Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures on Learning Achievement: An Experimental Study

— This study aimed to explore the effect of Kagan cooperative learning structures in enhancing the learning achievement of the Bhutanese students in learning chemistry. This was experimental research, pre-test – post-test control group design. A total of 76 higher secondary students from Daga Central School participated in this research. Samples were obtained through purposive sampling. The participants were divided into two groups namely, control group (n = 38) and experimental group (n = 38). The Experimental group was taught using Kagan cooperative learning structures whereas control group was taught using conventional method (lecture method) for four weeks. Achievement test were administered before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed by computing means, standard deviations and t-test. The results of the study showed statistically significant difference in achievement between groups taught using Kagan cooperative learning structures and those taught via conventional method with moderate effect size (d = 0.63), suggesting Kagan cooperative learning structures as effective pedagogical approach in learning chemistry in Bhutanese higher secondary schools.
Technical report bds : 0010 On the equivalence of classes of hybrid dynamical models ∗

We establish equivalences among five classes of hybrid systems, that we have encountered in previous research: mixed logical dynamical systems, linear complementarity systems, extended linear complementarity systems, piecewise affine systems, and max-min-plus-scaling systems. These results are of paramount importance for transferring properties and tools from one class to another.
Topographic Effects on Strong Winds in Southern Norway; A Case Study of the Storm Dagmar

During the 25th of December 2011 a strong low pressure system struck Soutwestern Norway. This rapidly evolving system got the name ”Dagmar”. The aim of this thesis was to find out how the complex topography in Southern Norway affected the strong winds caused by Dagmar. An observational analysis was carried out, together with high resolution numerical simulations performed by the the Weather Research and Forcasting model (WRF). A linear wave model (Barstad and Grøn̊as, 2005) was used to address the result form the WRF model and the observational analysis. In addition, the linear wave model was used to investigate how changes in key parameters like wind speed, wind direction, mountain height, and atmospheric stability could have influenced the WRF model results. The highest observed 10-m wind speed was measured at Kr̊akenes lighthouse, 43.8 m s−1, while the strongest wind gust was measured at Juvvasshø, 64.7 m s−1. The WRF model was set to simulate Dagmar with a realistic topography in Southern Norway. In addition, two other simulations were carried out: One where the topography of Southern Norway was smoothed out, and one run where the topography was completely removed. This was done to see the effect of Norway’s complex topography on the strong winds caused by Dagmar. The flat topography simulation showed that the sting jet (strong winds to the south of Dagmar’s core), which did not reach the coast in the topography-runs, reached inland when the mountain was removed. The reason for this retardation of the flow upstream of the mountain in the topography-runs was due to the presence of the mountain, and the corresponding high pressure region created on the windward side. The strength of this upstream wind shadow varied when the upstream wind direction changed. Another feature, present only in the mountain-runs, was a ”left side jet”, e.g., an region of accelerated air along the northwest coast. The linear wave model showed that the wind pattern was sensitive to changes in the key parameters, and varying the upstream wind direction from westerly to southwesterly was crucial for the exsistence of the left side jet.
Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly changed the way we live and consume. One open question is whether the crisis provides an opportunity to increase alternatives to materialistic consumption. We characterize these alternatives as sustainable leisure behaviour. Our study aimed to analyse: (i) Changes in behaviour frequency of consumption and sustainable leisure before and during lockdown. (ii) How potential changes in behaviours are appraised and if there are intentions to keep changed behaviour. (iii) Inﬂuence of Time Wealth (an alternative model of aﬄuence that potentially promotes low consumption life styles) and Life Reﬂection (fundamental reﬂection processes stimulated by the Covid-19 crisis) on consumption and sustainable leisure behaviour during lockdown. We collected data from 947 participants in Germany, using an online survey. Participants reported behaviour frequencies of consumption and sustainable leisure before and during lockdown. Furthermore, participants evaluated potential behaviour changes and rated statements regarding their future intentions. Main ﬁndings: (i) Pairwise t-tests revealed reduced consumption behaviour in Electronics and Clothes. All sustainable leisure behaviours increased during lockdown. (ii) Increases in sustainable behaviour received positive evaluation and were intended to extend into the future. Consumption behaviour results were mixed. (iii) In multiple regression analysis, Time Wealth and Life Reﬂection were positively related to most sustainable leisure behaviour. Sustainable leisure behaviour correlated positively with Life Satisfaction and Presence of Meaning. We discuss future research ideas regarding the promotion of sustainable wellbeing in a post COVID society.
Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology

