Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blended Learning in a Supplementary Education Program for Severely Disturbed Adolescents: An Ethnographically-Oriented Case Study

The “South-Side Home for Trouble Youth” established a research and demonstration project to evaluate use of a blended implementation of a computer-based Integrated Learning System (ILS) in a residential treatment facility for severely emotionally disturbed pre-adolescents and adolescents. During the late 1980’s, the remedial instructional intervention described in this case study provided math and literacy instruction for a supplementary summer education project undertaken supported by the local Private Industry Council (P.I.C.) and funding made available through the Federal Job Training Partnership Act (J.T.P.A.). After completion of the project, a program evaluation was prepared and delivered to funding agencies as per standard contractual requirements binding on all federally supported grants and contracts. (Blomeyer, 1989) The report and its findings were at the time not published or publicly disseminated to assure the privacy and anonymity of all participants and their community. Researchers on-site conducted an investigation to evaluate the project's impact on the sponsored participants’ grade level achievement in math and language arts (literacy). Impact was assessed and reported based on two data sources: (1) detailed student-level data documenting participants’ daily and cumulative progress toward mastery of assigned mathematics and language arts content, and (2) a pre-post test comparison of sponsored participants’ scores on a contractually required standardized test assessing math and language arts achievement. An analysis of the participant’s scores on pre- and post- standardized achievement tests failed to show any evidence of achievement gains, but data from the Integrated Learning System provided evidence that major gains were made toward grade-level mastery of math and language arts content by nearly all of the participating students. The project’s apparent positive impact, supporting significant mastery gains and reduction of participants’ pronounced achievement gaps, suggests that online instructional delivery systems, when accompanied by on-site mentoring and personalized learning support, may be very beneficial when used with similar academically and emotionally challenged student populations that are served by today’s schools and social services agencies.
Liquid acrylate-endcapped biodegradable poly(epsilon-caprolactone-co-trimethylene carbonate). II. Computer-aided stereolithographic microarchitectural surface photoconstructs.

Advanced micromedical devices may require computer-aided photofabrication, by which microarchitectural surface design and entire macroshaped body design are feasible. Liquid acrylate-endcapped poly(epsilon-caprolactone-co-trimethylene carbonate)s, poly(CL/TMC)s, prepared using trimethylene glycol (TMG) or poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as an initiator and an acrylate group for subsequent terminal capping, were used as photocurable copolymers. The stereolithographically microarchitectured photoconstructs were prepared using a custom-designed apparatus with a moving ultraviolet (UV) light pen driven by a computer-assisted design program. The prepared photoconstructs included microneedles, a microcylinder and microbanks on surfaces. In vitro hydrolytic degradation proceeded with surface erosion when hydrophobic TMG-based photocured copolymers were employed, whereas very fast degradation of hydrophilic PEG-based photocured copolymers probably via concerted actions of surface erosion and bulk degradation was observed. In vivo hydrolytic behavior upon subcutaneous implantation in rats indicated that surface erosion proceeded for TMG-based photoconstructs. Anti-inflammatory drug (indomethacin) loading into microneedle-structured surfaces minimized inflammatory reactions. The possible biomedical microarchitectural three dimensinal in biomedical application photoconstructs was discussed.
Managerial Efficiency and Human Capital Information: Linkages with the Voluntary Disclosure of Labour Costs

This research paper examines the information content and managerial incentives for labour cost voluntary disclosures for a sample of United States publicly traded companies. We focus on labour productivity and managerial efficiency in labour usage and argue that these human capital indicators could provide valuable information to capital market participants seeking human resource‐type of performance measures and signals. Labour productivity and efficiency indicators are estimated following a production function approach and are included in logistic regressions to help explain and predict labour cost voluntary disclosure decisions. We find that labour productivity and managerial efficiency in labour use indicators are generally different between disclosing and non‐disclosing firms, and that proprietary information costs and political cost proxies are significantly related to labour costs voluntary disclosure, consistent with previous literature. These empirical results corroborate the ‘proprietary information’ hypothesis of voluntary disclosure where the strategic costs of disclosure outweigh the signaling benefit from disclosing human capital information.
The Impact of the Phoenix Urban Heat Island on Residential Water Use

Abstract One goal of the smart growth movement is a more compact urban form, intended to reduce energy use and the cost of moving materials, products, and people. The benefits of compactness are compromised, however, if higher densities and more intense land use create urban heat islands, which increase water and energy use. This study examines the effects of Phoenix's urban heat island on water use by single-family residences, controlling for relevant population and housing attributes. Our statistical analysis demonstrates that increasing daily low temperatures by 1° Fahrenheit is associated with an average monthly increase in water use of 290 gallons for a typical single-family unit. These results suggest that planners should consider effects on water demand as well as other environmental consequences when they evaluate growth strategies, and use incentives to encourage efficiency and sustainability.
Multinationals and the investment provisions of the nafta

