Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Victim Impact Panels 2 EFFECTS OF MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING ' S VICTIM IMPACT PANELS ON FIRST-TIME DWI OFFENDERS : SOME INITIAL RESULTS *

A study assessed the effects of victim impact panels (VIP) on first-time DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) offenders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The VIP is an emotional presentation by the victim or their parents about how they were injured or their child was killed by a drunk driver. Subjects, 350 first-time offenders participated in a Mothers against Drunk Driving victim impact panel, took both pretest and posttest questionnaires measuring emotional state, perception of the riskiness of drinking and driving, and intention to drink and drive. Information was elicited as to the socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects. Typical VIP participant is a working-class male with a fairly modest income. Findings contradict the stereotype of DWI offenders as alcoholics--rather, they appear to be individuals who make poor choices. Participants reported being strongly affected by the VIP sessions. Most said they would not drink and drive again and were convinced that drinking and driving was very risky. Drinking and driving is a serious social and health problem, and several strategies have been tried nationally and locally in New Mexico (the leader in drinking and driving fatalities in the United States) to reduce DWI recidivism. Legal interventions have only provided short-term deterrence to drinking and driving. The predominantly informal approach used by DWI schools appears to be ineffective in reducing DWI recidivism. (Includes 5 tables and 1 figure of data; contains 30 references. (PA) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********)' **********************************************************1. *** * Victim Impact Panels . 1 EFFECTS OF MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING'S (MADD's) VICTIM IMPACT PANELS ON FIRST-TIME DWI OFFENDERS: SOME INITIAL RESULTS* Submitted to the Health Communication Division of the International Communication Association
SAMPLING AND STATISTICS IN UNDERSTANDING DISTRIBUTION OF BLACK FLIES LARVAE (DIPTERA: SIMULIIDAE)

We demonstrate by example a standardized set of protocols for collecting both larval black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) and the accompanying stream data. By following a few simple proce- dures, powerful data sets can be readily collected. The protocols have been developed as a result of sam- pling over 500 streams in both North and South America. In addition, simple statistical procedures for producing species distribution models also are presented.
In the mood for a commercial break? A model of consumer response to television commercials during sensitive news

Marketers decided to pull over $100 million worth of commercials from network, cable, local and syndicated TV outlets on the United States market in the first 48 hours of the 2003 Iraq war. Given this loss to advertisers and media, we looked at how consumers respond to commercials during wartime. Would they change their attitude towards products that are advertised during war coverage? Would they consider advertising during such coverage inappropriate? Consistent with previous mood theory study findings, the results suggest a positive relationship between the mood generated by the interest in the program content and support for advertisements during the program. We also found that factors influencing the mood induced by war coverage were support for the Presidentâ€™s decisions and for the war. These findings open the door to a completely new line of research on attitudes towards media contents. Future research could explore the relationship between political ideology of viewers and their mood when watching sensitive news content.
Changes in subduction in the South Atlantic Ocean during the 21st century in the CCSM3

The Community Climate System Model version 3 is used to analyse changes in water mass subduction rates in the South Atlantic Ocean over the 21st century. The model results are first compared to observations over 1950–2000, and shown to be rather good. The subduction rates do not change significantly over the 21st century, but the densities at which water masses form become significantly lighter. The strong westerly winds in this region do not change much, which suggests small changes to the rate at which the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean takes up heat and carbon dioxide over the 21st century.
Earnings Management, Earnings Surprises, and Distressed Firms

We examine the propensity of distressed firms to manage earnings and the impact of their earnings management on investor response to earnings. We find that distressed firms manage earnings upward and downward more than other firms. Distressed firms manage earnings upward significantly more than non-distressed firms after negative earnings surprises. Investor response to earnings surprises is smaller in magnitude for distressed firms. Investor response to positive earnings surprises of distressed firms is larger in magnitude than the response to negative earnings surprises. The change in bankruptcy probability after a negative earnings surprise is greater for distressed firms. Distressed firms have less post-announcement earnings drift. The results suggest that earnings management by distressed firms lowers earnings quality and weakens investor response. Our evidence has implications for investors, analysts, and compensation and audit committees.
A MOBILE AGENT-BASED EVENT DRIVEN ROUTE DISCOVERY PROTOCOL IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK: AERDP

