Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating student interest in the context of problem-based learning

This dissertation investigates student interest in the context of problem-based learning (PBL). It aligns the agenda of advancing interest theory with using research to make a difference in classrooms. The dissertation includes five empirical studies which are guided by a design-based research approach. The findings highlight the dynamics of motivation-in-context experiences and they identify specific affordances of PBL activities which foster students’ interest thereby extending the empirical basis for the motivational design of PBL environments.
Acceleration and spatial rheology of Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula

The disintegration of several Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves has focused attention on the state of the Larsen C Ice Shelf. Here, we use satellite observations to map ice shelf speed from the years 2000, 2006 and 2008 and apply inverse modeling to examine the spatial pattern of ice‐shelf stiffness. Results show that the northern half of the ice shelf has been accelerating since 2000, speeding up by 15% between 2000 and 2006 alone. The distribution of ice stiffness exhibits large spatial variations that we link to tributary glacier flow and fractures. Our results reveal that ice down‐flow from promontories is consistently softer, with the exception of Churchill Peninsula where we infer a stabilizing role for marine ice. We conclude that although Larsen C is not facing imminent collapse, it is undergoing significant change in the form of flow acceleration that is spatially related to thinning and fracture.
BALLENBERG COMBINING 3 D LANDSCAPE MODELS WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The management of the open-air museum Ballenberg with about 100 original century-old buildings from all over Switzerland plans an attractive new overview map and a 3D information system of the museum area and exhibits. In this paper we investigate how highly detailed 3D terrain and building models can be utilised as base data for a flexible interactive 3D information system. The system shall be usable as source of information for museum visitors as well as an interface to more complex information for the Ballenberg management and architectural researchers. The integration of information in a 3D information system has to take into account that the user is able to freely navigate through the 3D model but nevertheless is limited by the fact that the 3D environment is projected onto a 2D screen. The presentation of additional information within a 3D environment might interfere with depth cues which allow perceiving the landscape model as close to reality and in 3D. The project employs a prototype to conceptualise and discuss the possibilities for inclusion of different types of information and media in a 3D environment. To create an effective interface to the different information contained we also explore how 2D and 3D presentations can be combined side by side or nested. The interaction with 2D and 3D objects on the screen with the help of commonly available input devices such as the keyboard and the mouse is discussed and methods for information linking and retrieval are suggested. * Corresponding author
Strategic Groups and Rent Dissipation

We consider a rent-seeking contest in which players can form strategic groups before expending their outlays. We examine the profitability of endogenous group formation and the effect of such group formation on rent dissipation. We show the following: When just one strategic group is formed in equilibrium, group formation is beneficial both to the group members and to the nonmembers, and rent dissipation is smaller than with usual individual rent seeking. However, when more than two strategic groups are formed in equilibrium, group formation is never profitable to any players, and rent dissipation is greater than with individual rent seeking. Copyright 2001 by Oxford University Press.
Feedback through student essay competitions: what makes a good engineering lecturer?

Abstract The Engineering Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy has run student essay competitions for some years. In 2007/08 the title was ‘What makes a good engineering lecturer? ’. This paper presents an analysis of the 43 submissions, carried out to identify the most commonly cited attributes and to present quotes that convey the spirit of the essays. The same title had been used for the first competition in 2003/04, and the outcomes of the 2007/08 competition are compared with those previously published for the 2003/04 award. The attributes most commonly identified across both sets of essays are use of real-world examples, approachability, enthusiasm, diversity of media, and good communication.
Sumac (Rhus coriaria L.) Represents a Considerable Antibacterial Activity Against Meticillin Susceptible and Meticillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important pathogens and the cause of suppuration, abscess formation, a variety of pyogenic infections, and even fatal septicemia in human beings. Isolation of resistant strains of S. aureus especially meticillin-resistant one has elucidated the importance of finding new antibacterial agents. Sumac is one of the important medicinal herbs of Iranian traditional medicine (ITM). Sumac has been traditionally prescribed for some ailments with infectious etiology and therefore, it probably contains antibacterial compounds. Recently, antibacterial activities of sumac against some bacteria were studied by our team. Objective: In this article, we aimed to compare the antibacterial activities of sumac against meticillin susceptible (MSSA) and meticillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) via minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) determination. Materials and Methods: Antibacterial activity of sumac water extract was studied on 19 clinical and 1 standard strain of S. aureus via MIC and MBC determination. Based on their sensitivity to cloxacillin, these bacteria were classified as meticillin-susceptible, intermediate meticillin-resistant, and meticillin-resistant. MICs and MBCs of the extracts in these 3 groups were statistically compared via one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by a post hoc analysis (Tukey HSD test) using SPSS for Windows (version 15). Results: The results showed that in spite of different susceptibilities to cloxacillin, susceptibility to sumac extract was not different and MICs and MBCs of sumac for all clinical isolates including MSSA and MRSA were similar (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Based on previous studies, sumac extract acts against S. aureus probably through changing the cell wall properties. This activity is similar for both MRSA and MSSA. More investigation on the precise mechanism of action of this extract would be fruitful.
Sex in the brain . Gender differences in the human hypothalamus and adjacent areas . Relationship to transsexualism , sexual orientation , sex hormone receptors and endocrine status