The foreign direct investment (FDI) provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are examined in light of a worldwide trend toward liberalization of the policy environment for multinational firms. We first examine the rationale for entering into international investment negotiations from the perspective of the three signatories—Canada, Mexico, and the United States—and then analyze the accomplishments embodied in the resulting investment provisions. We also briefly address areas where these provisions could be strengthened and that may be on the agenda of future international trade and investment negotiations, whether in other fora or during negotiations involving accession of new member states to the NAFTA.
Indicadores de capital humano y productividad

This paper analizes the effect of education on job productivity, via improvements in workers humaii capital. Together with conventional measures of human capital such as the average years of school attainment, some alternative measures which take into account the distribution by levels of studies of the employed population are also considered. All these measures are subject to the corresponding empirical test using a novel database on territorial distribution of the Spanish population clasified by completed studies. While the use of average years does not result favorable, less restrictive alternative indicators show the positive contribution of each successive education level on job productivity. En este trabajo se analiza el efecto de la educacion, via mejoras en la dotacion de capital humano de los trabajadores, sobre la productividad del trabajo. Para ello, junto a medidas convencionales como el numero medio de anos de escolarizacion, se postulan medidas alternativas a partir de la distribucion por estudios de la poblacion ocupada. Todas esas medidas son sometidas al correspondiente contraste empirico mediante la utilizacion de una novedosa base de datos sobre la distribucion territorial por estudios terminados de la poblacion espanola. Mientras la utilizacion de los anos medios no resulta favorable, los indicadores alternativos menos restrictivos evidencian la contribucion positiva de cada sucesivo nivel educativo sobre la productividad del trabajo.
Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes Through Increased Predeparture Preparation for Study Abroad

Numerous studies have shown that each year, more students in the United States choose to study abroad. Some universities have even taken steps to make international study a requirement. Similar to the increased competitiveness for students to attend and thereafter, to stand out in college, making the most of one’s overseas experience, going to more exotic locations and delving deeper into the local culture, will follow in this pattern as a means to be more competitive upon graduation. Increased awareness of the needs of students studying abroad will need to be addressed and students across the spectrum of both mental and physical ability will need to be more greatly accounted for. How can the negative effects of international study be mitigated through increased predeparture planning and mentorship? Will increased predeparture preparation limit the challenges students who study abroad face? Using the fall 2013 voyage of Semester at Sea (SAS) as my focus, I investigated the challenges students faced during their international experience. This case study was conducted through a survey exhibiting the students’ perspectives and predeparture support, as well as faculty and staff interviews demonstrating professional observations of students’ adjustment and behaviors abroad. This study demonstrated that overall, students had little predeparture support at their home institutions prior to their international programs. Little was known about culture shock, though faculty and staff reported that universally it was experienced. At risk behaviors abroad, students’ overall mental health, and academic accountability also proved to be factors influencing students’ overall experience and success.
Value and valuation of forest ecosystem services

In this paper, we first present a total forest economic value framework from an anthropocentric instrumental value perspective and differentiate gross value, economic value, market value, and valuation of forest ecosystem services. We then argue that some of the demand-side-based non-market valuation approaches only provide an estimate of gross value, not economic value. Thus, strictly speaking, they are not market valuation per se as the supply side is ignored, and as many non-marketable and non-extractive forest ecosystem services are concerned, it is often the supply side – the opportunity costs of resources used to produce them that determine the economic values of these services. Finally, we identify the role of economic valuation of forest ecosystem services in the political market that often allocates resources directly to produce these services.
Why Denmark and Belgium Have Different Implementation Records: On Transposition Laggards and Leaders in the EU

Statistics of the European Commission show different performances among member states regarding the implementation of European policies. In particular, this article explains why Denmark and Belgium have different records with respect to the legal or administrative transposition of European Union environmental directives. The article starts with a short overview of the implementation problematique and a presentation of the latest available statistics. Then European-level factors are ruled out as possible explanations for the differences in performance. The author argues, on the contrary, that the differences between Belgium and Denmark must be explained by national institutional contexts. To this end, an institutional approach is presented, which draws attention to ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ institutions as explanatory variables. In total seven categories of variables are discussed: four ‘hard’ categories – the constitutional and administrative context (division of competencies and coordination mechanisms), institutional capacity, administrative and legal adaptation pressure, communication and continuity – and three ‘soft’ categories – institutional jealousy, Europeanisation and political adaptation pressure. It was found that both member states under study have different scores on almost all variables, pointing to rather unfavourable implementation conditions for Belgium and much more favourable conditions for Denmark.
Are Forest Attitudes Shaped by the Extent and Characteristics of Forests in the Local Landscape?

