Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altered Small-world Brain Network in Sleep Deprivation

In this study, we investigated the changes in topological architectures of brain functional networks in sleep deprivation. By collecting participants in sleep deprivation of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), our result shows that the functional brain network of the clustering coefficient, characteristic path length and local efficiency are significantly increased but the global efficiency decreased significantly in sleep deprivation. Additionally, significant alterations in nodal efficiency were also found in sleep deprivation, involving anterior cingulate, inferior parietal, supramarginal gyrus, caudate nucleus, thalamus are significant decreased, and themiddle temporal gyrus are significant increased.
Can Adults Attain a Native-Like Accent in Their Second Language？

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is influenced by many different factors. This paper attempts to discuss the age factor in SLA, particularly explores the learners’ acquisition of accent. The author firstly introduces the topic and reviews the literature on Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH). Then, the optimal age to attain the native-like accent is discussed. Finally, the author describes some other elements that influence the acquisition of accent and draws a natural conclusion that the topic in this paper needs more profound research.
Mid-infrared Transmission Properties of Step index and Large Mode Area ZnSe Microstructured Optical Fibers

ZnSe microstructured fibers have been designed and fabricated using silica capillaries and an air-silica photonic band-gap optical fiber as high-pressure microfluidic templates for semiconductor growth via chemical fluid deposition. We examine their transmission properties over a wide spectral range. OCIS codes: (060.2280) Fiber design and fabrication; (060.2290) Fiber materials; (160.6000) Semiconductor materials; (190.4370) Nonlinear optics, ! bers
Female Autonomy in Rural North India: Impact of Economic, Social, and Political Factors

This paper attempts to answer a number of questions concerning factors which influence female autonomy as measured by mobility in rural north India (Uttar Pradesh). It is hypothesized that a female autonomy outside the home is influenced by social, economic, and political factors. The results of the empirical analysis indicate that the availability of certain types of infrastructure along with off-farm employment opportunities at the village level have a positive influence on female autonomy. In terms of the political structure of local government, there is no evidence to support the notion that having a female Pradhan will result in greater female autonomy. However, female autonomy is enhanced if the Pradhan is from a scheduled caste and/or the Pradhan has significant political experience. Data for the 2000s shows improvements in female autonomy and female participation in local government in Uttar Pradesh. However, significant challenges continue to remain. The results have important policy implications.
Determinants of Employee Turnover: A Case During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The interest of employee turnover and determinants remains because it influences the survival of firms despite wider studies. Though the Sri Lankan government promotes SMEs in economically backward provinces yet, they struggle with several human resource management issues. A sudden increase in employee turnover in a manufacturing firm located in Buttala Industrial Zone during the turbulent environment of the COVID-19 and contradictory findings about the determinants of turnover before and during the pandemic motivated the study. Therefore, this study attempts to identify the determinants of employee turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cross-sectional data were collected through a questionnaire that was developed using previously tested measures. Data collected from 114 respondents of the firm were analyzed by using the regression analysis. The results revealed that job satisfaction, and remuneration and benefits have a negative effect on employee turnover. Contrary to the hypotheses, the work environment characterized by organizational support and supervisor support has a positive effect. This study strengthens present literature studying human resource management practices and outcomes in a turbulent environment. Managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are provided.
The Relation Between a Teacher-Based Growth Mindset Training and Minoritized Student Motivation in Mathematics

Growth mindset intervention research has centered student outcomes and has largely ignored the effects of the teacher on the student and how teachers specifically influence African American, Latinx, and Native students (AHN) in Mathematics. The current study used a pre-post experimental design to test whether a teacher-based growth mindset online intervention program influenced students’ motivation (i.e., cost beliefs) on mathematics classes, particularly for AHN students. Results showed that the intervention influenced AHN students’ perception of cost (i.e., effort) value. AHN status moderated outcomes on cost value beliefs, where cost value for AHN students decreased after their teacher’s participation in the intervention.
Effect of street conditions, including saline aerosol, on growth of the Small-leaved limes

There is increasing number of trees dying in large urban agglomerations. The problem is mostly pronounced in the case of street trees. In Polish cities, apart of pollutions generated by traffic, an important factor that causes death of trees is high salt concentration as a result of winter salt application for de-icing of streets. The aim of the study was to assess the growth of limes (Tilia cordata) planted along highly trafficked Warsaw street and exposed, among others, to salt in a form of saline aerosol. The assessment of shoot length, tree height and crown volume, based on the photographic method of the three increment assessments, showed very restrained growth of the studied limes. In the years 2006-2008 the trees performed so poorly as in similar period of 2003-2005 and grew worse than limes form natural habitats. In 2009 we even observed decrease in size of street trees as compared to 2008 which suggests both very bad condition of street habitats and the studied trees. Salt concentration measured on the surface of tree buds and shoots (EC) was higher in street trees than in trees from natural habitats, which indicates that saline aerosol is the source of sodium chloride. We observed highly diversified reactions of individual trees to the whole complex of street conditions. It is therefore recommended to select for propagation individuals from among most tolerant and vigorously growing plants (genotypes) to be used in street planting.
Correlating slump, slump flow, vebe and flow tests to rheological parameters of high-performance concrete