Although recent studies on the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have highlighted the negative eﬀects of moral disengagement on intentions to comply with COVID-19 containment measures, little is known about the mediating role of moral disengagement in the relationship between regulatory self-eﬃcacy in complying with the containment measures, beliefs in conspiracy theories and compliance with COVID-19 health-related behaviors. Data were collected from 1164 young adults (women, N = 796; 68.4%; mean age 25.60 ± 4.40 years) who completed an online survey from 15th May to 22nd June 2021. Results of the multi-group path analyses indicated that higher beliefs in conspiracy theories were associated with lower compliance with COVID-19 health-related behaviors, whereas higher self-eﬃcacy beliefs in complying with the containment measures were associated with higher compliance with COVID-19 health-related behaviors. Moral disengagement signiﬁcantly mediated the associations between beliefs in conspiracy theories, regulatory self-eﬃcacy, and compliance with COVID-19 health-related behaviors. Finally, the tested model was gender-invariant. Findings suggest that public health authorities and social care professionals should promote interventions aimed at improving regulatory self-eﬃcacy, emphasizing the moral signiﬁcance of respecting or ignoring the recommended COVID-19 measures (e.g., physical distance in public), and enhancing people’s concern for the potential harms of their immoral actions.
Design Practices of Preservice Elementary Teachers in an Integrated Engineering and Literature Experience.

The incorporation of engineering practices and core ideas into the Next Generation Science Standards at the elementary school level provides exciting opportunities but also raises important questions about the preparation of new elementary teachers. Both the teacher education and engineering education communities have a limited literature base on the resources that novice elementary teachers bring to learning and teaching engineering. The purpose of this descriptive exploratory research study was to characterize the design practices used by preservice elementary teachers during an integrated engineering and literature experience. Using a modification of the Design Activity Coding Scheme (Atman et al., 2007), we examined the discourse of a team of preservice teachers as they worked on an engineering design challenge based on children’s literature. The modified coding scheme included indicators for the teachers’ design practices and conversational moves. We analyzed the coded data for patterns of design practices across group members and over time, and for evidence of the group’s perceptions of the goals of their activity – their epistemological framing. The preservice teachers’ utterances were almost evenly divided between design practices and conversational moves, and most design practices were distributed evenly across all members of the group. Conversational moves were concentrated within a subset of members. The teachers’ discourse gave evidence of stable framing of their activity as a design task rather than as an exercise in satisfying the instructor’s directions. However, within the design task framing, the teachers emphasized the design practices of generating possible solutions and feasibility analysis at the expense of information gathering, design solution modeling, and detailed evaluation of proposed solutions. The teachers’ design practice profile differs substantially from that of both novice and expert professional engineers. The findings of this research suggest that novice elementary teachers may need opportunities to see the fruitfulness of problem definition and detailed analysis for engineering design success.
“They Never Had a Chance”: Unequal Opportunities and Fair Redistributions