T Thiss study reports the first systemati c rostrocauda l distribution off estrogen receptor beta immunoreactivit y (ER(3-ir) in the human hypothalamuss and adjacent areas in five males and five females betweenn 20-39 years of age and compares its distribution to previousl y reportedd ERa in the same patients. ERP-ir was generall y observed moree frequentl y in the cytoplasm than in the nucleus and appeare d too be stronger in women. Basket-like fiber stainings, suggestive for ERp-irr in synapti c terminals, were additionall y observed in various areas. Men showed more robust nuclear ERp-ir than women in the mediall part of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, paraventricula r andd paratenial nucleus of the thalamus, while less intense, but more nuclear ,, ERpJ-i r appeare d to be present in, e.g., the BSTc, sexuall y dimorphicc nucleus of the medial preopti c area, diagonal band of Broca andd ventromedial nucleus. Women revealed more nuclear ERfJ-ir thann men of a low to intermediat e level, e.g., in the suprachiasmatic , supraoptic,, paraventricular , infundibular, and medial mamillary nucleus. These data indicate potential sex differences in ERfJ expression. ERfJ-ir expression patterns in subject s with abnormal hormone levelss suggest s that there may be sex differences in ERp-ir that are "activational "" rather than "organizational " in nature. Similarities, differences ,, potential functional , and clinical implications of the observed ERaa and ERfJ distributions are discusse d in relation to reproduction, autonomic-function ,, mood, cognition, and neuroprotectio n in health andd disease . J. Comp. Neurol. 466:251-277, 2003. Inn 1996 a novel estrogen receptor which binds 17-fJ estradiol with a similar affinityy as the "classical " estrogen receptor was discovered and assigned estrogenn receptor beta (ERfJ) (Kuiperetal. , 1996; Mosselman et al., 1996;Tremblay ett al., 1997). ERfJ is transcribed from a distinct gene on chromosome 14 at 14q22-24,, while human ERfJ has been located on the long arm of chromosomee 6 (Enmark et al., 1997). The two estrogen receptor (ER) subtypes have -16%% homology in the N-terminal region, 95%homology in the DNA-binding domain,, 55% homology in the ligand-binding domain, while only 18% homologyy is present in the C-terminal domai n (Kuiper et al., 1996). Subsequently , variouss isoforms of ERfJ (i.e., ERfJl) have been identified, of which ERfJ2 has aa lower affinity for estrogens (Chu and Fuller, 1997) and an 18-amino acid insertionn in the ligand-binding domai n (Maruyama et al., 1998; for overview, seee Saunders , 1998; Price et al., 2000; Österlund and Hurd, 2001). Since the identificationidentification of ER(i, various studies have investigated its different isoforms, functions,, and differences in distribution pattern from the "classical " estrogen receptorr alpha (ERfJ) in tissue of both the central nervous system and peripherall reproductive as well as nonreproductiv e organs (see, e.g., Lubahn et al.,
Knowledge Discovery and Management for Product Design through Text Mining - a Case Study of Online Information Integration for Designers

Product innovation and design is often regarded as an information and knowledge intensive activity. While existing tools, i.e. search engines and product data management systems, have provided a certain degree of assistance to design community in information storage, processing and retrieval, many challenges remain, especially if we intend to provide advanced capabilities so that the designers are able to handle the overloaded information. These capabilities include, but are not restricted to, automated classification of design relevant documents based on product architecture, relevance analysis and summarization of design documents, identification of product function from customer feedback\reviews in conceptual design, personal design information subscription and management, market analysis and competitive intelligence report generation and so on. To fulfill these demands, an integrated text mining system for knowledge discovery and management in product design is proposed. In this paper, we report our study on the integration of online information with the internal knowledge base, e.g. product taxonomy, as part of our efforts towards the realization of the proposed system. Several key techniques are explained, i.e. maximal frequent word sequence algorithm in discovering the quality phrases, document profile model based on salient semantic information and finally concept based automated text classification approach. Experimental studies have demonstrated its effectiveness.
Preparation and Characterization ofWater-Soluble Chitosan Microparticles Loaded with Insulin Using the Polyelectrolyte