Conventional single-point workability tests continue to be used for specification and quality control of concrete despite their inherent limitations. These tests cannot characterize workability of concrete in terms of fundamental rheological parameters. Attempt has therefore been made to correlate slump, slump flow, slump flow time, percent flow and Vebe time to rheological parameters of high-performance concrete. Thirty numbers of concrete mixes without steel fibers and with steel fibers of specific dose have been considered during experiment. It has been observed that rheological parameters can be correlated to slump and slump flow. In case of fiber reinforced concrete, there is a decrease in percent flow with the increase in rheological parameters. Vebe time, however, remains unchanged up to yield stress 500 Pa and plastic viscosity 40 Pa.s beyond which it steeply increases with further increase in yield stress and plastic viscosity. Flow test may be a better test for FRC as it is sensitive over all ranges of workability of concrete.
The Case Study : Yazd

The 20 century can be characterized by its urban population density, urban geographical stratification by socio-economic status and urban crime increase. Concerning the importance of prevention in social planning, policies and planning concentrate on crime prevention and emphasize the backgrounds and contexts leading to crimes. The present study aims to analyze the crime hot spots of Yazd and to suggest effective solutions to reduce crimes occurrences. The present study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Data was collected by studying offenders’ files, achieved in the Yazd Police Office, in different districts of Yazd between 2008 and 2010. The results revealed that the mean center of all kinds of crimes is in city center. The nearest neighbor index for drug crimes distribution had a full cluster distribution. The correlation coefficient confirmed the relationship between population density and committing the crimes. The results revealed that most of the crimes were committed in abandoned, residential, street networks and commercial land uses, while in religious and cultural land use less crime occurred. There were significant correlation between population density, different urban land uses and the rate of crime. The rate of crime in abandoned and populated areas was more than other areas.
Epidemiological Study Of The Childhood Disabilities: A Household Survey In Four Egyptian Governorates

This study was conducted on 1403 children from four Egyptian governorates. These governorates were; Alexandria, Al-Behira, Cairo and Al-Giza. The aim of the study was to define different types of the childhood disabilities, to find out their prevalence’s in the selected governorates in Egypt, to define their distribution and to define their risk factors. A cross- sectional study design was chosen to investigate the current research problem. All the children had undergone complete physical examinations. Also, children’s parents were interviewed. There were specific inclusions criteria have been considered to include the child as a case in the study. The overall prevalence of the childhood disabilities in these governorates was 8.8%. The most common prevalent childhood disabilities were; visual, speech and hearing (4.5%, 2.1% and 1.9%, respectively). While, the most common prevalent risk factors were mother delivered at home and/or not received antenatal care (7.2% and 6.3%, respectively). Positive consanguinity and baby not strictly received vaccination were the most important risk factors, odds ratio = 3.81 and 3.31, respectively. While, only positive consanguinity was significantly correlated with all types of the childhood disabilities. Furthermore, positive consanguinity had the highest correlation with all types of the childhood disabilities. Also, childhood disabilities tend to be common among males (57.6%) and of congenital aetiology (61.8%). The main source of habilitation was the private centers (79.2%).
Development and characterisation of synbiotic whey beverage

: Synbiotic foods has revolutionised the status of functional foods socially as well as commercially. The stringent environmental rules over disposal of whey and it’s high nutritional value has driven industries to develop new whey based functional products. Among developed whey-based products fermented products has got significant position. In this study authors optimized a synbiotic whey beverage and also analysed for its proximate composition and storage stability. The developed synbiotic product had possessed following physico-chemical parameters: pH 3.67, acidity 0.90 per cent Lactic acid (LA), moisture 82.92 %, total solids 17.08 %, lactose 4.72 %, protein 0.43 % and fat 0.25 %. The beverage was found to have a probiotic count of 9.22 log 10 cfu/ml. Coliforms, yeast and molds counts were found to be absent for a period of 9 days. Rheological properties of whey beverage revealed that the product had a shear thinning behaviour with higher loss modulus (G’’) values indicating viscous behaviour. Under refrigeration the drink started showing sign of spoilage from tenth day of storage. The required probiotic count was maintained in the product till 9 th day of refrigerated storage as per legal requirement of FAO/ WHO (2002). From study it can be inferred that newly developed synbiotic whey drink has got shelf life of 9 days under refrigeration.
Tournament Incentives and Corporate Fraud

