Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Information Systems Project Success – Insights from Practitioners

ABSTRACT Evaluating the success of projects should be a key process in project management. However, there are only a few studies that address the evaluation process in practice. In order to help fill this gap, this paper presents the results of an exploratory survey with experienced information systems project managers. Results show that opportunities for lessons learned and project management improvement are being missed due to the lack of formal evaluation of success.
Sulphamethazine in poultry manure changes carbon and nitrogen mineralisation in soils

ABSTRACT Antibiotics are newly emerging organic pollutants in manure, soil, vegetables and water. Animal manure application might be leading to the accumulation of antibiotics in the farmland. However, the effect of sulphamethazine (SMZ) on the soil microbial community was scarcely investigated. This study was aimed to evaluate the impact of SMZ on poultry manure, on the structure and function of microbial community, carbon mineralisation, and changes in nitrogen forms in soil via an incubation experiment lasting 56 d. The treatments consisted of poultry manure at 1% wt (PM), PM containing 20 mg kg−1 SMZ (PM + 20SMZ) and PM containing 100 mg kg−1 SMZ (PM + 100SMZ), along with the untreated soil (control). Solid phase extraction was performed to measure the SMZ concentration in soils using high-pressure liquid chromatography. The cumulative CO2-C was increased in all treated soils over the incubation period compared to the control. The PM + 100SMZ had the highest increase in cumulative CO2-C from the soil at 56 d of incubation. The treatment of PM + 20SMZ showed a short-term decrease in nitrification rate in the soils at 1 d by altering the microbial community composition with 17% dissimilarity and decreasing the abundance of bacteria compared to PM-treated soil. The PM + 100SMZ increased C mineralisation in the soil.
The influence of animated cartoons on primary children's views of social reality: an ethnographic study in a Maltese primary school

ABSTRACT This paper presents ways in which animated cartoons influence primary school children's views of social reality based on students’ relationships with these characters and their perception of these characters as being ‘real’. For this purpose, a mixed methods approach was adopted, in which 9/10-year-old Maltese primary school children were provided with an opportunity to participate in activities related to cartoon characters. In these activities the children (n = 10) provided their interpretations of animated cartoon characters through drawings, writings and verbally during semi-structured interviews and cartoon watching. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the children's verbal expressions and interpretations. From the outcomes of the analysis, educational implications and cross-curricular pedagogical suggestions were then derived through the use of the MIRROR multimodal framework. These educational implications indicate that children can be taught critical thinking skills through the integration of animated cartoons in different curricular subjects. Moreover, the results indicate that students need to be offered the possibility to express themselves through various modes as exemplified in the pedagogical suggestions proposed. These pedagogical suggestions can be used by primary school educators, parents and guardians in order to teach creativity, expressive skills and literacy skills to primary school children.
The perceived impact of agency control on the performance of Zimbabwean small-to-medium enterprises

% of them fail to survive beyond the first 3 years (Mudavanhu et al. 2011). Business performance, especially amongst SMEs, is often attributed to factors such as government support and management competencies, ignoring other factors such as agency relationships prevailing in the businesses; yet, they create a unique business environment and a complexity (Kallmuenzer 2015) that has the potential to compromise business performance. Agency relationships are ubiquitous in business operations because they are a fundamental concept upon which business relationships are built (Eisenhardt 1989). Agency relationships were conceptualised in the seminal work by Jensen and Meckling (1976) as a contract whereby one or more individuals (the principal) employ another individual (the agent) to execute some task on their behalf, involving the delegation of decision-making to the agent. Agency relationships can also be understood as legal relationships in which the agent is authorised by the principal to perform on their behalf and is empowered to do what the principal could lawfully perform in person (Baze 2009). Background: Agency control has been studied in the context of large public listed businesses and is linked to business performance. However, very limited studies have validated such a role in small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), especially in a developing economy. Aim: The current study aimed at ezstablishing the perceived impact of agency control on performance, as measured by return on investment (ROI) and innovation in SMEs in Harare Province, Zimbabwe. Setting: Primary research was conducted amongst owners or managers of SMEs in Harare Province, Zimbabwe. Methods: The final sample consisted of 106 owners or managers of SMEs. The study was purely quantitative and adopted the survey design. Structured questionnaires were used for data collection. Results: The study established that the most used control mechanisms were frequent monitoring and face-to-face deliberations with subordinates. Weak and statistically insignificant relationships were found to exist between agency control and business performance measured by both ROI and innovation. Conclusion: It is best to solicit expert advice to coach owners or managers on how best agency control mechanisms could be formally instituted and managed to leverage on them.
Variations of Structural and Functional Traits of Azolla pinnata R. Br. in Response to Crude Oil Pollution in Arid Regions