Polymeric delivery systems based on microparticles have emerged as a promising approach for peroral insulin delivery. The amount of insulin was quantified by the improved Bradford method. It was shown that water-soluble chitosan/insulin/tripolyphosphate (TPP) mass ratio played an important role in microparticles formation. Stable, uniform, and spherical water-soluble chitosan microparticles (WSC-MPs) with high insulin association efficiency were formed at or close to optimized WSC/insulin/TPP mass ratio. WSC-MPs had higher association efficiency in the pH 4.0 and pH 9.7 of TPP solution. The results showed that association efficiency and loading capacity of insulin-loaded WSC-MPs prepared in 0.01 mol/L HCl of insulin were 48.28 ± 0.90% and 9.52 ± 1.34%. The average size of insulin-loaded WSC-MPs was 292 nm. The presented WSC microparticulate system has promising properties towards the development of an oral delivery system for insulin.
Share Issuance and Cross‐sectional Returns

Post-1970, share issuance exhibits a strong cross-sectional ability to predict stock returns. This predictive ability is more statistically significant than the individual predictive ability of size, book-to-market, or momentum. Our finding is related to research that finds that long-run returns are associated with share repurchase announcements, seasoned equity offerings, and stock mergers, although our results remain strong even after exclusion of the data used in these studies. We estimate the issuance relation pre-1970 and find no statistically significant predictive ability for most holding periods. Copyright 2008 by The American Finance Association.
EFFECTS OF SIX PLANT EXTRACTS ON RICE WEEVIL SITOPHILUS ORYZAE L. IN THE STORED WHEAT GRAINS

Ethanol extracts of six plants materials i.e. bakain drupes (Melia azdarach), habulas leaves (Myrtus communis), mint leaves (Mentha longifolia), bakain leaves, harmal shoots and seeds (Pegnum harmala) and lemon grass roots (Cymbopogon citrates) against rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae L. were tested to determine their insecticidal properties. The results revealed that all of the tested materials with some variations had repellent and lethal effects against the pest as compared with the untreated check. Considering the % mortality of the insect as a main index, bakain drupes proved to be the most effective of these six plant materials, showed 61.2 % mortality, followed by habulas (48.40%), mint (47.40%) and bakain leaves (46.80%), while harmal (16.80%) was found less effective followed by lemon grass (35.20%).
The effects of diet composition and vitamin B supplementation on the urine isoprostane concentration in rats

The purpose of this research was to assess the amount of isoprostane 8-iPF2α-III, a marker of oxidation stress, in excreted urine. The study was conducted on 40 male rats aged 5 months. Group 1 received the basic diet, groups 2-4, the modified diet in which whole cereal grains were partly substituted with wheat flour and sucrose. Groups 1-2 received water to drink, groups 3 and 4 were given aqueous solutions of B group vitamins at different doses. On the fifth week of the experiment, a 24-h urine collection was conducted. The concentrations of creatinine and 8-iPGF2a-III were determined in urine samples. Modification of diet composition caused increased excretion of isoprostane, which may indicate enhancement of free-radical reactions in the examined animal. The provided supplementation decreased the value of this parameter expressed as a creatinine ratio, but not, however, to the values observed in the animals fed the basic diet. A stronger effect was observed with excess supplementation.
Bit De-Interleaver Bit Interleaver Demodulation extrinsic APP SISO Decoder Improved Estimation VBEM Pilot Based Channel Estimation

It was recently shown that detection performance can be significantly improved if the statistics of channel estimation errors are available and properly used at the receiver. Although deriving the statistics of channel estimation errors is rather straightforward for pilot-only channel estimation methods, it is not the case for semi-blind receivers such as variational Bayesian (VB) receivers. We have shown in a recent contribution that by a modified formulation of the VB formalism, one can reduce the impact of channel uncertainty on the decoder performance. In this paper, we propose different practical VB receiver implementation techniques that lead to further performance improvement. The adequacy of the proposed receiver design compared to classically-used VB receivers is demonstrated by simulations for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems.
Effect of Entrepreneurial Competence on Success of Women Entrepreneurs in Bungoma, Kenya

