardiovascular risk factors that all have an impact on arteriosclerosis and thus arterial stiffness. An accurate and non-invasive screening of arterial stiffness is essential to improve the overall outcome in these patients. Methods Thirty-five TS patients and 19 healthy, age-matched controls were prospectively recruited for this study. Arterial stiffness was measured at the abdominal aorta in subxiphoid view using two-dimensional speckle tracking (2DST). Acquisition was performed at a frame rate of 60-90 fps. Mean peak circumferential strain (AAO-S, %) was measured offline for respective layers (inner layer = AAO-SENDO, %; middle layer = AAO-SMESO, %; outer layer = AAO-SEPI, %). Results Compared with the control group, patients with TS showed significantly lower peak circumferential strain values in each layer [AAO-SENDO (mean ± SD): 10.98%±4.73% vs. 15.32%±4.78%, P=0.002; AAO-SMESO (mean ± SD): 6.36%±2.22% vs. 9.18%±2.83%, P<0.001; AAO-SEPI (mean ± SD): 4.49%±1.76% vs. 6.31%±2.53%, P=0.003]. Abdominal aortic strain values correlated significantly with left ventricular diastolic function assessed by mitral early (E) and late (A) flow ratio (AAO-SENDO and E/A: r=0.475, P<0.001; AAO-SMESO and E/A: r=0.504, P<0.001; AAO-SEPI and E/A: r=0.393, P=0.003). Heart rate correlated significantly negative with 2DST assessed arterial distensibility (r=-0.366; P=0.007). Relative intra- and interobserver variability ranged between 8.67% and 21.03% for 2DST of the abdominal aorta. Conclusions 2DST of the abdominal aorta might provide additional diagnostic value to detect possible functional vascular impairments in patients with TS. Left ventricular diastolic function is coupled with increased arterial stiffness in TS patients. The relatively high intra- and interobserver variability of 2DST of the abdominal aorta requires further improvement of the speckle tracking algorithm.
Electron-Only Reconnection in Plasma Turbulence

Hybrid-Vlasov–Maxwell simulations of magnetized plasma turbulence including non-linear electron-inertia effects in a generalized Ohm's law are presented. When fluctuation energy is injected on scales sufficiently close to ion-kinetic scales, the ions efficiently become de-magnetized and electron-scale current sheets largely dominate the distribution of the emerging current structures, in contrast to the usual picture, where a full hierarchy of structure sizes is generally observed. These current sheets are shown to be the sites of electron-only reconnection (e-rec), in which the usual electron exhausts are unaccompanied by ion outflows and which are in qualitative agreement with those recently observed by MMS in the Earth's turbulent magnetosheath, downstream of the bow shock. Some features of the e-rec phenomenology are shown to be consistent with an electron magnetohydrodynamic description. Simulations suggest that this regime of collisionless reconnection may be found in turbulent systems where plasma processes, such as micro-instabilities and/or shocks, overpower the more customary turbulent cascade by directly injecting energy close to the ion-kinetic scales.
Testing for Rational Bubbles under Strongly Dependent Errors∗

A heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation robust (HAR) test statistic is proposed to detect the presence of rational bubbles in financial assets when errors are strongly dependent. The asymptotic theory of the test statistic is developed. Unlike conventional test statistics that lead to a too large type I error under strongly dependent errors, the new test does not suffer from the same size problem. In addition, it can consistently timestamp the origination and termination dates of a rational bubble. Monte Carlo studies are conducted to check the finite sample performance of the proposed test and estimators. An empirical application to the S&P 500 index highlights the usefulness of the proposed test statistic and estimators. JEL classification: C12, C22, G01
Diet and Exercise: A Novel Cure for Asthma? - A Short Communications on a Non-Pharmacological Strategy

Behavioral interventions with regular physical activity, weight loss and diet have repeatedly demonstrated preventive effects in a wide range of diseases. Furthermore, an unhealthy lifestyle is a known predictor for increased use of medication and also the leading risk factor for global mortality. As a result, interest is increasing in applying behavioral interventions as a supplement in both medical and surgical treatments. The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) suggests that asthma patients should be encouraged to be physically active and choose a healthy diet because of its general health benefits [1]. However, physical inactivity combined with an unhealthy diet lead to decreased disease control and should thus be taken into consideration when treating asthma [2]. Recent trials of diet and exercise in asthma indicate that dietary advice and exercise can potentially improve, not only general health, but also asthma related outcomes.
Dynamics of Musical Success: A Bayesian Machine Learning Approach

People consume music through albums and playlists. Consumer reactions and consequently the success of such musical assortments depends upon the felt experience of listeners. We develop a novel multimodal machine learning model for musical success that combines data of different modalities (e.g. metadata, acoustic and textual data) to predict album success. We estimate our model on a unique dataset which we collected using different online sources. Our model integrates different types of nonparametrics. It uses a supervised hierarchical Dirichlet process to represent crowd-sourced textual tags and penalized splines to capture the nonlinear impact of acoustic features. It captures dynamics via a state-space specification. We show the predictive superiority of our model with respect to several benchmark models. Our results illuminate the dynamics of musical success over the years and uncover themes that categorize albums on several aspects of the musical experience. We then use our model for forecasting the success of new albums, playlist construction, album fusion, as well as for contextual and other types of recommendations.
Gender differences in the trade-off between objective equality and efficiency