In oil-producing countries, water pollution by crude petroleum oil frequently occurs and causes many environmental problems. This study aims to investigate the effect of crude petroleum oil on the growth and functional trails of the economically important freshwater plant Azolla pinnata R. Br. and to report on the plant’s resistance to this abiotic stress. Plants were raised in an open greenhouse experiment under different levels of crude oil pollution ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 g/L. Plant functional traits were monitored over a three-week period. Plant cover of A. pinnata was decreased with the increased levels of oil pollution. The total chlorophyll content decreased from 0.76 mg/g fresh weight under 2 g/L oil treatment after 21 days of growth. The chlorophyll a/b ratio exceeded the unity at crude oil treatments above 1 g/L, with values reaching 2.78 after seven days, while after 21 days, the ratio ranged from 1.14 to 1.31. The carotenoid content ranged from 0.17 mg/g in the control to 0.11 mg/g in the 2 g/L oil treatment. The carotenoid content varied over time in relation to DNA% damage, which increased from 3.63% in the control to 11.36% in the highest oil treatment level of 2 g/L. The crude oil stress caused severe damage in the frond tissues and chloroplast structure of A. pinnata, including a less compacted palisade, the malformation of the epidermis, the disintegration of parenchyma tissue, and the lysis and malformation of the chloroplasts. Since A. pinnata cannot withstand high concentrations of crude oil pollution, it is for use in the remediation of slightly polluted freshwaters up to 0.5 g/L.
Rhythmic reorganizations of speech based on jaw vertical movements

Este articulo investiga como el aumento de la tasa de elocucion actua para cambiar articulatoriamente los movimientos verticales de la mandibula. Dos mujeres (una de Minas Gerais y otra de Sao Paulo) en el grupo de edad de 30-40 anos fueron grabadas en el Laboratorio de Fonetica de la Universidad del Espiritu Santo con el uso de un magnetometro NDI Wave con una frecuencia de muestreo de 100 Hz. Los resultados muestran que el aumento de la tasa de elocucion altero los parametros articulatorios en el eje vertical de la siguiente manera: a) disminucion de la duracion de la aceleracion; b) disminucion del punto vertical maximo (y-extremo); c) disminucion del desplazamiento de la constriccion; d) disminucion en modulo de la velocidad del valle/pico; e) disminucion de la duracion de los gestos articulatorios; y f) tiempo-para-velocidad-de-pico/valle proporcional constante. Ademas, los resultados muestran que la tasa de elocucion tiende a afectar todos los gestos independientemente de su posicion frasal. Sin embargo, hay evidencias que algunos parametros articulatorios, si debidamente controlados, pueden proporcionar indicios para reestructuraciones ritmicas del habla.
Recent progress in the synthesis of luminescent copper clusters

Luminescent metallic clusters have attracted great interest due to their unique optical, electronic and chemical features. Comparing with intensively studied Au and Ag Clusters, Cu clusters are superior in the aspects of cost and wide industrial demanding. However, tiny copper clusters are extremely prone to aggregate and undergo susceptibility of oxidation, thereby the synthesis of fluorescent zero valent copper clusters is rather challenging. In this review, synthetic strategies towards luminescent copper clusters, including macromolecule-protection and micro molecule-capping, have been systematically surveyed. Both “bottom-up” and “top-down” synthetic routes are found to be effective in fabricating luminescent copper clusters, some of which are quite stable and possess decent luminescence quantum yields. In general, the synthesis of fluorescent copper clusters remains at its infant stage. A great deal of effort on developing novel and economic synthetic routes to produce bright and stable copper clusters is highly expected in future.
Sensitivity of ice sheet surface velocity and elevation to variations in basal friction and topography in the full Stokes and shallow-shelf approximation frameworks using adjoint equations

Abstract. Predictions of future mass loss from ice sheets are afflicted with uncertainty, caused, among others, by insufficient understanding of spatiotemporally variable processes at the inaccessible base of ice sheets for which few direct observations exist and of which basal friction is a prime example. Here, we present a general numerical framework for studying the relationship between bed and surface properties of ice sheets and glaciers. Specifically, we use an inverse modeling approach and the associated time-dependent adjoint equations, derived in the framework of a full Stokes model and a shallow-shelf/shelfy-stream approximation model, respectively, to determine the sensitivity of grounded ice sheet surface velocities and elevation to time-dependent perturbations in basal friction and basal topography. Analytical and numerical examples are presented showing the importance of including the time-dependent kinematic free surface equation for the elevation and its adjoint, in particular for observations of the elevation. A closed form of the analytical solutions to the adjoint equations is given for a two-dimensional vertical ice in steady state under the shallow-shelf approximation. There is a delay in time between a seasonal perturbation at the ice base and the observation of the change in elevation. A perturbation at the base in the topography has a direct effect in space at the surface above the perturbation, and a perturbation in the friction is propagated directly to the surface in time.
Do Investors Care About Impact?

