Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Longitudinal Test of a Feminist Pathways Model Among Black Youth: Incorporating Racial Discrimination and School Difficulties

This study addresses important gaps in previous quantitative tests of feminist pathways theory by utilizing longitudinal data from Black men and women and by incorporating racial discrimination and school difficulties. We examine early physical abuse, sexual abuse, and racial discrimination as risks for criminal behavior and psychological distress, school difficulties, and substance use as links between early trauma and young adulthood crime. Consistent with previous studies, early abusive experiences were more salient for Black women than men, but racial discrimination was meaningful for both women and men. Moreover, the connections among mediators differed. Policy implications are offered.
In Defense of Boards

It is often assumed that bad corporate performance means a bad CEO. The task of a board of directors is then simple: dismiss the executive. If it fails to do so, the board is said to be indolent. We take a kinder approach to observed board behavior and point to the problems even well-intended boards would encounter. They face the twin task of disciplining and screening executives. We analyze the nature of the retention contract a board uses to discipline and screen executives. Consistent with empirical observation, we find that executives may become overly active to show their credentials, and that the link between bad performance and dismissal is weak.
Quantum confined acceptors and donors in InSe nanosheets

We report on the radiative recombination of photo-excited carriers bound at native donors and acceptors in exfoliated nanoflakes of nominally undoped rhombohedral γ-polytype InSe. The binding energies of these states are found to increase with the decrease in flake thickness, L. We model their dependence on L using a two-dimensional hydrogenic model for impurities and show that they are strongly sensitive to the position of the impurities within the nanolayer.
Neuromuscular Functional Assessment in Low Back Pain by Surface Electromyography (SEMG)

Low back pain is a major occupational health issue and a leading cause of disability globally. Significant differences in Surface Electromyography (SEMG) have been reported between persons with Low Back Pain (LBP) and normal, healthy controls. Many studies reveal that when the trunk is in full flexion there is an electrical silence in back muscles referred to as “flexion-relaxation phenomenon. ” It is often absent in individuals reporting LBP and particularly chronic LBP. There are several SEMG measures that describe this phenomenon. To evaluate muscle activity in acute and chronic LBP and the usefulness of quick and reliable procedures to demonstrate abnormal electromyographic activity of the spine erector muscles. We evaluated 40 subjects aged 25-65 years. For each participant, a clinical history regarding the presence of chronic or acute LBP was collected. Each subject was evaluated with SEMG measures of spine erector muscles during standing and prone position (for acute LBP), and flex-extension movement (for chronic LBP subjects). Superficial potential was recorded and compared between groups. In all three procedures, differences were identified in the surface electromyographic activity between the healthy controls and the one affected by LBP. The study of normal and pathologic electromyographic patterns could be a valid means to support in an objective way the presence/absence of acute and chronic LBP.
Short and mid‐long term effects of cockle‐dredging on non‐target macrobenthic species: a before‐after‐control‐impact experiment on a tidal mudflat in the Oosterschelde (The Netherlands)

To study the possible environmental impact of hydraulic cockle-dredging on macrobenthic communities and the environment, a fishing experiment was executed on a tidal mudflat in the Oosterschelde (SW Netherlands) according to a BACI (before-after-control-impact) design. Following the characterization of the initial situation, a part of the mudflat was commercially fished, after which dredged and undredged areas were compared on the basis of macrofauna descriptors and sediment constitution approximately 2 months (short term) and 1 year (mid-long term) after fishing. Whereas a clear reduction of the larger Cerastoderma edule cockles (>23 mm) in the fished areas was found, no effect of dredging on total macrofauna densities or median grain size was observed. No negative effect of fishing on total macrofauna biomass was found; in contrast, an increase of the biomass of the non-target species almost compensated for the loss in weight due to the extraction of the larger cockles. No significant effect of dredging on species diversity, richness or evenness was found in the short or mid-long term, these descriptors tending to have increased rather than decreased in the dredged plots after 1 year. The selective fishing for larger cockles reduced the average cockle size, but 1 year after fishing the average size had returned to the initial values in the dredged area. However, compared to the control area, the average size might still be reduced, as the size of the cockles in the control area also increased during the year. Local environmental conditions, with their specific macrobenthic communities, seem to be crucial for the type of effects and the impact of dredging. It is therefore of eminent importance to follow a research design with pre-defined environmental conditions, rather than a comparison of different areas that are open or closed to fisheries. The present study based on a BACI approach indicates that mechanical cockle fisheries had no overall negative impact in our study area.
Knowledge , Attitude and Practices Regarding Diarrhoea and its Management at Home among Mothers of Under-Five Children Residing within a Subcentre Area in Dibrugarh District , Assam

