Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The dynamics of public opinion following terror attacks: Evidence for a decrease in equalitarian values from Internet Search Volume Indices

The tendency of terror attacks to generate increased right-wing attitudes is a direct prediction from the motivated cognition approach to political ideology (Jost, 2017). However, due to methodological and theoretical problems, evidence for this ‘right-shift’ hypothesis is currently mixed. To address these issues, we introduce for the first-time search volume indices (SVI) analysis to the study of public opinion dynamics by assessing the effects of exposure to the 2015 Paris terror attacks, with a focus on equalitarian values related searches in the French cyberspace. Consistent with the ‘right-shift’ hypothesis, we demonstrate that online collective threat salience (SVI for the word ‘terror attack’) predicts significant decreases in equalitarian values SVI (e.g. ‘equality’) 6 weeks later, but not in non-equalitarian values SVI (e.g. ‘liberty’). Mixed-model analyses of SVI for the period 2012-2017 confirmed these results by showing both decrease in equalitarian values SVI and no change in non-equalitarian values SVI after 2015. These findings corroborate the ‘right-shift’ hypothesis at the societal level using ecological-behavioural measures of public opinion and demonstrate the value of SVI analysis for theory-testing in political psychology.
Reflections on decolonizing peace education in Korea: a critique and some decolonial pedagogic strategies

ABSTRACT Universities and scholars around the world teach and research extensively in the field of peace education; yet, despite a plethora of diverse scholarship, educational programs are often critiqued as dominated by the English-speaking world. This paper employs the intersecting lenses of decolonization and postcolonial theory to explore and challenge the perceived dominance of Western literature and practice. Using a criss-crossing comparison method, English and Korean literatures are compared to ascertain the extent of Western-centricity within Korean higher education peace studies, and to offer a critical discussion of liberal peacebuilding, and linear problem-solving models within the literatures. Counter-arguments and policy recommendations are considered. The paper concludes that for peace education to fulfill its mission, global educational decolonization movements need to be strengthened. It is argued that efforts toward decolonization of Korean peace education could support the global movement toward a more socially just peace education for the twenty-first century.
Egyptian women supervisory empowerment behaviors on well-being outcomes

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship of perceived supervisor empowerment behaviors and feelings of personal empowerment with important work and well-being outcomes in a sample of Egyptian women managers and professionals. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 155 managerial and professional women using anonymously completed questionnaires. Respondents were relatively young; had university educations; had the short job and organizational tenures; held various levels of management jobs; and worked in a range of functions. All measures used here had been used and validated previously by other researchers. Findings Work outcomes included job satisfaction, career satisfaction, work engagement, work-family and family-work conflict, emotional exhaustion/burnout, life satisfaction and intent to quit. Both perceived levels of supervisory/leader empowerment behaviors and self-reported feelings of empowerment had significant relationships with the majority of work and well-being outcomes. Research limitations/implications Data were collected using self-report questionnaires with the small risk of response set and common method biases. Second, all data were collected at one point in time making it challenging to address issues of causality. Third, all respondents came from the two largest cities in Egypt, Cairo and Alexandria; thus, the extent to which our findings would generalize to managerial and professional women and men is indeterminate. Fourth, it was not possible to determine the representativeness of our sample as well. Practical implications Practical implications of these findings along with future research directions are offered. Practical applications include training supervisors on empowerment behaviors, and training all employees on the benefits of personal empowerment and efficacy and ways to increase them. Social implications A number of ways to increase levels of empowerment of both front-line employees and managers have been identified. These include increasing employee participation in decision-making, delegating authority and control to these employees, creating more challenging work roles through job redesign, leaders sharing more information and leaders providing more coaching and mentoring to their staff. At the micro level, increasing levels of employee self-efficacy through training and more effective use of their work experiences will increase personal empowerment and improve work outcomes. Originality/value Relatively little research has been undertaken on women in management and human resource management in Egypt.
Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Columns Strengthened by Reactive Powder Concrete Jacket and Fibre Reinforced Polymer Wrapping

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Insulating effects of early childhood education