Although the idea of injecting mobile agents in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) in deterministic as well as non-deterministic environments is not new but the strategy of processing the information and the path, a mobile agent should follow is still in its infancy. The work proposes a mobile agent based top-down approach for harvesting the data from WSN deployed in non-deterministic environment, in particular. Further, embedded mobile agents can be harnessed for the data capture process as these mobile agents can travel the network and adapt to the changing environment. The work uniquely contributes a mobile-agent based event-driven approach for collecting the data from various hops in different clusters and a mobile agent is responsible for forwarding the processed information to the sink. Further, it is emphasized that embedding mobile agents into sensors would result into a dynamic method for sensing and processing the data in non-deterministic environments.
Intercultural Competence of Students in International Baccalaureate World Schools in Turkey and Abroad

This study investigates intercultural competence of International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) students and non-IBDP students and whether it is affected by some variants such as grade, gender, nationality, being a native speaker of English, living in an English speaking country and travelling abroad. The data is gathered from the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) and the demographic part. The results reveal that there isn’t a significant difference in ISS scores of IBDP students, but there is a significant difference in ISS scores between IBDP and non-IBDP students. The ISS scores differed in gender, grade and living in an English speaking country.
Extraction of Multi-Word Terms and Complex Terms from the Classical Arabic Text of the Quran

The identification of domain-specific terms is a crucial step in many natural language processing applications. Term extraction is a process of obtaining a set of terms that represent the domain of a given text. The majority of term extraction research projects conducted for the Quran have used translated text instead of the original Classical Arabic text of the Quran. The extraction of terms from the original Arabic text rather than a translation may help in retrieving more relevant terms, due to the lack of Islamic equivalents of some Quran terms in other languages. This paper demonstrates a hybrid-based method for the acquisition of a list of domain-specific terms from the Arabic text of the Quran. The produced list of terms was validated using a common evaluation metric for ranked list; precision of up to 0.81 was achieved for the top 200 terms. We discuss the precision that was achieved, in the context of two existing datasets from previous research.
Identification-Robust Factor Pricing: Canadian Evidence

We analyze factor models based on the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT). using identification-robust inference methods. Such models involve nonlinear reduced-rank restrictions whose identification may raise serious non-regularities and lead to a failure of standard asymptotic theory. We build confidence sets for structural parameters based on inverting Hotelling-type pivotal statistics. These confidence sets provide much more information than the corresponding tests. Our approach may be interpreted as a multivariate extension of the Fieller method for inference on mean ratios. We also introduce a formal definition for a redundant factor linking the presence of such factors to unbounded confidence sets, and we document their perverse effects on minimum-root-based model tests. Results are applied to multifactor asset-pricing models with Canadian data, the Fama-French-Carhart benchmarks and monthly returns of 25 portfolios from 1991 to 2010. Despite evidence of weak identification, several findings deserve notice when data are analyzed over ten-year subperiods. With equally weighted portfolios, the three-factor model is rejected before 2000, but weakly supported thereafter. In contrast, the three-factor model is not rejected with value-weighted portfolios. Interestingly in this case, the market factor is priced before 2000 along with size, while both Fama-French factors are priced thereafter. The momentum factor severely compromises identification, which calls for caution in interpreting existing work documenting momentum effects on the Canadian market. This empirical analysis underscores the practical usefulness of our analytical confidence sets.
TELLURIDES OCCURRENCES IN THE BAIA MARE REGION, ROMANIA

Tellurides are significant minerals in gold deposits both as gold carriers and as indicators of PTx-conditions. In the Inner Carpathians belt tellurides are abundant in most deposits of the golden Quadrilateral (Apuseni Mountains) and sporadic in the Banska Stiavnica zone and the Zlata Bania zone. In the presenr paper we describe for first time altaite and tetradymite occurences in the Baia Mare district proved by e-probe data. Altaite (PbTe) was found in the Cavnic deposit in assemblage with sphalerite, galena, and rhodonite. It's chemical composition is close to stoichiometric: Te 37.61 wt. % and Pb 60.51 wt. %, total 98.12 wt. %. In the Cu-Bi assemblage of the Nistru deposit occurs tetradymite (Bi2Te2S) in intergrowth with chalcopyrite, gustavite, and native Au. Tetradymite appears as very small grains with the composition Te 36.99 wt. %, Bi 61.93 wt. % S 4.55 wt. % and calculated formula Bi2.03Te1. 99S0.98. Paratellurite (TeO2), found in assemblage with native gold and gustavite, forms intergrowth with a 2-microns phase containing Au and Te. Thermodynamic constrains supported by fluid inclusions data indicate that altaite formation at Cavnic was likely to be a result of temperature decrease from 300 to 250-200 o C and fS2 drop. At Nistru tetradymite formation does not require temperature decrease and might be a result of fS2 drop and/or fTe2 increase.
Design of an Optimized Modulation for AC-DC Harmonic Immunity in VSC HVDC Transmission