Enterprise success has become increasingly popular among practitioners and scholars in the field of entrepreneurship. This is because successful entrepreneurs are important to the development of the economy since they provide value through job creation and economic growth. Moreover, success motivates and is the ultimate direction of every entrepreneurial efforts including entrepreneurial efforts of women entrepreneurs whose contribution to the development and transformation of a country has long been recognized. To date women entrepreneurs are starting enterprises at three times the rate of their male counterparts. However, the rate of their enterprise success has shown a lot of concern with the numbers that are successful remaining low and thus not encouraging. Although previous studies have focused on assessing the effect of entrepreneurial competencies on enterprise success among entrepreneurs in general, there are reasons to believe that entrepreneurial competencies are critical to the success of women entrepreneurs. However, little is known about the effect of entrepreneurial competencies on success of women entrepreneurs. The purpose of the study was to analyze effect of entrepreneurial competencies on the success of women entrepreneurs in Bungoma County, Kenya. The study was hinged on Resource based view theory. The study adopted a post-positivism research stance and utilized an explanatory survey design that was cross-sectional in nature. A sample of 358 respondents was selected using proportionate and simple random. Data was collect using a questionnaire and analyzed quantitatively using multivariate techniques, specifically Structural Equation Modeling. The study found that entrepreneurial competencies (β=0.358, p<0.05) had a positive and significant effect on enterprise success of women entrepreneurs. The study concluded that that entrepreneurial competencies were significant determinants of enterprise success among women entrepreneurs. The study recommends that policy makers must focus on entrepreneurial developmental initiatives and programs geared towards developing relevant aspects entrepreneurial competencies and behaviors that could influence enterprise success of women entrepreneurs. They should come up with better policies and practices to enhance enterprise success among women entrepreneurs. The study further suggested replication of this study in other sectors and micro enterprisers to verify whether what was observed in Bungoma County is applicable to other regions in Kenya and across the globe. KEYWORDS : Entrepreneurial Competence, Enterprise, Success, Women Entrepreneurs
Fisheries Circular No . 1019 FIIU / C 1019 ( En ) REVENUE DISTRIBUTION THROUGH THE SEAFOOD VALUE CHAIN

This Circular defines the value chain as the range of services required to bring a product from conception to the final consumer. For seafood products this includes capture (or culture), processing, distribution and marketing. A theoretical basis of value chain analysis, as the value added at each step of the chain, is explained and a methodology developed. The application is demonstrated in four case studies of different fisheries, two in developing countries and two in developed. Two different types of product are covered: white fish fillets (cod from Iceland and Nile perch from the United Republic of Tanzania) and small pelagic fish (herring from Denmark and anchovy from Morocco). Despite the difficulties of obtaining data, the case studies demonstrate some common trends between the two sets of products. However, in the case of white fish fillets the retail sector absorbs 61 percent of the value chain in the United Republic of Tanzania but only 37 percent in Iceland: that is more value accrues to the producers in Iceland. For small pelagics the retail sector for Danish herring adds 38 percent of the value while for Moroccan anchovy the figure is 75 percent. It is acknowledged that these four case studies, based on imperfect data, are only a starting point and that more value chain analysis should be undertaken to confirm and expand these results. Researchers in developing countries are encouraged to apply the methodology developed here to their fisheries in order to generate a larger body of information.
Ecological Genetics and the Restoration of Plant Communities: Mix or Match?

We present a conceptual framework for choosing native plant material to be used in restoration projects on the basis of ecological genetics. We evaluate both the likelihood of rapid establishment of plants and the probability of long‐term persistence of restored or later successional communities. In addition, we consider the possible harmful effects of restoration projects on nearby ecosystems and their native resident populations. Two attributes of the site to be restored play an important role in determining which genetic source will be most appropriate: (1) degree of disturbance and (2) size of the disturbance. Local plants or plants from environments that “match” the habitat to be restored are best suited to restore sites where degree of disturbance has been low. Hybrids or “mixtures” of genotypes from different sources may provide the best strategy for restoring highly disturbed sites to which local plants are not adapted. Cultivars that have been modified by intentional or inadvertent selection have serious drawbacks. Nevertheless, cultivars may be appropriate when the goal is rapid recovery of small sites that are highly disturbed.
Integration of expression profiles and endo-phenotypes in genetic association studies: A Bayesian approach to determine the path from gene to disease

In genetic association studies of complex diseases, endo-phenotypes such as expression profiles, epigenetic data, or clinical intermediate-phenotypes provide insight to understand the underlying biological path of the disease. In such situations, in order to establish the path from the gene to the disease, we have to decide whether the gene acts on the disease phenotype primarily through a specific endo-phenotype or whether the gene influences the disease through an unidentified path which is characterized by different intermediate phenotypes. Here, we address the question that a genetic locus, given its effect on an endo-phenotype, influences the trait of interest primarily through the path of the endo-phenotype. We propose a Bayesian approach that can evaluate the genetic association between the genetic locus and the phenotype of interest in the presence of the genetic effect on the endo-phenotype. Using simulation studies, we verify that our approach has the desired properties and compare this approach with a mediation approach. The proposed Bayesian approach is illustrated by an application to genome-wide association study for childhood asthma (CAMP) that contains expression profiles.