We assess how investors’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for sustainable investments responds to the social impact of those investments, using a framed field experiment. While investors have a substantial WTP for sustainable investments, they do not pay significantly more for more impact. This also holds for dedicated impact investors. When investors compare several sustainable investments, their WTP responds to relative, but not to absolute, levels of impact. Regardless of investments' impact, investors experience positive emotions when choosing sustainable investments. Our findings suggest that the WTP for sustainable investments is primarily driven by an emotional, rather than a calculative, valuation of impact.
125Te NMR and Seebeck Effect in Bi2Te3 Synthesized from Stoichiometric and Te-Rich Melts

Bi2Te3 is a well-known thermoelectric material and, as a new form of quantum matter, a topological insulator. Variation of local chemical composition in Bi2Te3 results in formation of several types of atomic defects, including Bi and Te vacancies and Bi and Te antisite defects; these defects can strongly affect material functionality via generation of free electrons and/or holes. Nonuniform distribution of atomic defects produces electronic inhomogeneity, which can be detected by 125Te nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Here we report on 125Te NMR and Seebeck effect (heat to electrical energy conversion) for two single crystalline samples: (#1) grown from stoichiometric composition by Bridgman technique and (#2) grown out of Te-rich, high temperature flux. The Seebeck coefficients of these samples show p- and n-type conductivity, respectively, arising from different atomic defects. 125Te NMR spectra and spin–lattice relaxation measurements demonstrate that both Bi2Te3 samples are electronically inhomogeneo.
Evaluation of the “Speaking” Component of a Curriculum Applied in a School of Foreign Languages: An Action Research in a State University in Turkey

Speaking is considered as a challenging skill to improve as it is a productive one which requires the learners to be unique and creative in the way they express themselves. Therefore, teaching speaking takes the attention of the researchers in the field of English language teaching. Therefore, the way “speaking” was integrated into the curriculum of a School of Foreign Languages in one of the state universities in Istanbul was investigated by the researcher to find out whether the speaking component of the program helped students improve their oral language proficiency and to learn both efficiency and sufficiency of it from the perspectives of the students as well as the instructors in that institution. For this purpose, eight students within the program were taken into five different speaking tests in five different weeks sequentially and were interviewed by the researcher afterwards. Additionally, six students who had taken this program of the school previously and were taking their departmental courses at the time of the study were also interviewed to give them the chance to reflect back on their past experiences as learners who applied the knowledge they had acquired from this school. Six different instructors working in this institution were also interviewed. One of them was also observed in her real class environment. Results showed that the program was found “efficient” in some aspects such as the importance given to “speaking” but there were some points that needed consolidation just like the materials.
Implementing E-learning Training toward English Virtual Lecturers: The Process, Perspectives, Challenges and Solutions

This study was aimed to know the e-learning training implementation which involved the lecturers’ perspective, the barriers and its solution. This study involved 50 postgraduate lecturers, however only 9 Master of English education lecturers who participated in this training. The research design of this study was qualitative research which applied observation checklist, interview and note taking as the instruments to collect the data. The data analysis of this study used qualitatively which comprise several steps, such as collect the data, think about the data, code the data, did reflection on data, organizing the data, and interpreting the data. The findings showed that the implementation of e-learning has been done by the trainer, however, there were problems that occurred during the implementation of this training, such as discipline of time, the understanding of the material, electricity, internet connection, module and the age. These problems had been solved by the trainer. The trainer provided the assistant to help them in handling this training. Another finding was most the lecturers had positive perspective about e-learning training because this e-learning training could assist them in teaching, but there were still two until four participants who gave negative perspective about the training.
Efficacy of a Second-Grade Science Program: Increasing Science Outcomes for All Students

This study, which was reviewed through the Registered Report process, examined the initial efficacy of the Scientific Explorers program (Sci2) on second-grade students’ science achievement. Sci2 is grounded in the growing body of empirical research on science instruction, embedding principles of explicit instruction within a guided inquiry-based design framework. Eighteen second-grade classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. A cluster randomized controlled trial was employed, with 294 students nested within classrooms and classrooms nested within condition. The Sci2 program was implemented for a total of 10 lessons (5 hr) in treatment classrooms, whereas control classrooms provided business-as-usual science instruction. Overall treatment effects were observed on three of four science outcome measures. The reported effects were moderate to large, with effect sizes (Hedges’ g) ranging from 0.48 to 0.94. Moderation analyses indicated that science knowledge at pretest did not moderate Sci2’s effects. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
Social proximity and respect for norms in trust dilemmas