Control methods based on selective harmonic elimination pulse-width modulation (SHE-PWM) techniques offer the lowest possible number of switching transitions. This feature also results in the lowest possible level of converter switching losses. For this reason, they are very attractive techniques for the voltage- source-converter-(VSC) based high-voltage dc (HVDC) power transmission systems. The paper discusses optimized modulation patterns which offer controlled harmonic immunity between the ac and dc side. The application focuses on the conventional two-level converter when its dc-link voltage contains a mix of low- frequency harmonic components. Simulation and experimental results are presented to confirm the validity of the proposed switching patterns.
An assessment of the effect of a national fertiliser subsidy programme on farmer participation in private fertiliser markets in the North Rift region of Kenya

This study evaluated the effect of the national fertiliser subsidy on farmer participation in commercial fertiliser markets in the North Rift region of Kenya. The study used primary data collected from 710 households. A double-hurdle model and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. The results show that the national fertiliser subsidy reduces farmers’ probability of participating in commercial fertiliser markets by 30%. On average, an additional kilogram of subsidised fertiliser displaces 0.2 kg of commercial fertiliser from the market. This implies that the national fertiliser subsidy has a displacement effect on commercial sales. The government therefore should consider changes in programme design and implementation by distributing subsidised fertiliser to areas with weak commercial fertiliser distribution networks. In addition, proper targeting of resource-poor households is recommended if the programme objectives are to be achieved.
Improving species distribution models: the value of data on abundance

Species distribution models (SDMs) are important tools for forecasting the potential impacts of future environmental changes but debate remains over the most robust modelling approaches for making projections. Suggested improvements in SDMs vary from algorithmic development through to more mechanistic modelling approaches. Here, we focus on the improvements that can be gained by conditioning SDMs on more detailed data. Specifically, we use breeding bird data from across Europe to compare the relative performances of SDMs trained on presence–absence data and those trained on abundance data. Species distribution models trained on presence–absence data, with a poor to slight fit according to Cohen's kappa, show an average improvement in model performance of 0·32 (SE ± 0·12) when trained on abundance data. Even those species for which models trained on presence–absence data are classified as good to excellent show a mean improvement in Cohen's kappa score of 0·05 (SE ± 0·01) when corresponding SDMs are trained on abundance data. This improved explanatory power is most pronounced for species of high prevalence. Our results illustrate that even using coarse scale abundance data, large improvements in our ability to predict species distributions can be achieved. Furthermore, predictions from abundance models provide a greater depth of information with regard to population dynamics than their presence–absence model counterparts. Currently, despite the existence of a wide variety of abundance data sets, species distribution modellers continue to rely almost exclusively on presence–absence data to train and test SDMs. Given our findings, we advocate that, where available, abundance data rather than presence–absence data can be used to more accurately predict the ecological consequences of environmental change. Additionally, our findings highlight the importance of informative baseline data sets. We therefore recommend the move towards increased collection of abundance data, even if only coarse numerical scales of recording are possible.
Investment in production resource flexibility: An empirical investigation of methods for planning under uncertainty

We examine several methods for evaluating resource acquisition decisions under uncertainty. Traditional methods may underestimate equipment benefit when part of this benefit comes from decision flexibility. We develop a new, practical method for resource planning under uncertainty, and show that this approach is more accurate than several commonly used methods. We successfully applied our approach to an investment problem faced by a major firm in the aviation information industry. Our recommendations were accepted and resulted in estimated annual savings in excess of $1 million (US). © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2003
Building Workforce for Chronic Disease and Complex Conditions: A Qualitative Investigation of Care Coordinators' Role Perceptions

Background: Within interdisciplinary fields of healthcare that focus on chronic disease and complex condition management across an integrated continuum of services, there is growing emphasis on workforce reform strategies to update and expand clinical roles. In particular, different configurations of clinician teams have emerged to support older adults and others with complex health and social needs. This qualitative study sought perspectives from an emergent care coordination workforce that provide such support. The purpose of the study was to capture the views and experiences from this workforce as a means to understand the characteristics of their role; and the values care coordinators perceived to be placed on the role by external clinical colleagues. Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was supported by purposive sampling of 57 care coordinators located at a metropolitan Local Health Network in Victoria, Australia. Data was obtained from several focus groups in the form of detailed notes and verbatim quotes then analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Care coordinators’ held values about their role that were conceptually related to three key characteristics: 1) The whole person approach: making a difference to people’s lives; 2) Autonomy; and 3) Practice wisdom. With regard to their viewpoints about how external colleagues perceived the role, content themes of ‘picking up all loose ends’ and ‘waving the magic wand’ emerged. Conclusion: These qualitative findings suggest that care coordinators bring a unique and somewhat sharedpractice perspective that could significantly build the interface between acute episode-based and chronic care. The findings are of interest to healthcare organizations investing in holistic workforce capability to support chronic disease and complex condition management within integrated service delivery models.
Combined antimicrobial and aroma finishing treatment for cotton, using micro encapsulated geranium ( Pelargonium graveolens L' Herit. ex Ait.) leaves extract