Forest policy is increasingly accounting for public attitudes and preferences. However, attitudes vary across the population and are linked to the characteristics of individuals and their relationship to forests. This study examines whether the extent, ownership, and composition of forests in respondents’ localities influence their expressed attitudes and rankings of forest outputs from a household survey. Forest cover in a 5-km buffer surrounding respondents was identified using a geographic information system (GIS) and the effects of forest cover and other key respondent variables were tested using ordered logit models. The results suggest that forest cover does influence attitudes and that the nature of the effects differs based on composition and ownership. A division in attitudes was also identified between members of farming households and urban areas. In addition to describing the potential formation of attitudes, the results highlight the trade-off between commercial and noncommercial management that may be required to improve attitudes toward forestry.
The Effects of Public Pressure on CSR Behavior in a Capital Market Experiencing Excessive Moral Debt

ABSTRACT The events surrounding the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Sarbanes) offer an opportunity to reflect on the influences of public pressure and possible public policy shifts on CSR behavior in a capital market experiencing excessive moral debt. Using the passage of Sarbanes to symbolize a potential public policy shift driven by public pressure, we examine the influence of social legitimacy variables on corporate social responsibility (CSR) behavior before (1991–2001) and after (2002–2005) the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. We posit that changes in CSR strategies surrounding the passage of Sarbanes were used to maximize stakeholder interests by addressing social legitimacy involving corporate accountability issues. Our findings support that CSR behaviors were significantly influenced by the public pressure variables of Sarbanes and company size, but were not significantly influenced by our economic legitimacy control measures, with the exception of a positive significant inter.
Environmentally constrained economic dispatch using Pareto archive particle swarm optimisation

The objective proposed is of environmental/economic dispatch (EED) taking into account the environmental impact to achieve simultaneously the minimisation of fuel costs and pollutant emissions, while satisfying the operational constraints of power systems. The multiarea environmental/economic dispatch (MEED) deals with the optimal power dispatch of multiple areas (or countries). In this investigation, EED/MEED is proposed to address the environmental issue during the economic dispatch. In this article, the EED/MEED problem is first formulated and then a proposed Pareto archive multiobjective particle swarm optimisation (PAMPSO) algorithm is developed to derive a set of Pareto-optimal solutions. Its aim is to dispatch the power among different areas by simultaneously minimising the operational costs and pollutant emissions. In the proposed PAMPSO, local search is used to increase its search efficiency. To ensure the system security, tie-line transfer limits between different areas are incorporated as a set of constraints in the optimisation process. Numerical studies based on a four-area test power generation system are carried out to demonstrate the validity of the proposed optimisation method as well as the results from different problem formulations. Comparative results of PAMPSO and three other competitive multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are also presented.
FM19G11 reverses endothelial dysfunction in rat and human arteries through stimulation of the PI3K/Akt/eNOS pathway, independently of mTOR/HIF‐1α activation

FM19G11 up‐regulates mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)/hypoxia inducible factor‐1α (HIF‐1α) and PI3K/Akt pathways, which are involved in endothelial function. We evaluated the effects of FM19G11 on defective endothelial vasodilatation in arteries from rats and humans and investigated the mechanisms involved.
Advancing Ecological Systems Theory in Lifestyle, Leisure, and Travel Research

Ecological systems theory and research focus on describingand explaining the thoughts and actions of individuals and groups within specific contexts of their lives. This article applies ecological systems theory to examine the contextual facilitating and constraining factors in the thoughts and actions of individuals regarding work, leisure, and travel alternatives. The article presents the results of a case research study of five Australian households with thought protocol data on these households’ lived experiences in work, leisure, and travel, and learning how they compare “ noncomparable” leisure expenditure options; the discussion leads to advancing macroecological and microecological systems theory in leisure travel behavior. The article includes suggestions for future research and implications for tourism marketing strategy.
Migrant entrepreneurship, economic activity and export performance: mapping the Danish trends

