Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Amount of Immediate and of Delayed Practice on Retention of Mathematical Rules.

ABSTRACT This study was conducted in order to compare the effects of immediate practice and delayed practice on retention of learned rules. Seventh-grade students (N=103) were instructed on three rules of operation with exponents by programmed text. These subjects were randomly assigned to five treatment groups: (1) no practice, (2) one practice trial on the first day, (3) five practice trials on the first day, (4) one practice trial on the fifth day, and (5) five practice trials on the fifth day. On the twenty-first day of the study, all subjects were given a retention test. Findings indicated that delayed practice was significantly more effective than immediate practice as a means of providing for retention. Five delayed trials were not more effective than one delayed trial, nor was immediate practice more effective than no practice. (SD)
Significance of Complementary Spectral Features for Speaker Recognition

Abstract—Speakerrecognition is the process of automatically recognizing who is speaking on thebasis of individual information included in speech waves. Themost popular features for speaker recognition are Mel frequency cepstralcoefficients (MFCCs) and linear prediction cepstral Coefficients (LPCCs). Thesefeatures are used extensively because they characterize the vocal tractconfiguration which is known. Motivatedby the physiological significance ofthe vocal source and vocal tract system in speech production this paper presentapplication of these feature as complementary information sources for a speakerrecognition for improved performance and robustness. Speaker recognition makes it possible to user's voiceto verify their identity and control access to services such as voice dialing,banking by telephone, telephone shopping, database access services, informationservices, voice mail, security control for confidential information areas, andremote access to computersto be highlyspeaker-dependent.
Expected effect of climate change on Sylt island: results from a multidisciplinary German project

Climate change (i.e. increasing mean sea level and storm activity) will influence the coastal development of sandy islands such as Sylt. To estimate the influence of climate change, a numerical model was used to predict the development of the coastline of Sylt island. Data for coastal retreat are available from 1876 to 1997 and were measured every 500 m longshore (~70 profiles). Wave data are available from 1986 to 1997. The model was calibrated and verified with these data. Coastal retreat was calculated to the year 2050 under the following scenarios (IPCC 1990): mean sea level + 25 cm; tidal range + 25 cm; wave height +10%; wave direction ±10°. Little change in the con- figuration of the coastline of Sylt is expected over the next 50 yr if the present strategy of western shore protection is maintained. No additional measures seem to be necessary. In contrast, if shore protection is not maintained, significant changes in coastline configuration (both west and east coasts) may occur, due in part to dramatic shore retreat by erosion, in the case of a 10% increase in wave height and a 10° change in all westerly wind directions toward the north. Only moderate changes in coastline configuration and weak shore retreat through erosion can be expected if wind direction is turned 10° to the south and wave height is maintained.
The Welfare Effects of Reversed Border Tax Adjustments as a Remedy under Unilateral Environmental Taxation

Border Tax Adjustments (BTAs) resurfaced recently in national policy debates as a possible measure to counter the anti-competitiveness effect of unilateral environmental taxes. There seems to be no consensus in the literature on the effectiveness of BTAs under environmental taxes. This paper aims to provide a theoretical Heckscher-Ohlin analysis that not only challenges the effectiveness of BTAs, but also proposes an alternative approach to counter the anti-competitiveness effect of unilateral environmental taxes. Using conventional Heckscher-Ohlin methodology, in a small country, we show that policy makers should, instead of implementing BTAs, consider the opposite of BTAs to mitigate the anti-competitiveness effects of environmental taxes. We show that gains from trade, due to a reduction in import tariffs, could, under certain assumptions, offset the initial tax induced welfare loss.
Consumer co-creation of product quality: examining home advantage in State-of-Origin rugby

Results of 84 State of Origin rugby league matches were analysed to determine the extent of home advantage(HA). When the Queensland Maroons play at home in Lang Park/Suncorp Stadium they win 64% of the time (30 wins, 17 losses), with an average point spread of +4.32 points. However, they win only 43% of the time (16 losses, 21 losses) when they are away in New South Wales, with the average spread of-2.76. The contingencies for winning percentage (21 = 3.55, p < .06) and point spread (t1,83 = 2.5, p < .02) are significant, indicating that HA exists. Disciplines Business Publication Details Areni, C. S. (2011). Consumer co-creation of product quality: examining home advantage in State-of-Origin rugby. Proceeding of the ANZMAC 2011 Conference (pp. 1-7). This conference paper is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow. edu.au/gsbpapers/489
Gas-driven sorption heat pumps; a potential trend-setting heating technology

Part of: Thermally driven heat pumps for heating and cooling. – Ed.: Annett Kuhn – Berlin: Universitatsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013 ISBN 978-3-7983-2686-6 (print) ISBN 978-3-7983-2596-8 (online) urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-39458 [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-39458]
Diet Selection for Protein Quality by Growing Broiler Chickens