The methanolic extract of geranium, Pelargonium graveolens L’ Herit. ex Ait. leaves was used to impart antimicrobial and aroma finishing to the cotton fabric. The extract was microencapsulated using two different methods namely coacervation-spray drying and direct spray drying techniques. The results indicated that the direct spray drying method produced smaller capsules with 5 µ size in powder form and 12.5 µ in aqueous form compared to the 7.5 µ and 17.5 µ respective capsule sizes produced by coacervation-spray drying method. The microencapsulated geranium leaves extract treated cotton fabrics showed antimicrobial efficacy against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli . However, the Gram positive Staphylococcus aureus was more susceptible to geranium extract compared to Escherichia coli . The microcapsule treated fabric retained 50-60% aroma after 10 washes compared to the nil retention property of pure geranium extract treated fabric.
Preliminary investigation of a tool for collaborative auditing of public policy argumentation

The very early development stages of a collaborative argumentations system entitled Pacisco is described. At this point particular emphasis is on the interface and interaction design of the analytic functionality. Three examples of open-access collaborative argumentation systems currently available on the Web are examined briefly to provide a context for the development of a new system. The approach of Pacisco is differentiated from its predecessors as encouraging detailed comprehension and auditing of debate rather than establishing outright victory for one position. The argumentation schema employed is based on that described by Stephen Toulmin in ‘The Uses of Argument' (1958), but modified to enable chains of reasoning to be captured. To provide a context for development of the prototype, four fundamental requirements are identified; integrate well with other web systems, allow only anonymous contribution, be intrinsically secure, be transparent. How these requirements should be represented in the design is indicated. The proposed development process is described briefly.
Singular Perturbations for a Class of Degenerate Parabolic Equations with Mixed Dirichlet-Neumann Boundary Conditions

We establish a singular perturbation property for a class of quasi-linear parabolic degenerate equations associated with a mixed Dirichlet-Neumann boundary condition in a bounded domain of R p , 1 < p < +∞. In order to prove the L 1 -convergence of viscous solutions toward the entropy solution of the corresponding first-order hyperbolic problem, we refer to some properties of bounded sequences in L∞ together with a weak formulation of boundary conditions for scalar conservation laws.
Approaching Development Projects from a Human Development and Capability Perspective

Abstract This paper discusses the relevance of the human development and capability approach for development project planning, management and evaluation. With reference to the set of five other studies that it introduces, the paper suggests in which areas insights from human development and capability thinking offer advances and in which areas such thinking needs to link with and be complemented or corrected by thinking from other sources and traditions. The paper aims at capturing the learning from recent experiences and studies, both for project planning and for the human capabilities perspective.
Exploring the Relationships among Types of Video Games played and Self- Reported Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving with Undergraduate Students Aml Gadallah Supervisor: Dr. J. Turner Mount Saint

Previous research has established that playing video games is related to many positive behavioural outcomes (Roy & Ferguson, 2016). However, not much is known about whether playing different types of video games has an effect on critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The purpose of this research was to explore the relationships among types of video games and self-reported critical thinking and problem-solving. Thirty-eight undergraduate students recruited through an online survey filled out measures on media use behaviour, extracurricular activities, critical thinking and problem-solving. One-way ANOVAs indicated that there were no differences between types of video games played and critical thinking (p = 0.055) and the types of video games played and problemsolving, (p =0 .081). Spearman correlations yielded no significant results for the relationship between time spent playing video games and problem solving or between time spent playing video games and critical thinking. The results also showed that the relationship between the types of extracurricular activities and problem-solving skills was not statistically significant, (p = 0.22); nor was the relationship between types of extracurricular activities and critical thinking statistically significant (p = 0.09). In conclusion, there were no relationships between type of video game played and critical thinking and problem solving. Additional research in this area is needed to further investigate the relationships between types of video game play and problem solving and critical thinking. The current study had a very small sample of gamers (n = 27), resulting in low power and may be the reason for lack of significant findings. Future research should seek to obtain a more diverse sample in terms of age and gender as well to focus on recruiting a more representative sample of gamers. THE EFFECT OF THE TYPES OF VIDEO GAMES 3