The purpose of this study was to ascertain if formal early childhood education was related to the likelihood of later criminal activity. The secondary data analysis within this study did support inferences for four specific crime factors. This study found that preschool attendance lessened the incurrence of future criminal activity in the crime categories of total numbers of damage offenses, total numbers of theft offenses, total numbers of damage alone offenses, and total numbers of injury & theft offenses. Data was taken from a longitudinal study of 987 AfricanAmerican children in Philadelphia conducted by Deborah Denno entitled the Biosocial Project. These numbers clearly show that preschool attendance has a negative effect on some categories of crime by lowering offense rates for total damage offenses, total theft offenses, total damage alone offenses, and total injury & theft offenses. These findings demonstrate preschool education as one intervention factor in predicting a child's future social
Effects of adverse childhood events over metacognitions, rumination, depression and worry in healthy university students

Aim: Adverse childhood experiences observed the various physical and mental problems that emerged in the later periods of life were found to be significantly associated. The aim of this study is to compare anxiety and depression, rumination and metacognitions of individuals who experienced adverse childhood events and individuals with no adverse childhood events, even though they do not develop any psychopathology. Material and Methods: The sample of the study consisted of 275 university students who were applied SCID-I and SCID-II and no psychopathology. Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale Turkish Form (ACE-TR), Metacognition Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30), Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire (RTSQ), Positive-Negative Beliefs about Rumination Scale, Penn State Worry Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Beck Depression Inventory were applied to volunteers who met the criteria of inclusion in the study. Results: Participant with ACE-TR score greater than 0, ‘Negative Beliefs about Uncontrollability and Danger’, ‘Lack of Cognitive Confidence’, ‘Need to Control Thoughts’, ‘Cognitive Self Consciousness’ and total scores were statistically higher than those with ACE-TR score 0. The participant with ACE-TR scores greater than 0 had RTSQ, PBRS, NBRS, NBRS -1, PSWQ, GAD-7 and BDI scores were statistically higher than those with ACE-TR score 0. Discussion: Even though negative childhood experiences do not lead to psychopathology, they may trigger the emergence of dysfunctional metacognitions which leads to more anxiety and rumination and make the individual vulnerable for further stressful life events and might decrease resilience.
Mindfulness, time affluence, and affective appraisals of the journey to work: an exploration of relationships

To date, behavioral travel research has neglected to examine the role of mindfulness in the context of the work commute. Mindfulness is a psychological construct that involves a presentoriented, open, and nonjudgmental expression of conscious awareness. It has been associated with improvements to mental health, social engagement, and behavioral regulation. In this research, I examined ways in which users of different commuting modes (walkers, bicyclists, drivers, and bus users) perceive their journey to work from an affective stance. I then assessed commuter group differences with respect to dispositional mindfulness and time affluence (the perception that one has sufficient time to engage in pleasurable, meaningful activity). Finally, I explored direct and indirect relationships between mindfulness and commute-related attunement (the degree to which commuters find their work trip satisfying and peaceful), and how time affluence, commute-related stress, and competence partially mediate this relationship. I hypothesized that (a) non-motorized commuters would find their commute more affirming and less stressful than drivers or bus users; (b) that non-motorized commuters would report greater time affluence and mindfulness than drivers and bus users; and (c) that time affluence, competence, and stress would partially mediate a mindfulness-attunement relationship. I surveyed 786 university employees about their (a) relative degrees competence, stress, and attunement in the context of the work commute; (b) perceptions of time affluence over the previous month; and (c) levels of dispositional mindfulness. Our results revealed that bus users, walkers and bicyclists reported significantly less stress than drivers. Walkers and bicyclists reported greater positive journey-based affect than drivers and bus users. Additionally, walkers and bus users maintained relatively greater perceptions of time affluence than drivers. Structural equation models illustrated that mindfulness, operating through time affluence, competence, and stress both directly and indirectly enhances attunement to the commuting experience. Considered together, these findings suggest that in order to encourage individuals to engage in active transportation, it may prove profitable to enhance individual-level time affluence and sense of competence using non-motorized modes. This study also promotes the broadening of behavioral travel research to include investigations of ways in which mindfulness and elements of natural and built environments produce synergistic effects toward enhancing mental health. 3 Mindfulness, Time Affluence, and Affective Appraisals of the Journey to Work
Effect of ginning on tenacity, elongation and other fibre quality properties