Trust is based on both rational considerations (outcomes and expectations) and moral considerations (respect for moral norms). We find that social proximity shifts the extent to which trust is perceived as a moral decision. People are more likely to trust similar strangers (partners they share personality traits with) because they feel it is the moral thing to do. In three studies, we found that partner similarity was associated with increased trust, and this effect was mediated by increased feelings of normative obligation. This mediation remained significant after controlling for expectations of reciprocity and participants' tendency to like similar partners more than dissimilar partners (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, the felt obligation to trust similar partners was based, in part, on a desire to avoid insulting the other party's moral character. The effect of partner similarity on feelings of obligation was weakened when distrust was no longer insulting to the trusted party's character (Study 3). These findings add to our knowledge of how social information shifts the extent to which trust is perceived as a moral decision.
Differences in Ethnic and Sport Culture Salience Among College Students Participating in NCAA and Recreational Sports

This study aims to (1) examine differences between Ethnic Majority (European American) and Ethnic Minority (African American, Latina/o, Asian/Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Other) student athletes’ ratings of importance of their Ethnic Culture, (2) examine differences in the importance of Sport Culture among NCAA and Recreational (i.e., Club and Intramural) student athletes, and (3) determine if Ethnic Identification and Athlete Type interact to predict the importance of Ethnic Culture and Sport Culture. Student athletes were asked to fill out a demographic questionnaire, and then rate the importance of several cultural domains (i.e. Ethnic Culture and Sport Culture) using a novel measure, the Cultural Domain Menu (CDM). After a descriptive analysis was performed, Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) and several t-tests were conducted to test differences among Ethnic Majority and Ethnic Minority student athletes in the importance of their Ethnic and Sport Cultures. Findings demonstrated a significant difference between Ethnic Majority and Ethnic Minority student athletes’ ratings of the importance of their Ethnic Culture: Ethnic Majority ratings were found to be lower compared to Ethnic Minority student athletes. Results also showed a significant difference between NCAA and Recreational student athletes in their ratings of their Sport Culture: NCAA student athletes were found to rank their Sport Culture as more salient. Implications, limitations, and future directions for this study are discussed in regard to the results. These results serve as a great indicator of the mental health issues of importance when aiming to serve student athletes from different backgrounds.
Educating for social justice in contemporary China: the politics of justice and injustice

ABSTRACT Corresponding to the party-state’s expressed ambition to build a just society, Chinese citizenship education involves educating students for social justice. This paper critically examines the discursive subject of social justice in official citizenship education by analyzing school textbooks and interviewing schoolteachers. It sheds light on the discursive construction of social justice primarily through narratives of justice rather than injustice. Drawing upon the notion that injustice is distinct from and has priority over justice in moral and political philosophy and social theory, this paper argues that the positive discursive construction of social justice enables the party-state to manipulate social consensus and manufacture depoliticized, individualized and authoritarian citizenship. Seeing the lack of opportunity to teach and learn social injustice as epistemic injustice in itself, the paper suggests that education for social justice should be oriented as education against social injustice in China and beyond.
Correlation of traps inside XLPE and polypropylene with space charge dynamics under polarity reversal condition

Polypropylene (PP) is being considered as a suitable alternative to the cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulation as the latter is prone to the space charge accumulation when subjected to the voltage polarity reversals in line-commutated converter high voltage direct current transmission. This novel contribution correlates the space charge accumulation with the trap distribution inside XLPE and PP under the polarity reversal condition. The pulse electro-acoustic and surface potential decay methods are used to measure the space charge and trap distributions, respectively. These measurements are carried at different poling durations (1 and 6 h at each polarity) and cycles of voltage polarity reversal (one and three cycles) at the electric ﬁeld of 60 kV/mm. The XLPE shows more homo and hetero charge accumulation than PP. Dominant shallow traps in the XLPE are responsible for the space charge accumulation, whereas deep traps with higher trap density inhibit space charge accumulation within the PP. Furthermore, the positive and negative threshold ﬁelds for the space charge accumulation are measured. It is observed that the space charge can be easily accumulated under the negative electric ﬁeld. Interestingly, the space charge decays rapidly inside the XLPE with the increased number of polarity reversal cycle. A valid theoretical model is developed to explain the space charge accumulation inside the XLPE and PP. The ﬁeld-assisted ionization plays a key role in the space charge accumulation inside the XLPE.