A meritocratic fairness ideal is generally believed to regard income inequality as fair if it stems from performance differentials rather than luck. In this study, we present experimental evidence showing that merit judgments are shaped by the source of performance differentials while holding fixed the underlying impact on willingness to perform. Inspired by real-world phenomena which generate inequality, we investigate two types of unequal opportunities that impact performance: educational quality and employment opportunity. Contrary to some previous findings that merit judgements are often insensitive to unequal circumstances, we find that individuals are more inclined to split resources equally when the performance differential involves either type of unequal opportunity. We also find that when participants were given the option to expend personal effort to reveal information about the presence of unequal opportunity, a substantial number of them declined to do so, but held optimistic beliefs about the social norm of seeking such information. These findings enrich our understanding of the factors that lead individuals to support income redistribution, while also obtaining an assessment regarding to what degree redistributing third-party decision-makers are vested in these choices.
Causal Impact of Covid-19 Stimulus on Stock Market Prices

This paper uses VAR based Johansen's co-integration test to examine the possibility of co-integration and Granger causality to estimate the causal relationship between stock market index and monetary and fiscal indicators- namely M2 money supply, interest rate and federal expenditure. To check the validity of the VAR model, an ARDL model was also employed. Failure to find linkage will signify that stock prices do not reflect all available macroeconomic information -violating the Efficient Market Hypothesis. After establishing that variables of monetary and fiscal stimulus were cointegrated with stock prices, it then tries to explain the quantitative effect of Covid-19 monetary stimulus on the current stock market rally through dividing the regressors into anticipated and unanticipated changes. The paper hypothesizes that the monetary and fiscal responses was case of a structural change and defends the conjecture through robust methodology. Definitive causal impact was found due to intervention, with the size of the impact being estimated at 5% to 32% of market price of Standard and Poor's 500 as on April, 2021.
Climate Assessment for 1998

Abstract The global climate during 1998 was affected by opposite extremes of the ENSO cycle, with one of the strongest Pacific warm episodes (El Nino) in the historical record continuing during January–early May and Pacific cold episode (La Nina) conditions occurring from July–December. In both periods, regional temperature, rainfall, and atmospheric circulation patterns across the Pacific Ocean and the Americas were generally consistent with those observed during past warm and cold episodes. Some of the most dramatic impacts from both episodes were observed in the Tropics, where anomalous convection was evident across the entire tropical Pacific and in most major monsoon regions of the world. Over the Americas, many of the El Nino–(La Nina–) related rainfall anomalies in the subtropical and extratropical latitudes were linked to an extension (retraction) of the jet streams and their attendant circulation features typically located over the subtropical latitudes of both the North Pacific and South Pacific.
Bioconversion of Cassava Peels Via Anaerobic Digestion for Biogas Production.

The all-year round cassava processing in Nigeria has led to high generation of cassava peels. These peels which contain hydrogen cyanide are left to rotten or burnt at dumpsites causing environmental hazards. This led to the investigation of bioconversion of cassava peels via anaerobic digestion for biogas production. Fresh cassava peels were collected and pretreated. The slurry was loaded in a locally constructed digester with a gas collection system. Cattle rumen contents were applied as the inoculum using an inoculum to substrate ratio (ISR) of 2:1. The batch-feed system was employed at a hydraulic retention time of 45 days. The proximate composition and physicochemical analyses were evaluated using standard methods. The results of the proximate composition analysis showed that the substrate was good for biogas production. The physicochemical analysis results throughout the digestion period, revealed a pH range of 4.5 to 7.5 and a temperature range of 30 0 C to 35 0 C. The Total Solids (TS) contents showed a decrease from 87.64% to 61.00% while Volatile Solids (VS) contents decreased from 82.48% to 55%. The cumulative mean biogas yield was 1203.37 mL. Gas chromatographic analysis of the biogas composition showed that the methane content was the highest (52.35%) amongst other gases present. One-way ANOVA for the physicochemical parameters indicated a significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) in all the treatments. The results proved that the anaerobic digestion of cassava peels can be used to produce biogas
KOMPETENSI SDM DAN BUDAYA ORGANISASI DAMPAKNYA TERHADAP KEUNGGULAN KOMPETITIF