Abstract Based on single and bundle fibre properties measurements before and after ginning treatment of three commercial varieties, statistical parameters with ANOVA showed that, Acala SJ-2 genotype with greater mean fibre tenacity and elongation as well as less coefficient of variation of tenacity and elongation values before ginning treatment, maintains its higher rank position after the ginning treatment against its competitors Arba and DP-90. In this study, the variety Acala SJ-2 with greater single and bundle tenacity and elongation properties before ginning treatment was also favoured by having less amount of fibre breakage as well as relatively fewer levels of neps when compared against its competitor commercial varieties Arba and DP-90. This study shows that fibre data from single and bundle testing, before and after the application of ginning treatment, could be invaluable for the cotton breeders for cultivar selection and for the spinners to control cotton processability and improve quality of products.
Parametric and Non-Parametric System Modelling

The conditional parametric model is an extension of the well known linear regression model, obtained by replacing the parameters by smooth functions. Estimation in such models may be accomplished by fitting a, possibly larger, linear model locally to some explanatory variable(s). In this report the conditional parametric model is described together with a method of estimation. An S-PLUS / R implementation is described and an example given. Since the user interface is similar to other S-PLUS / R functions for regression the software is easy to use. Furthermore, to increase speed, the core of the program is written in the ANSI-C programming language. The software allows for experimentation with variable bandwidth selection procedures and evaluation structures.
Challenges in web corpus construction for low-resource languages in a post-BootCaT world

The state of the art tools of the "web as corpus" framework rely heavily on URLs obtained from search engines. Recently, this querying process has become very slow or impossible to perform on a low budget. In order to find reliable data sources for Indonesian, I perform a case study of different kinds of URL sources and crawling strategies. First, I classify URLs extracted from the Open Directory Project and Wikipedia for Indonesian, Malay, Danish, and Swedish in order to enable comparisons. Then I perform web crawls focusing on Indonesian and using the mentioned sources as the start URLs. My scouting approach using open-source software results in a URL database with metadata which can be used to replace or at least to complement the BootCaT approach.
Using the video head impulse test in healthy Danish adolescents

Abstract Purpose: Adolescents presenting with vertigo can be a diagnostic challenge. Video head impulse testing (vHIT) offers examination of the semicircular canals in adolescents with few drawbacks. It quantifies the vestibular ocular reflex as a gain-value. However, there is no standardized method to calculate the gain-value. The aim of this article is to define which gain measure is the most optimal and whether the test is clinically tolerable and feasible in diagnostics of adolescents. Methods: Thrity-three Danish healthy adolescents aged 13–16 years, had their lateral semicircular canals examined with vHIT. Gain calculations were obtained at 40, 60, 80, 0–100 ms and as a regression gain. Results: Mean gain values for the right side were: 40 ms: 1.04, 60 ms: 0.98, 80 ms: 0.93, 0–100 ms: 1.08 and regression: 1.04. For the left-side gain values were 40 ms: 0.96, 60 ms: 0.96, 80 ms: 0.98, 0–100 ms: 1.00 and regression: 1.01. T-tests on 60 ms, 0–100 ms and regressions gain showed that 60 ms differed significantly from 0 to100 ms and regression gain. No complaints of discomfort were reported by any of the test subjects. Conclusions: vHIT proved to be a highly applicable procedure with many advantages, but also some potential pitfalls. In healthy adolescents, 0–100 ms and regression gain produce the most reliable results.
State online voting and registration lookup tools: Participation, confidence, and ballot disposition

ABSTRACT State online voting and registration lookup tools that allow voters to check their voter registration status, confirm their polling location, review a sample ballot, and check the status of an absentee or provisional ballot reduce the cost of information acquisition and service completion while providing voters with the information necessary to participate in the democratic process. The analysis evaluates the relationship between state voting and registration online lookup tools and voter turnout, voter confidence, and the disposition of provisional ballots. Findings suggest that voting and registration lookup tools are related to voter turnout and rejected provisional ballots.
Local-level, place-based scholarships: a review of the literature

ABSTRACT Local-level, place-based scholarships – synonymous with “promise” scholarships – are a policy strategy to improve college completion in the United States by directing financial aid to students in a particular school, district, or geographical area. There are currently upwards of 90 place-based scholarship programs across the US, most of which share three broad goals: to increase postsecondary access by making college more affordable, to build a college-going culture, and to catalyse economic development by drawing middle- and upper-class families to an area and retaining existing residents. As place-based scholarships grow in popularity and more communities, especially ones seeking economic revitalisation, consider investing resources in their own scholarships, there is interest in what impact, if any, these programs have. This paper reviews the research on place-based scholarships, which demonstrates generally positive effects on district enrolment, postsecondary enrolment and persistence, and housing prices. While there is some evidence of improvement in teacher expectations and school climate, the scholarships have not been associated with fundamental changes inside schools. Although most programs have not been empirically studied, the 33 studies included in this review indicate that place-based scholarships have the potential to foster change within school districts and struggling cities and promote positive student outcomes.
Experimental and theoretical study of bumped characteristics obtained with cylindrical Langmuir probe in magnetized helium plasma