This paper identifies a new incentive for managers to engage in corporate fraud stemming from the relative performance evaluation feature of CEO promotion tournaments. We document higher propensities to engage in fraud for firms with strong tournament incentives (as proxied for by the CEO pay gap). We posit that the relative performance evaluation feature of CEO promotion tournaments creates incentives to manipulate performance, while the option-like character can motivate managers to engage in risky activities. We thereby extend previous corporate fraud literature that focuses mainly on equity-based incentives and reports mixed findings. Our results are robust to using different fraud samples, and controlling for other known determinants of fraud as well as manager skills.
The Varying Mechanisms of Media Access: Explaining Interest Groups’ Media Visibility across Political Systems

A growing body of studies analyzes interest groups’ media visibility. Yet little is known about how the drivers of media access may vary across different interest group systems. This article focuses on two major mechanisms through which organizations can gain media visibility: media management efforts and the newsworthiness of elite actors. We hypothesize that media effort explains interest groups’ media access more strongly in competitive, pluralist interest group systems and that insider (i.e. “elite”) status does so more strongly in hierarchical, corporatist systems. We analyze surveys and media data on interest groups in the pluralist United Kingdom, the moderately corporatist Denmark, and the more strongly corporatist Finland. As hypothesized, media effort is most effective in the UK and weakest in Finland. However, we find only weak support for the insider status hypothesis: there is some evidence of the expected cross-country differences, but the effects are small and unrobust.
Is there a consensus trap in earnings forecasts? : an empirical study

This paper revisits Grüner (2009) and seeks to establish whether there is a consensus trap in earnings forecasts. There is a consensus trap if analysts’ forecasts are more likely to be wrong when forecasts are homogeneous, than heterogeneous, all else equal. This hypothesis is tested by using a standardized measure of the forecast distribution to explain forecast errors. The empirical research is based upon earnings forecasts recorded on Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S Summary-Level Historical Earnings Estimates Database. Our results rejects that there is a consensus trap in earnings forecasts. The empirical research de facto shows evidence of a significant positive relationship between forecast errors and heterogeneity. Idiosyncratic risk in earnings is then offered as a mechanism explaining the findings, by showing that heterogeneity proxy idiosyncratic risk. The paper contributes to the literature on forecast dispersion and systematic forecast errors. It also offers an empirical founded mechanism explaining why there should be a positive association between forecast errors and heterogeneity. As this research is based upon summary-level data, we would recommend subsequent researchers to examine detailed data.
Impacts of the development of large cities on economic growth and income distribution in Korea: A multiregional CGE model

Abstract. A multiregional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of Korea is used to assess urban development strategy in terms of national economic growth and income distribution. We find that the dispersion of total investment expenditure to six large cities would be the best policy if the emphasis of national development were to be placed on economic growth, together with a reduction in regional income disparity. Conversely, a heavy concentration of investment expenditure in Seoul and Pusan would lead to an amelioration of inequality in the distribution of personal income, but it would be difficult to implement due to hostility towards a primarily city-oriented value system.
Coronavirus stress and adolescents’ internalizing problems: exploring the effect of optimism and pessimism

ABSTRACT Coronavirus and its stress can have a significant impact on an individual’s psychological and physical well-being. Studies show that children and adolescents are among the most vulnerable groups as they lack adaptive coping strategies. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the mediating effect of optimism and pessimism on the association between coronavirus stress and youth internalizing problems among Iranian adolescents. The sample of this study included 408 students (42.4% female) recruited through cluster sampling. Participants were administered Corona Stress Measure (CSM), Optimism-Pessimism Measure (OPM), and Youth Internalizing Behavior Screener (YIBS). Results from the analyses showed that coronavirus stress was a significant and positive predictor of internalizing problems and pessimism, as well as a negative predictor of optimism. Additionally, the results showed that optimism and pessimism mediated the effect of coronavirus related stress on youth internalizing symptoms. Coronavirus stress significantly predicted internalizing problems through optimism and pessimism among young Iranian people. Given the importance of understanding the relationship between Coronavirus stress and internalizing problems through the mediating role of optimism-pessimism, this study provides the foundation for understanding internalizing behaviors in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Proximate composition of traditional local sorghum beer “dolo” manufactured in Ouagadougou