Recent studies on transnational entrepreneurship suggest that migrant entrepreneur plays an increasingly significant role as sources of economic activities and especially export revenue. The literature is, however, biased on the US experience, lacks a comparative perspective between migrants and non-migrants and is primarily anecdotal in nature. This paper aims to reduce this gap by mapping the recent changes in the role of migrant entrepreneurs as a source of increased economic activity and export revenue in the Danish context and thereby linking the challenges stemming from the transnational entrepreneurship literature to the immigration and internationalisation of entrepreneurship literature. Entrepreneurial economic activity in this paper is proxied by the changing share of self-owned firms across ethic categories. Export revenue is proxied by the number of firms in the different ethnic categories with exports. The Danish context provides unique data allowing for a comparison across migrants and non-migrants, across sectors and across time. The paper reveals that migrants play a decreasing role as sources of economic activity and export revenue and thus fails to provide support for the insights put forward by the transnational entrepreneurship literature. The findings suggest that the more 'negative' stance of the immigrations literature seems most adequate.
The exploration activity's added value into the innovation process

This article responds to the lack of research on the way a new idea is transformed into a market-accepted new product. Through non-participant observation and multiple interviews, an empirical investigation within a large French telecommunications operator (OPERACOM), shows that companies should integrate an exploration activity into the innovation process. In order to facilitate its implementation by managers, the research proposes a synthesis of features, comprising the exploration axes/criteria (technology, client use and business value), the participants (clients/creative users, designers, partners…), the organisational system (exploration centre, core team), the governance as well as the added value of the activity. The paper further combines theoretical findings with empirical data to identify the managerial implications of the findings, as well as additional theoretical considerations.
An orally active small molecule TGF-beta receptor I antagonist inhibits the growth of metastatic murine breast cancer.

BACKGROUND Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) plays a complex role in breast carcinogenesis. Initially functioning as a tumor suppressor, this cytokine later contributes to the progression of malignant cells by enhancing their invasive and metastatic potential as well as suppressing antitumor immunity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of SM16, a novel small molecule ALK5 kinase inhibitor, to treat a highly metastatic, TGF-beta-producing murine mammary carcinoma (4T1). MATERIALS AND METHODS Mice bearing established 4T1 tumors were treated with SM16 intraperitoneally (i.p.) or orally, and primary and metastatic tumor growth was assessed. RESULTS SM16 inhibited Smad2 phosphorylation in cultured 4T1 tumor cells as well as primary and metastatic 4T1 tumor tissue. Blockade of TGF-beta signal transduction in 4T1 tumor cells by SM16 prevented TGF-beta-induced morphological changes and inhibited TGF-beta-induced invasion in vitro. When delivered via daily i.p. injection or orally through mouse chow, SM16 inhibited the growth of primary and metastatic 4T1 tumors. Splenocytes isolated from mice on the SM16 diet displayed enhanced IFN-gamma production and antitumor CTL activity. Furthermore, SM16 failed to inhibit the growth and metastasis of established 4T1 tumors in immunodeficient SCID mice. CONCLUSION Taken together, the data indicate that the antitumor efficacy of SM16 is dependent on an immune-mediated mechanism and that SM16 may represent a safe and effective treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
The influence of delivery mode on consumer choice of university

This paper reports on an empirical investigation into the importance of study mode in the choice of university by Australian student-consumers, using conjoint methods. Traditional approaches to investigating student choice have overlooked study mode because they assume a norm of face-to-face attendance on-campus. Three segments were identified based on the relative importance which students placed on the university, study mode and tuition fees in making their choice, and the segments were distinguishable on some demographic and situational variables. The findings have relevance to universities across national and reputational markets in making their decisions about how to deliver educational products.
Gene transfer into cultured mammalian embryos by electroporation.

To gain a better understanding of mammalian development at the molecular level, technology is needed that allows the transfer of exogenous genes into desired embryonic regions at defined stages of development. Our strategy has been to use electroporation (EP) of plasmid DNA following whole-embryo culture (WEC). In our gene transfer system, postimplantation rodent embryos are taken out of the uterus and a purified DNA solution of mammalian expression plasmid constructs is injected into the neural tube. A square-pulse current is delivered using an electroporator with an optimizer. Electroporated embryos are allowed to develop in the WEC system for 24--48 h. Within the targeted area, the proportion of transfected cells varied from 10% to approximately 100% depending on the test conditions (e.g., DNA concentration, voltage, duration of EP, and pulse number). The EP--WEC system has several advantages including rapid gene expression, minimal laboratory work, precisely targeted regions, and no risk for human beings. Application of the method is useful in improving our understanding of early neural development (E7--E12 in mice), e.g., alteration of gene function via ectopic expression, interference with dominant negative proteins, and fate mapping with marker genes. In addition, EP can complement genetic approaches such as the generation of knockout and transgenic mice.