DOI: 10.21276/sjams.2017. 5.11. 37 Abstract: Diarrhoea is a leading cause of mortality among under-five children in India. Diarrhoea leads to loss of body fluids as well as electrolytes. It is important to restore the losses as it can lead to dreaded consequences due to dehydration. Dehydration can be prevented by replacement of fluid by simply giving oral rehydration salt (ORS) solution or other home available fluids. To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding diarrhoea and its management at home among mothers of under-five children residing within a sub-centre area in Dibrugarh district, Assam. A cross-sectional study was conducted from September to December 2011 among mothers of the under-five children residing within a sub centre area under Lahowal Block PHC of Dibrugarh District, Assam. A total of 190 mothers participated in the study and the relevant information was collected by a house-to-house survey using a pre-designed, pre-tested proforma after taking the informed consent. Out of 190 mothers, 54.7% could define diarrhoea correctly and 75.8% sought medical treatment for diarrhoea. 74.2% mothers used ORS out of which 61.0% knew its correct use while 53.2% knew the correct method of its preparation. Information about ORS was obtained from health personnel by 74.5% mothers. Only 56.3% mothers knew about home available fluids, out of which sugar and salt solution was the choice in majority of cases (42.1%). Only 5.2% of mothers used to increase feeding their children during episodes of diarrhoea. The study reveals that there is a dearth in knowledge, positive attitude and lack of healthy practices regarding the management of diarrhoea at home by mothers of under-five children. Thus there is a need of behaviour change communication activities to increase the awareness level of mothers.
Assessing the International Comovement of Equity Returns

The international comovement of equity returns has been viewed as reflecting either pervasive common shocks or local linkages between countries. This paper brings these perspectives together by assessing the comovement of equity returns in a dynamic model that allows for both common factors and spatial dependence, using quarterly data for 40 advanced and emerging countries over the past two decades, and including GDP growth, the real interest rate, and credit as fundamental variables. Estimation results employing a bias-corrected quasi-maximum likelihood approach provide strong indication that the cross-country dependence of equity returns results from both spatial effects and common shocks captured by a latent common factor -- weak and strong dependence, respectively. The factor exhibits a robust negative correlation with market measures of aggregate risk. Countries' exposure to the common factor rises with their extent of trade openness and the degree of rigidity of their exchange rate regime. Despite its simplicity, the empirical model fits the data well. All these results are robust to the use of alternative spatial weight matrices. The paper also shows that ignoring cross-country dependence leads to distorted parameter estimates and a marked deterioration of the explanatory power of the empirical model.
Focal quality metrics for the objective evaluation of confocal microwave images

Confocal microwave imaging for breast cancer detection relies on accurate knowledge of the average dielectric properties of the patient-specific breast. When accurately estimated, coherent addition will occur at the tumor site, producing a clear and sharp image thereof. Conversely, if the average dielectric properties are poorly estimated, a blurred, unfocused image will be reconstructed, potentially obscuring cancerous lesions. Several methods have been proposed to estimate the patient-specific average dielectric properties, for example, time-of-flight estimation. However, such methods are specific to the individual imaging hardware, can be susceptible to multipath propagation and assume the chosen paths are representative of the whole volume. In this paper, a novel method to estimate the patient-specific average dielectric properties is presented, based on focal quality metrics (FQMs); used historically to measure the clarity and focus of microscopic or digital photographic images. These FQMs are applied to confocal microwave breast images to assess their focus, and hence estimate the patient-specific average dielectric properties. In this way, FQMs can be used to generate the optimum microwave image of the breast. The performance and robustness of these FQMs for microwave breast imaging applications is examined in this paper and preliminary results are presented and discussed.
Extraction of High Purity Silica from Amazonian Sponges

Silica has a variety of uses, including functioning as a catalytic support and utility in drug delivery systems. It is traditionally obtained from mineral sources through costly extraction processes, which has led to a search for alternative sources. One of the main features of freshwater sponges is that they contain spicules composed mainly of amorphous silica. The species Metania reticulata is found in the Negro river (Amazonas, Brazil) in great abundance, reaching volumes above 3 dm3. Different purification processes employing oxidizing solutions and subsequent heat treatment are proposed in order to extract high purity silica from freshwater sponges. With these processes, it was possible to obtain high purity (99.92%) amorphous silicon at a concentration higher than silica commercially used for column chromatography (99.71%) support material while eliminating the other elements present in the sponges (Fe, K, Ca, Ti and S). This study described low-cost techniques for the production and purification of high purity amorphous silica as alternatives to production methods currently in use.
Comparative Study of Intrathecal Dexmedetomidine versus Fentanyl Combined With Hyperbaric Bupivacaine for Perioperative Analgesia in Elective Lower Limb Orthopaedic Surgeries : A Double Blind Controlled Study