Peningkatan mutu makanan yang dihasilkan UMKM yang ada di Jawa Timur mendesak untuk segera dilakukan. Peningkatan mutu makanan ini terkait erat dengan keunggulan bersaing UMKM. Jika mutu makanan yang dihasilkan UMKM baik maka keunggulan bersaing UMKM akan meningkat. Keunggulan bersaing merupakan salah satu faktor yang mempengaruhi keberlanjutan suatu organisasi. UMKM merupakan salah satu organisasi yang memiliki tingkat persaingan yang sangat tinggi karena sektor makanan ini merupakan sektor yang mempunyai banyak peminat. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui dampak kompetensi SDM dan penerapan budaya organisasi terhadap keunggulan bersaing pada UMKM pangan yang ada di Jawa Timur. Populasi penelitian adalah seluruh pimpinan UMKM yang ada di Jawa Timur yang meliputi 6 kabupaten. Adapun Kabupaten yang menjadi obyek penelitian adalah Kabupaten Jember, Bondowoso, Situbondo, Banyuwangi dan Kabupaten Lumajang dengan jumlah UMKM sebanyak 85.500. Pengambilan sampel dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode Stratified Random Sampling untuk setiap kabupaten yang ada. Sampel penelitian ditentukan dengan menggunakan rumus Slovin dan diperoleh sebanyak 133 UMKM yang menjadi responden. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kompetensi SDM mempunyai pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap keunggulan bersaing UMKM Makanan di Jawa Timur dan budaya organisasi mempunyai pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap keunggulan bersaing UMKM Makanan di Jawa Timur. Kata Kunci : keunggulan kompetitif, kompetensi sumber daya manusia, budaya organisasi, UMKM, kinerja
Alcohol hand abuse: a cross-sectional survey of skin complaints and usage patterns at a large UK teaching hospital

Objectives To investigate whether the regular use of alcohol hand gel was having a detrimental effect on hands of healthcare professionals and, if so, to what extent. The study also aimed to establish a link between individuals who felt their hands were suffering from persistent exposure to the gel and those who actively avoided using the gel. Design A short descriptive questionnaire was distributed to healthcare professionals and those working within clinical areas within one trust (two teaching hospitals). Setting Staff that worked or had duties within clinical areas that necessitated the use of alcohol hand gel. Participants The survey was sent via email to all staff on the email database. Main outcome measure To determine the number of staff that developed new onset skin conditions since the introduction of alcohol hand gel and of what proportion of this number actively or considered avoiding the hand gel. Results Questionnaires were returned for analysis by 399 respondents. Eighty-eight percent of respondents felt that they had developed new onset skin conditions as a consequence of maintaining hand hygiene protocols. Nurses were the highest users of the hand gel, but interestingly were also the highest group to avoid or consider avoiding the hand gel (52% compared with 28%, 26% and 44% in the doctors, secretaries and healthcare assistants groups, respectively) . Thus indicating more frequent use may cause increased problems. Conclusion This study demonstrated that 88% of respondents stated that they had new-onset skin problems, of which half-felt that alcohol gel was the main contributing factor. There was a detrimental effect on compliance with alcohol gel hand hygiene protocols in this group. This reflects the real life difficulties of staff in their endeavour to reduce hospital-acquired infections. Action is needed to improve the compliance with such a simple task and ensure that all is done to reduce nosocomial infection and reduce the potential financial burden.
Effect of Higher-Dose Ivermectin for 6 Days vs Placebo on Time to Sustained Recovery in Outpatients With COVID-19: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance It is unknown whether ivermectin, with a maximum targeted dose of 600 μg/kg, shortens symptom duration or prevents hospitalization among outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19. Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of ivermectin at a maximum targeted dose of 600 μg/kg daily for 6 days, compared with placebo, for the treatment of early mild to moderate COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants The ongoing Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines 6 (ACTIV-6) platform randomized clinical trial was designed to evaluate repurposed therapies among outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19. A total of 1206 participants older than 30 years with confirmed COVID-19 experiencing at least 2 symptoms of acute infection for less than or equal to 7 days were enrolled at 93 sites in the US from February 16, 2022, through July 22, 2022, with follow-up data through November 10, 2022. Interventions Participants were randomly assigned to receive ivermectin, with a maximum targeted dose of 600 μg/kg (n = 602) daily, or placebo (n = 604) for 6 days. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was time to sustained recovery, defined as at least 3 consecutive days without symptoms. The 7 secondary outcomes included a composite of hospitalization, death, or urgent/emergent care utilization by day 28. Results Among 1206 randomized participants who received study medication or placebo, the median (IQR) age was 48 (38-58) years, 713 (59.1%) were women, and 1008 (83.5%) reported receiving at least 2 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses. The median (IQR) time to sustained recovery was 11 (11-12) days in the ivermectin group and 11 (11-12) days in the placebo group. The hazard ratio (posterior probability of benefit) for improvement in time to recovery was 1.02 (95% credible interval, 0.92-1.13; P = .68). Among those receiving ivermectin, 34 (5.7%) were hospitalized, died, or had urgent or emergency care visits compared with 36 (6.0%) receiving placebo (hazard ratio, 1.0 [95% credible interval, 0.6-1.5]; P = .53). In the ivermectin group, 1 participant died and 4 were hospitalized (0.8%); 2 participants (0.3%) were hospitalized in the placebo group and there were no deaths. Adverse events were uncommon in both groups. Conclusions and Relevance Among outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with ivermectin, with a maximum targeted dose of 600 μg/kg daily for 6 days, compared with placebo did not improve time to sustained recovery. These findings do not support the use of ivermectin in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04885530.
Where are the cascades from blazar jets?