Two free-choice feeding experiments were performed to investigate the sensitivity of chickens to its diet on the basis of amino acid balance, especially related to lysine concentration. In first experiment 21 d old broiler chicks (n = 48) were divided in to four groups (in pairs) and offered different proportion of lysine whereas in second experiment two diets with ideal and high protein was offered to broiler chicks (n = 20). Over the whole period of the experiment, birds consumed some of each diet offered, but preference was shown for the moderate or high lysine diet over the low lysine diet. Growth rate reflected total lysine intake. The birds offered the choice between Ideal Protein diet and High Protein diet consumed about 2.5 times as much of the Ideal protein diet as of the imbalanced diet. So, the broilers are instinctively prone to balanced nutrition and high amino acids are on their priority during various strategic choice feeding programs.
The Italian Labor Market: Recent Trends, Institutions, and Reform Options

Despite improvements in labor market performance over the past decade, owing in part to past reforms, Italy's employment and productivity outcomes continue to lag behind those of its European peers. This paper reviews Italy's institutional landscape and labor market trends from a cross-country perspective, and discusses possible avenues for further reform. The policy discussion draws on international reform experience and on simulations based on a calibrated labor market matching model. A key lesson is that the details of reform design, and the sequencing of reforms, matter greatly for labor market outcomes and for the fiscal costs associated with these reforms.
Human Embryonic Stem Cell Patents: A European Perspective

Although patents involving human embryonic stem cells have been granted in USA and some other countries, the situation in Europe has been complicated by ethical exclusion clauses in the European Patent Convention and the European Biotechnology Directive. These have resulted in protracted delays in the processing of embryonic stem cell patents by the European Patent Office. It is concluded that ethical exclusion from grant of patents may not be appropriate. It is also suggested that the desirability of granting broad patents that lay claim to a large body of future research should be discussed. This paper discusses aspects of the patenting of stem cell processes and products with particular emphasis on human embryonic stem cells.
Publicly Listed Parent/Subsidiary Pairs: Benchmarking to TOPIX and Market Distortion

This paper explores the impact of publicly listed parent/subsidiary pairs on the pricing and volatility of companies' shares. We construct a noisy rational expectations equilibrium model in which a parent and its subsidiary company are both publicly listed. Two classes of traders participate in the market: institutional investors who have private information on the fundamentals of listed companies, and individual investors who have no private information. A key feature of the model is that institutional investors attempt to optimize the risk-return tradeoff relative to TOPIX, the capitalization-weighted index of the stock market. Individual investors are assumed to act without reference to any performance benchmark. Within this framework we first establish the rather obvious result that the market portfolio of all outstanding shares is not an efficient portfolio. This result implies that benchmarking to TOPIX, which is the surrogate of the market portfolio without any adjustment for double-counting of parent/subsidiary pairs, generates excessive demand for shares of the subsidiary company. We analyze the equilibrium of our market model and show that (1)the price of the subsidiary company's share is pushed up to a level higher than that implied by its fundamentals, (2) the share price of other companies who are highly correlated with the subsidiary company receive similar effect, (3)the subsidiary company's shares become more volatile and (4)tend to respond more to good news than to bad news. The results of this paper suggest that using TOPIX as the performance benchmark, which is the prevailing practice in evaluating pension fund managers and other institutional investors, may be causing distortion in share prices and volatilities of subsidiary companies. A new index which corrects for the double counting is worth a serious consideration.
Development of Low Profile Hybrid Printed UWB Monopole Antenna for Handheld GPR Applications

Handheld ground penetrating Radar needs to have a directional low profile light weight UWB antennas preferably in the frequency range of 500 MHz-3 GHz. A hybrid printed monopole antenna back by a reflector is designed and developed for requisite frequency band. The impedance matching and directional property is mentioned throughout the frequency band. Keywords-UWB; GPR;Bow-tie I. INTRODUCTION Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) offers a good solution for detection and imaging of buried plastic mines, IEDs and UXOs. Ground penetrating radars (GPRs) are realized in either in time domain or in frequency domain (1). In time domain approach either baseband radiation or modulated time domain waveforms are used. Stepped frequency is one of the commonly used frequency domain approach. The resistively loaded dipoles, bow-tie, vee and monopoles commonly used antennas (1-3) for both time domains and frequency domain approaches. The requirement of low frequency for better penetration and large bandwidth for finer resolution and size constraints for hand held GPR makes it very difficult to choose the most appropriate antenna type. The required frequency band of 500MHz-3GHz and size constraints for hand held requirement leads to design of printed bow-tie antenna category . The antenna profile is obtained using combination of bow-tie and elliptical profile (4). The issues with this design are that its differential feed requirement and non-directional radiation pattern. The differential feed can be converted to single ended feed using UWB balanced to unbalanced (BALUN) line, which may add up to the size of the antenna. The single ended version of this antenna was designed using printed monopole and microstrip line impedance adaptor to match to 50Ω waveform generators. The directional property was improved by backing the printed hybrid monopole with a curved reflector In Section II of this paper design details of antenna element is presented. The analysis and measured results are discussed in Section III. Conclusion is presented in Section IV.
Effects of Drought Stress on the Growth, Yield and Yield Components of Fourwheat Populations in different growth stages