DOI: 10.21276/sjams.2018. 6.6. 14 Abstract: Spinal anaesthesia is the most commonly used technique for lower abdominal surgeries as it is very economical, easy to administer, more rapid return to complete alertness when compared to general anaesthesia, superior postoperative analgesia and patient satisfaction, decreasing both the need for postoperative analgesics and the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting and reduced the cost of outpatient surgical procedures by decreasing the necessity of recovery room and subsequent hospital admissions. In recent years, use of intrathecal adjuvant has gained popularity with the aim of prolonging the duration of block, prolonged postoperative pain control, better success rate, patient satisfaction, decreased resource utilization compared with general anaesthesia and faster recovery. The quality of the spinal anaesthesia has been reported to be improved by the addition of opioids (such as morphine, fentanyl and sufentanil) and other drugs (such as clonidine, magnesium sulfate, neostigmine, ketamine and midazolam). Hence, the present study is being undertaken to evaluate and compare the effects of dexmedetomidine and fentanyl as intrathecal adjuvants to bupivacaine. The study population was randomized using random number table generated from computer software. Random intervention assignment slip was placed in serially numbered opaque and sealed envelopes. These envelopes were opened following enrolment of the case. 90 total patients randomly divided into 3 groups (n = 30): Group A: Hyperbaric bupivacaine 15mg + dexmedetomidine 5μg (diluted up to 3.5 ml with preservative-free normal saline) were given intrathecally. Group B: Hyperbaric bupivacaine 15mg + fentanyl 25 μg (diluted up to 3.5 ml with preservative-free normal saline) was given intrathecally. Group C: Hyperbaric bupivacaine 15mg (diluted up to 3.5 ml with preservative-free normal saline) alone was given intrathecally. Dexmedetomidine seems to be a better alternative to fentanyl as additive to intrathecal hyperbaric bupivacaine since it produces more prolonged sensory and motor block with similar kind of haemodynamic stability, better post-operative analgesia and sedation and is associated with less adverse effects. This kind of block may be more suitable for lower limb orthopaedic surgeries of longer duration and Dexmedetomidine produces more prolonged sensory and motor block with similar kind of haemodynamic stability, better post-operative analgesia and sedation and is associated with less adverse effects. Intrathecal does of dexmedetomidine used in the present study need further clinical studies to prove its efficacy and safety and to be considered as the suitable dose of dexmedetomidine for supplementation of spinal local anaesthesia.
Indo-US Convergence of Agenda in the new Indo-Pacific Regional Security Architecture

Strengthened Indo-US proximity has become a notable factor in the regional security architecture of the Indo-Pacific region, and also it raises ongoing concerns about its robustness. This article analyses the geostrategic, geoeconomic, security-related and defence-connected Indo-US relations in the region over the last two decades, highlighting the growing multidimensional convergence of US and Indian interests in the Indo-Pacific regional security architecture. In the final part, this article also sketches the future implications of Indo-US proximity and seeks to identify potential risks.
Comparison between ESEM and BSEM 1 Systematic Evaluation and Comparison between Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling and Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling

In this study, we contrast two competing approaches, not previously compared, that balance the rigor of CFA/SEM with the flexibility to fit realistically complex data. Exploratory SEM (ESEM) is claimed to provide an optimal compromise between EFA and CFA/SEM. Alternatively, a family of three Bayesian SEMs (BSEMs) replace fixed-zero estimates with informative, small-variance priors for different subsets of parameters: crossloadings (CL), residual covariances (RC) or CLs and RCs (CLRC). In Study 1, using three simulation studies, results showed that (1) BSEM-CL performed more closely to ESEM; (2) BSEM-CLRC did not provide more accurate model estimation compared with BSEM-CL; (3) BSEM-RC provided unstable estimation; (4) different specifications of targeted values in ESEM and informative priors in BSEM have significant impacts on model estimation. The real data analysis (Study 2) showed that the differences in estimation between different models were largely consistent with those in Study1 but somewhat smaller.
Examining Critical Factors Affecting the Interaction of Farmers with Researchers in Agricultural Innovation in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the second most populated country having more than 90 million people in Africa. Ethiopian economy largely depends on agriculture. Low agricultural production has created national food insecurity. This was because of insufficient knowledge transfer between researchers and farmers. The interaction of researchers with farmers was weak. Therefore, it was inspiring to investigate critical factors hindering the interaction of researchers with farmers in agricultural innovation in Ethiopia. A qualitative research design was used. A snowball sampling technique was employed. The study revealed that resource limitations, ineffective extension system, weak coordination among different stakeholders and lack of strong attention for research from government critically hindered the interaction of researchers with farmers. The research affirmed that the number of researchers was not sufficient to conduct demand driven research. Besides inefficient use of resources, it was monopolized by a few elite researchers. The different actors working in agriculture had less readiness and willingness to learn from one another. Moreover, there was weak institutionalized body that coordinate the efforts of different stakeholders.
CLARIFYING THE DISTINCTIONS AND CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION

Based on a survey of a nationally representative sample of NACSW affiliated social work students in publicly funded gradate programs (N = 88), this study explores students’ perceptions of the connections and distinctions between spirituality and religion. More specifically, using qualitative analysis of the content of interviews, we explore how spirituality and religion are defined and what, if any, relationship exists between these two constructs in the eyes of respondents. The results indicated that students define spirituality primarily in terms of belief in or connection with God or a Higher power. In contrast to spirituality, multiple themes were often used to define religion, with the most prominent being the practice of one’s spirituality or faith. The vast majority of respondents reported that some type of relationship exists between spirituality and religion, with only 4% stating that no relationship exists between the two concepts.
Teacher density and student achievement in Swedish compulsory schools

This paper analyzes how student achievement is affected by resource increases in the Swedish compulsory school due to a special government grant that was enforced in the academic year of 2001/02. The analysis is based on register data that contains all students that completed compulsory schooling (ninth grade) between 1998 and 2005. The results show that socio-economic variables explain a great deal of the variation in student achievement. The study also shows that the increased resources have not had a statistical significant positive effect on the average student’s achievement. This conclusion holds true when different measures of student achievement are used. Increased resources have however improved student achievement for students with low educated parents. If teacher density is increased with 10 percent students with low educated parents are expected to increase their grade point average ranking with about 0.4 percentile units.
The Skills of University Students in Educational Settings Assessed by Company Tutors: A Longitudinal Study in Italy

The paper aims at investigating what the fundamental characteristics of a trainee of the Courses of Studies in Education and Training Sciences of the University of Rome La Sapienza are, as identified by the company tutors who evaluate them during the traineeship. The aim is to understand whether trainees are trained to act in educational settings. The analysis of a particular item of the questionnaire addressed to the company tutors, has shown that the trainees in the educational field are well integrated in the institution where they do the treaineeship, thanks to the possession of “key skills” that we have deduced from the open responses of the tutors. These skills are also among those most requested ones by the world of work. We conclude that the traineeship is an important formative moment for the professions in the educational field and that it is possible to grasp the necessary link between theory and practice.
Discrimination between 137 Cs and 40 K in the fruiting body of wild edible mushrooms

The artificial Cs and natural K radionuclides are known to be accumulated by mushrooms to an enormous extent [6, 7, 9]. This can be concluded as a result of high cesium fate in the analyzed real samples. Also potassium levels in many fungal species are considerably higher than those in food of plant origin [5]. The ability of mushrooms to accumulate Cs from the fallout was first reported by Grüter [3], but after the Chernobyl NPP accident (in 1986) this subject was taken up by other researchers [6, 7]. Cs levels in mushrooms are significantly higher than those observed in common agricultural plants. In contrast to plants [10], there are poor data on the distribution of cesium and potassium within the individual parts of mushrooms [4, 12]. It is only known that Cs concentrations are usually higher in the fruiting bodies when compared with mycelium [13] and that cesium shows better accumulation in the cap than in the stipe [12]. For better understanding of the Cs and K translocation processes in the fruiting body of wild edible mushrooms, the ratios of both radionuclides in the cap and stipe have to be determined. The Cs/K discrimination factor (see below) seems to be an effective tool for examining the specificity of cesium concentration in higher fungi.
Essential Feature Extraction of Photoplethysmography Signal of Men and Women in Their 20s

This study aims to extract the essential features of Photoplethysmography (PPG) signal of men and women in healthy subjects using Power Spectral Density (PSD) and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA). A PPG instrument was used to obtain the PPG signal of 15 men and 15 women. Using PSD, four frequency bands were selected to divide the spectral component. The areas within the frequency bands relative to the total area were computed as features of the signals. Furthermore, using DFA, the average fluctuation F(w) was computed. The feature extraction using this technique produced 4 features from different windows. Hurst exponent was calculated to analyse the characteristics of the time series. For comparing the feature extraction techniques, Heart Rate (HR) and Peak to Peak Interval (PPI) were computed. Additionally, F and T tests for all techniques were computed to determine the differences between man and woman features that have been gathered using these two techniques. The results indicate that the features of PPG signals of men and women using PSD and DFA were significantly different. In order to evaluate the results, a clustering analysis was applied to the results using K-means clustering technique. The clustering plots show that the features were well distributed into the two groups.