Generations of social scientists have explored whether males and females act differently in domains involving competition, risk taking, cooperation, altruism, honesty, as well as many others. Yet, little is known about gender differences in the trade-off between objective equality (i.e., equality of outcomes) and efficiency. It has been suggested that females are more equal than males, but the empirical evidence is relatively weak. This gap is particularly important, because people in power of redistributing resources often face a conflict between equality and efficiency. The recently introduced Trade-Off Game (TOG) – in which a decision-maker has to unilaterally choose between being equal or being efficient – offers a unique opportunity to fill this gap. To this end, I analyse gender differences on a large dataset including N=6,955 TOG decisions. The results show that females prefer objective equality over efficiency to a greater extent than males do. The effect turns out to be particularly strong when the TOG available options are “morally” framed in such a way to suggest that choosing the equal option is the right thing to do.
Molecular Detection of Extra-pulmonary Tuberculosis by the Automated GeneXpert MTB/RIF Assay: 3-years’ experience in a teaching hospital, Saudi Arabia

Background: rapid and accurate diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) continues to be a challenge. Although culture remains the most sensitive method for confirmation of TB, the prolonged time required for culture, limit its contribution to clinical decision making. Our study aims to assess the performance of Xpert MTB/RIF test against smear and culture-confirmed cases of extrapulmonary TB. Methods: A total, 272 non-respiratory specimens (tissues, 88 (32.4%), pleural fluids, 60 (22.1%), CSF, 48 (17.6), aspirate 36 (13.2), ascetic fluid, 20 (7.4), urine, 8 (2.9), body fluid and pus 5 (1.8) each, and blood 2 (0.73) submitted to the laboratory for Mycobacteria over two-year period were comparatively investigated with the molecular-based Gene Xpert MTB/RIF assay system and conventional smear and solid culture methods. Result: The reliability indices of the Gene Xpert MTB/RIF assay are higher compared to smear. The overall sensitivity (82.1%) of the Gene Xpert MTB/RIF assay is significantly higher than smear (46.9 %). The highest Mtb positivity agreement between the Xpert MTB/RIF assay and Mtb culture was found in pus and CSF specimens (100 % [95% CI, 91.1 % to 100 %]) each, while the lowest Mtb positivity agreement was found in the ascetic fluids specimens (50% [95% CI, 44% to 58%]). The Area under the curve (AUC) of the Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve to assess the accuracy of smear was 0.737 (with 95% CI of 0.600-0.874), whereas the AUC of the ROC curve for Xpert MTB/RIF was 0.946 (with 95% CI of 0.000-1.00). Conclusion: The Xpert assay showed superior performance over the conventional smear for the rapid detection of M. tuberculosis, in (EPTB).
Cell Deformation Passing through Slit between Micro-Machined Surfaces in Vitro: Comparison among Cell Types

Deformation of cell passing through the slit between micro-machined surfaces has been observed in vitro. At the middle part of the flow channel, the slit (0.8 mm width, and 0.01 mm height) has been made between the transparent polydimethylsiloxane plate and glass plate, of which surfaces are micro-machined by photolithography technique. Four kinds of cells were used in the test: C2C12 (mouse myoblast cells), Hepa1-6 (mouse hepatoma cells), L929 (fibroblast connective tissue of mouse), and Neuro-2a (mouse neural crest-derived cell line). The suspension of each kind of cells was injected to the slits. The deformation of each cell passing through the micro slit was observed with an inverted phase-contrast microscope. The experimental results show that each cell deforms to the flat disk and passes through the micro slit of 0.01 mm height. Both the projected area and the passing velocity of each cell in the slit were measured. The passing velocity of each cell tends to decrease with the higher deformation. At some cells of C2C12, the velocity in the slit is higher than that before the slit even at the higher deformation ratio. The designed slit between micro-machined surfaces has capability to sort the deformability of cells.
Discriminatory cytokine profiles predict muscle function, fatigue and cognitive function in patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) /Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a severely debilitating and complex illness of uncertain aetiology, affecting the lives of millions and characterised by prolonged fatigue. The initiating factors and mechanisms leading to chronic debilitating muscle fatigue in ME/CFS are unknown and are complicated by the time required for diagnosis. Both mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation have been proposed to be central to the pathogenesis of ME/CFS. This original and extensive study demonstrated that although there was little dysfunction evident in the muscle mitochondria of patients with ME/CFS, particular blood plasma and skeletal muscle cytokines, when adjusted for age, gender and cytokine interactions could predict both diagnosis and a number of measures common to patients with ME/CFS. These included MVC and perceived fatigue as well as cognitive indices such as pattern and verbal reaction times. We employed advanced multivariate analyses to cytokine profiles that leverages covariation and intrinsic redundancy to identify patterns of immune signaling that can be evaluated for their predictions of disease phenotype. The current study identified discriminatory cytokine profiles that can be sufficiently used to distinguish HCs from patients with ME/CFS and provides compelling evidence that a limited number of cytokines are associated with diagnosis and fatigue. Moreover, this study demonstrates significant potential of using multiplex cytokine profiles and bioinformatics as diagnostic tools for ME/CFS, potentiating the possibility of not only diagnosis, but also being able to individually personalise therapies.