To investigate the effects of drought stress on wheat, this experiment was conducted in 2010 at Doroud in Lorestan, Iran.The experiment was conducted in split plot in the form of a randomized complete block design with four replications. The main plots were irrigation (T1control, No water stress imposed and plots were never allowed to dry out, T2: Water stress imposed at anthesis stage, T3: Water stress was imposed at stem elongation stage, T4: Water stress was imposed at grain filling stage). The sub plots were fourwheat varieties (V1: WS82; V2;Sadr; V3:Bahar & V4: B2). The measured traits were harvest index, biological yield, number of spikes/m 2 , number of grains per of spike, 1000-grain weight, grain yield and plant height.Mean comparison was conducted using LSD range test (at 1% level). The results showed that drought stress had significant effect on harvest index, biological yield, number of spikes/m 2 , number of grains per of spike, 1000-grain weight, grain yield and plant height. Among populations B2harvest index, biological yield, number of spikes/m 2 , number of grains per of spike, 1000-grain weight, spike length, grain yield and plant height had more reduction than the two other populations in drought conditions, whereas WS82 was less affected.
Holdups, Quality Choice, and the Achilles' Heel in Government Contracting

This paper investigates a procurement relationship between a welfare-oriented government and a private supplier. The agents face several versions of the trading good which differ in quality and production costs, and the differences between those items are undescribable ex ante. In presence of this `quality-choice problem', no initial contract may induce efficient cost-reducing investments of the supplier. In contrast, a first-best result is always attainable in private procurement where the buyer maximizes profit rather than welfare. We identify the government's welfare objective as its Achilles' heel: equilibrium trade prices differ in public and private procurement, and private governance can lead to more efficient investment decisions even though renegotiation ensures the ex-post efficient trade decision in either regime.
GLOBAL-IN-TIME SMOOTH SOLUTIONS TO A THREE-DIMENSIONAL CAHN-HILLIARD-STOKES MODEL

The analysis for a Cahn-Hilliard-Stokes model, a modified Cahn-Hilliard equation coupled with a Stokes flow, is provided in this article. Such an equation can be viewed as a specialized conserved gradient flow with respect to the standard Cahn-Hilliad energy. The velocity vector is determined by the phase variable by either the Darcy law or a static Stokes equation. If the Darcy law is imposed, a global-in-time weak solution and a local-in-time strong solution have been established for the three-dimensional model in the existing literature. Instead, if a static Stokes equation is formulated to update the velocity, we present a global-in-time strong solution and smooth solution for the 3D Cahn-Hilliard-Stokes model in this paper, and the uniqueness of the strong solution is also proven. Such an analysis is accomplished with the help of an L∞ a-priori estimate of the velocity vector, in terms of the phase variable.
Closing the gender gap in pensions: A microsimulation analysis of the Norwegian NDC pension system

In this article, we use an advanced microsimulation model to study the distributional effects of the reformed Norwegian pension system with a particular focus on gender equality. The reformed Norwegian system is based on the notional defined contribution (NDC)-formula with fixed contribution/accrual rates over the active life-phase and with accumulated pension wealth being transformed into an annuity upon retirement. A number of redistributive components are built into the system: a unisex annuity divisor, a ceiling on annual earnings, generous child credits, a possibility for widows/widowers to inherit pension rights from a deceased spouse, a targeted guarantee pensions with higher benefit rates to single pensioners compared to married/cohabitating pensioners, and finally a tax system that is particularly progressive in its treatment of pensioners and pension income. Taking complete actuarial fairness as the point of departure, we conduct a stepwise analysis to investigate how these different components of the National Insurance pension system impact on the gender gap in pensions and on general (Gini) inequality in the distribution of pension income within a cohort of pensioners. Our analysis concentrates on one birth cohort – individuals born in 1963 – and we study three different outcomes: the distribution of annual pensions early in retirement (at age 70), the distribution of the total sum of pension benefits received over retirement, and the distribution of the average annual pension benefits received over the retirement phase. In addition, we look at three alternative income concepts. These are personal income, equivalised household income, and finally an original income concept developed for this study: personal income adjusted for the economies of scale enjoyed by couple households.
Sexual life and contraception in people living with HIV