Dolo is a local beer manufactured from malted sorghum grains. It is the most commonly consumed alcoholic beverage in Burkina Faso (60% of population). Thirty (30) samples of dolo were collected from local markets in Ouagadougou and analyzed with respect to their proximate compositions and pH values using biochemical standard method. The average values of pH, dry matter and insoluble matter among samples were respectively 3.50±0.07, 5.90±1.24% (w/v) and 0.85±0.32% (w/v). Alcohol content in dolo samples was on average 2.30±0.25% (v/v). The total proteins, total carbohydrates and reducing sugars were 26±14.8, 38±20.4 and 10±3.8 µg/ml, respectively. The lipids were detected as traces in all dolo samples. The energetic value of dolo was on average 21.8±1.6 Kcal/100 ml of which these parameters characterize the quality of dolo.
A First Approach to the Creation of a Spanish Corpus of Dyslexic Texts

Corpora of dyslexic texts are valuable for studying dyslexia and addressing accessibility practices, among others. However, due to the difficulty of finding texts written by dyslexics, these kind of resources are scarce. In this paper, we introduce a small Spanish corpus of dyslexic texts with annotated errors. Since these errors require non-standard annotation, we present the annotation criteria established for the different types of dyslexic errors. We compare our preliminary findings with a similar corpus in English. This comparison suggests that the corpus shall be enlarged in future work.
A Review on Evolutionary Multitask Optimization: Trends and Challenges

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) possess strong problem-solving abilities and have been applied in a wide range of applications. However, they still suffer from a high computational burden and poor generalization ability. To overcome the limitations, numerous studies consider conducting knowledge extraction across distinct optimization task domains. Among these research strands, one representative tributary is evolutionary multitask optimization (EMTO) that aims to resolve multiple optimization tasks simultaneously. The underlying attribute of implicit parallelism for EAs can well incorporate with the framework of EMTO, giving rise to the ascending EMTO studies. This review is intended to present a detailed exposition on the research in the EMTO area. We reveal the core components for designing the EMTO algorithms. Subsequently, we organize the works lying in the fusions between EMTO and traditional EAs. By analyzing the associations for diverse strategies in different branches of EMTO, this review uncovers the research trends and the potentially important directions, with additional interesting real-world applications mentioned.
Simultaneous ULFIVLF amplitude anomalies observed during moderate earthquakes in Indian region

A three-component search coil magnetometer to monitor ultra low frequency (ULF) magnet ic fie ld emi ssions (frequency = 0.0 I -30 Hz) and an Abso lute phase and amp litude data logger (AbsPAL) to monitor the phase and amplitude variation of very low frequen cy (VLF) 19.8 kHz fixed frequ ency NWC (A ustra lia) transmitter s ig nals have been installed at Bichpuri , Agra (Geograph Lat. 27.2°N, Long . ? ROE) in India and reg ular s imul laneous observa tions have been taken since I Aug. 2002 . The anal ys is of the nighttime VLF amplitude data has been ca rried out fo r the initial period or nine months between I Aug. 2002 and 30 Apr. 2003 and it is seen that the amplitude decreased abnorma lly by 110 dB fro m normal nighttime daily averages o n six days during the whole period under consideration. The results of ULF data dnalys is show that the background magnetic fi e ld amplitudes of the three components. which are usually low. in the range of 0.03-0.30 nT are enhanced to the range of 0.26-0.96 nT. either on the sa me days or within ± 2 days of the decrease in amplitude of the VLF signal. The possible causes fo r the observed ULFIYLF amplitude anomalies are examined and it is fo und that they are caused by moderate seismi c ac ti viti es that occurred along the VLF propagation path in the reg io n. The statistica l analysis of the data using mean and standard dcv iat io n aro und the mean is carr ied out, which supports the results sa ti sfactoril y.
A classification of natural and social distributions Part one: the descriptions

This paper presents an extensive survey of regular distributions in natural and social sciences. The survey includes studies from a wide scope of academic disciplines, in order to create an inventory of the different mathematical functions used to describe the distributions. The goal of the study was to determine, whether a unique function can be used to describe all the distributions (universality) or a particular function is best suited to describe the distributions in each specific field of research (domain universality). We propose a classification of distributions into eighth different categories, based on three representations: the Zipf representation, the cumulative density function (CDF) and the probability density function (PDF). In the 89 cases included in the survey, neither universality nor domain universality was found. In particular, based on the results of the survey, the claim that "power law provides a good description for majority of distributions" may be rejected. Only one third of the distributions in our survey are associated with power laws, while another third is well described by lognormal and similar functions (Dagum, Weibull, loglogistic and Gamma functions). We suggest that correct characterization of a distribution relies on two conditions. First, it is important to include the full range of the available data to avoid distortion due to arbitrary cut off values. Second, it is advisable to display the data in all three representations: the Zipf representation, the CDF and the PDF.