Cylindrical Langmuir probe measurements in a helium plasma were performed and analysed in the presence of a magnetic field. The plasma is generated in the ALINE device, a cylindrical vessel 1 m long and 30 cm in diameter using a direct coupled RF antenna (νRF = 25 MHz). The density and temperature are of the order of 1016 m−3 and 1.5 eV, respectively, for 1.2 Pa helium pressure and 200 W RF power. The axial magnetic field can be set from 0 up to 0.1 T, and the plasma diagnostic is a RF compensated Langmuir probe, which can be tilted with respect to the magnetic field lines. In the presence of a magnetic field, I(V) characteristics look like asymmetrical double probe ones (tanh-shape), which is due to the trapping of charged particles inside a flux tube connected to the probe on one side and to the wall on the other side. At low tilting angle, high magnetic field amplitude, power magnitude and low He pressure, which are the parameters scanned in our study, a bump can appear on the I(V) in the plasma potential range. We then compare different models for deducing plasma parameters from such unusual bumped curves. Finally, using a fluid model, the bump rising on the characteristics can be explained, assuming a density depletion in the flux tube, and emphasizing the role of the perpendicular transport of ions.
Mode and Interviewer Effects in Egocentric Network Research

Surveys of egocentric networks are especially vulnerable to methods effects. This study combines a true experiment—random assignment of respondents to receive essentially identical questions from either an in-person interviewer or an online survey—with audio recordings of the in-person interviews. We asked over 850 respondents from a general population several different name-eliciting questions. Face-to-face interviews yielded more cooperation and higher-quality data but fewer names than did the web surveys. Exploring several explanations, we determine that interviewer differences account for the mode difference: Interviewers who consistently prompted respondents elicited as many alters as did the web survey and substantially more than did less active interviewers. Although both methods effects substantially influenced the volume of alters listed, they did not substantially modify associations of other variables with volume.
An Agent-Based Modeling Approach for the Exploration of Self-Organizing Neural Networks

by Timothy W. Schoenharl In this thesis we present the ABNNSim toolkit for the simulation of biologically inspired neural networks. This work applies the Agent Based Modeling paradigm to the simulation of biological neural networks, allowing rapid development of models, easy addition of features and a richness of expression that is not available with other tools. The focus of the ABNNSim toolkit is modeling neural networks at the network level. This view leads to some loss of fidelity over other computational neuroscience tools, but allows larger, system-level phenomena to be explored. This is motivated by discoveries in the area of complex networks, in their analysis and prevalence in biological systems. These networks have characteristics that are desirable for biological systems: They are resilient in the face of failure, efficient (both in terms of communication cost and speed of propagation) and can be constructed using simple local rules. This thesis describes several methods of developing complex network topologies in neural networks using pruning. Throughout the project the Agent-Based Modeling paradigm has been valuable as a vital tool for speeding the development and deployment of simulations of this type.
The effects of noise reduction on cognitive effort in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners

A common complaint of hearing-impaired listeners is dif culty understanding speech in the presence of noise. Digital hearing aids have opened the door to complex signal processing algorithms that attempt to improve the quality, ease of listening, and/or intelligibility of speech in noisy environments. In reality, however, hearing aid users show no intelligibility improvements from single-microphone noise reduction (NR) algorithms, even though they sometimes report that speech sounds easier to understand. A possible explanation for this dichotomy is that NR algorithms replace a function that the human auditory system would otherwise perform. This redundancy means that there is no improvement in intelligibility, but a reduction in listening effort, since fewer cognitive resources would be necessary. We investigated this hypothesis using a dual-task paradigm with normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. They were asked to repeat sentences or words presented in noise while performing either a memory or a reaction-time task. Our results showed that degrading speech by reducing the signal-to-noise ratio increased demand for cognitive resources, demonstrated as a drop in performance in the cognitive task. Use of a NR algorithm mitigated some of the deleterious effects of noise by reducing cognitive effort and improving performance in the competing task.