Blazars are among the most powerful accelerators in the Universe and are expected to produce a strong TeV gamma-ray flux. The gamma-rays from these blazars may produce cascades by inverse-Compton scattering off intergalactic radiation. The GeV gamma-rays produced by these interactions, make up a large contribution to the IGRB. In a previous paper, Blancos et al. [8] showed that this contribution overproduces the IGRB, indicating that something is effectively quenching the cascade component of the IGRB or that blazars have an intrinsic spectral cutoff that is in tension with observations of local blazars.
World Health Organization/International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism study on state and trait markers of alcohol use and dependence: back to the future.

This article summarizes content proceedings of a symposium held at the 2004 International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism Congress in Mannheim, Germany. The chairs were Boris Tabakoff and Friedrich M. Wurst. The presentations were (1) Genetic associations with alcoholism and affective disorders, by Paula Hoffman; (2) Proteomic analysis of blood constituents in alcoholism, by Boris Tabakoff; (3) Contrasts between the responses of GGT and CDT to high alcohol intake, and a test of their combined use, by John Whitfield; (4) Direct ethanol metabolites such as ethyl glucuronide, fatty acid ethyl esters, phosphatidylethanol and ethyl sulfate: a new line of sensitive and specific biomarkers, by Friedrich Martin Wurst; and (5) Genetic studies of alcoholism subtypes in a Han Taiwanese population, by Ru-Band Lu.
Book Review: International Agency for Research on Cancer: Directory of Ongoing Research in Cancer Epidemiology 1976

Applications for a training fellowship in 2014-2015 are invited from postdoctoral scientists who are Australian nationals, who intend to pursue a career in cancer research and wish to complete their training in those aspects of cancer research related to the Agency’s mission and of priority for the Cancer Council Australia: to coordinate and conduct both epidemiological and laboratory research into the causes and prevention of cancer. Disciplines covered are: epidemiology (including genetic and molecular), biostatistics, bioinformatics, and areas related to mechanisms of carcinogenesis including molecular and cell biology, molecular genetics, epigenetics, and molecular pathology. There is an emphasis on interdisciplinary projects.