Abstract As people living with HIV (PLH) are living longer and healthier lives in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy, common reproductive health issues are becoming more important. According to WHO, PLH should be offered routine counselling on sexual and reproductive health, so that they can implement informed, healthy, and appropriate decisions. PLH need special attention with regard to the use of contraceptive methods that provide dual protection against HIV/sexually transmitted infection transmission and unintended pregnancies. This article includes literature review on sexual life and contraception in the context of HIV infection including barrier methods, natural methods, sterilization, hormonal contraception, intrauterine device, spermicides/ microbicides and emergency contraception. To date, there is no perfect method that provides both protection against HIV transmission and unintended pregnancy. Although male condom remains the principal contraceptive method, its male-controlled usage is its most important obstacle. This article describes the pros and cons of each method for PLH as well as the interaction between hormonal contraceptives and antiretroviral drugs. Many questions remain to be answered. It is therefore important that studies of different methods of contraception in PLH continue.
Numerical solution of hyperbolic equations by method of bicharacteristics

Among the numerical procedures to solve a hyperbolic system of partial differential equation. in 3-independent variables. method of bicharacteristics occupies an important position from the point of view of the accuracy of the solution. All bicharacteristic method developed so far employed the compatibility relations along, at the most, four bicharacteristics. We have presented in this paper a procedure for linear problems, taking as many bicharacteristics as possible and also have derived Butler's method as its particular case. Furthermore, stability criteria for these methods have been discussed. The present method is consistent and has second order accuracy at every time cycle and allows a timestep which is larger than that of Butler's method. A boundary method consistent with the present method has been derived. The present method has been illustrated by solving an initial-boundary value problem and a purely initial value problem, numerically and the results are compared with those of Butler's and Strang's schemes. Although Strang's scheme allows time step larger than those of bicharacteristic schemes, the bicharacteristic schemes are more accurate than Strang's scheme.
Multiscale Techniques in Linear Elasticity

We use a local orthogonal decomposition (LOD) technique to derive a finite element method for planar linear elasticity problems with strongly heterogeneous material data and inhomogeneous Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. These problems are becoming more and more relevant due to the increasing use of composite materials. We apply our generalized finite element method in numerical experiments and observe optimal convergence rates in the energy norm. We also prove an a posteriori error estimate for the method and use it to propose a basic adaptive algorithm for error reduction. Keywords: finite element method, multiscale method, LOD, mixed boundary conditions, a posteriori error estimate, linear elasticity, composite material.
How competitive strategy matters? Understanding the drivers of training, learning and performance at the firm level

This paper seeks to further our understanding of the links between training, learning and performance at the level of the firm. It starts with a critical examination of the conceptual underpinning of conventional approaches to this problem, approaches that dominate much of the academic and policy discourse. It argues that current attempts to understanding the drivers of training and the links between skills, management practices and performance, both rely on input/output models that have serious limitations, both for our academic understanding of the issues and for policy approaches. The main body of the paper provides the outline of an alternative model which starts from the company's competitive strategy and proceeds to identify its two main components, namely the technical and interpersonal relations of production. The utility of this model is then demonstrated through the use of case studies in order to provide an explanation of phenomenon that are either ignored or left as unexplained by the conventional approaches. The conclusion provides a brief exploration of the implications of this model for future research and for policy approaches that seek to enhance skill formation within firms.
The influence of feeding laying hens N-3 and N-6 fatty acids sources on blood antioxidants status: A comparative study

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of dietary supplementation with different fat sources on blood oxidative status parameters. Seventy five (Hisex) bird, 20 week old, were obtained from Animal Production Research Center (kuku), divided into three groups (n=25) for each one. The control group (A) was under control diet based on corn, maintains the (NRC, 1994) requirements for laying hens, the experimental groups, supplemented by 10% flax seeds (B), and 10% sunflower seeds (C), added to the diet. The trial continued for eight weeks, blood samples were collected once per month (week 4 and 8), in EDTA coated vials, immediately placed into iced-container, centrifuged at 3000rpm/20 min. Samples were separated in aliquot, and stored at -20 o C and -80 o C until analysis. Plasma analysis for enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, revealed no significant different level of uric acid, malondialdehyde (MDA) and vitamin C, between the control group and the treated groups, while catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and vitamin A, levels were significantly enhanced by the addition of 10% flax seeds and 10% sunflower seeds. Vitamin E concentration was significantly elevated in group (C), compared to the control group (A) and group (B).
Sharpening of the inequalities of Schur, Eberlein, Kress and Huang, and new location of eigenvalues

Let A = (ai j) be an n×n complex matrix with eigenvalues λ1 ,λ2 , · · · ,λn . We determine the new upper bounds of n ∑ j=1 |λ j |2 , which will sharpen Schur, Eberlein, Kress and Huang’s inequalities. We also exhibit new methods to locate the eigenvalues of a given complex matrix, which are more exact than those existing in previous literature. Numerical examples are provided to show the effectiveness of our results. Mathematics subject classification (2010): 15A15, 15A48.