Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Examination of Racial Composition in Culturally Relevant Math Study Groups on Math Learning Outcomes.

This paper proposes to use communalism, an asset-driven strategy effective with Black learners, with racially mixed study groups. This study found that students who studied in racially mixed groups performed better when told that individuals would receive a reward for scoring the highest in their group. Also, the White students’ perceptions of how much they mattered differed based on the racial composition of the study groups where those studying with only White students felt they mattered more than those who studied with White and Black participants. Implications of the importance to have culturally relevant and responsive resources for racially diverse classrooms are discussed.
INVESTIGATION OF KONDAGOGU GUM TO DEVELOP TRANSDERMAL FILM OF REPAGLINIDE

Objective: In the present study, an attempt was made to develop polymeric blend transdermal patch of repaglinide using hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) K4M and kondagogu gum. Methods: A series of repaglinide drug-incorporated HPMC K4M-kondagogu gum matrix films were prepared by solvent casting method. The prepared transdermal films were evaluated for various parameters such as thickness, tensile strength, folding endurance, % elongation, % moisture content, % moisture uptake, % drug content, in vitro drug release, and drug excipient compatibility. Results: The Fourier-transform infrared spectra of the pure drug as well as drug-incorporated formulation indicated that no chemical interaction occurred between the drug and the polymers used. Differential scanning calorimetry thermograms of the pure drug and prepared formulation indicated that the drug has dispersed in micron level in the prepared films. In vitro release study data of prepared formulations were fitted into various mathematical models, and the best-fit model was found to be Higuchi model. Conclusion: Among all the formulations studied, the formulation F4 was found to be an optimized composition for efficient transdermal delivery of repaglinide for 24 h study period. Stability studies of the drug formulations concluded that the drug was stable in the optimized formulation for the study period.
On the external validity of construction bidding experiment

The external validity of experimental studies and in particular, the subject pool effects have been much debated among researchers. The common objections are that the use of student as experimental subjects is invalid as they are likely to be unrepresentative. This paper addresses this methodological aspect in building economics research. It compares the bidding behavioural patterns of experienced construction executives (professionals) and student subjects through replication of a bidding experiment that aimed at testing theories. The results show that the student subjects’ bidding behavourial patterns, in terms of decision to bid and mark-up decision, are sufficiently similar to that of the professionals. This suggests that the subject pool per se is not a threat to the external validity of the bidding experiment. In addition, the demonstrated practicality of an experimental approach in testing theories should lead to more use of experimental studies with student subjects in building economics research. It is suggested that experimental and field findings should be seen as complementary in building economics research, as advocated in social sciences.
Effects of Rock Climbing on Vegetation and Invasive Species at Devils Lake, Wisconsin

Since the passing of the Wilderness Act in 1964 participation in outdoor recreation has risen to six times more participants. Rock climbing is a fairly new recreational activity taking hold in the 1920’s. The two main aspects of climbing include the approach and the climb that consequently affect vegetation on and leading up to the climb. This study was conducted at Devils Lake in Merrimac Wisconsin. 10 x 10 m plots were set on the top and bottom of two high use routes and two low use routes. At each plot species diversity, percentage cover, species, soil texture, and soil pH where all recorded. Satellite imagery was also used to view the vegetation surrounding the cliffs. The data collected showed differences between the high use routes and the low use routes and the top of routes vs. the bottom of routes in species diversity. With proper management the impact from recreation and climbing can be greatly reduced if the proper rules and regulations are set in place. _________________________________________________ Introduction Outdoor recreation is a major part of the 20 century lifestyle; it has grown continually since the Wilderness Act in 1964. This increase in the recreationist population has inadvertently caused environmental impacts and disturbances on delicate ecosystems. These anthropogenic disturbances disrupt erosion, succession, and biodiversity by placing added stress on the environment. Humans are also used as a vector of transport by invasive species to reach isolated areas. Rock climbing is a fairly new and growing recreational activity, gaining popularity in the 1920’s and growing considerably from there. Rock climbing is traditionally considered to be one of the more environmentally friendly outdoor recreations; however, the increase in popularity has begun to impact erosion, succession, and biodiversity. Studies have previously been conducted on the effects of rock climbing on vegetation, but little is still known. Many recreational areas are being opened to climbers, bringing along these anthropogenic disturbances and invasive species, such as at the popular climbing area Devils Lake, located in Merrimac Wisconsin and has many climbing routes. These routes differ in popularity among climbers due to accessibility and difficulty. Differences are then caused
Length-weight relationship and condition factor of seven fish species of Totkabon River (southern Caspian Sea basin), Guilan, Iran

Length-weight relationship and condition factor were investigated in seven fish species, including Barbus cyri , Capoeta gracilis , Alburnoides eichwaldi , Acanthalbarnus microlepis , Ponticola cyrius , Cobitis keyvani and Oxynemacheilus bergianus from Totkabon River. A total of 570 specimens ranging from 25.90 to 146.97 mm in total length and 0.1 to 260.3 g in total weight were collected. Based on the results, growth coefficient values “ b ” ranged from 2.429 ( A. microlpis ) to 3.71 ( C. keyvani ). All length-weight relationships were significant ( P <0.05), with r 2 greater than 0.856. The four species viz . A. microlepis , C. gracilis , P. cyrius and C. keyvani showed allometric ( b <3< b ) and three species viz . B. cyri , A. eichwaldi and O. bergianus isometric ( b = 3) growth patterns. Condition factor ranged from 0.544 ( O. bergianus ) to 0.940 ( P. cyrius ). All linear regressions were highly significant ( P <0.05). The result of this study may be useful for biologists and fishery managers.
Servant Leadership and Follower Creativity Via Competence: A Moderated Mediation Role of Perceived Organisational Support

The precedents of creativity comprise an important research topic that could help organisations survive fierce competition. To contribute to the literature on creativity, the authors examined the roles of competence and perceived organisational support (POS) in the relationship between servant leadership and follower creative behaviour. The authors proposed and tested a moderated mediation model with data from leader-follower dyads collected in a Vietnamese engineering firm. The results showed that follower competence is a significant mediator of the relationship between servant leadership and follower creativity. Furthermore, POS has a moderated mediating role, such that the mediated relationship (i.e., servant leadership, competence, and creativity) is more salient under high POS than under low POS. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Spatial language and spatial representations in agrammatism: evidence from non-verbal tasks and eye-movements

Languages show striking differences in how they encode motion. They are classified into those expressing syntactically objective components of motion (Path), and those lexicalizing it. Such typological properties raise questions concerning the languagethought interface and aphasiology, where little is known about universal vs. languagespecific aspects of spatial representations and language use. This study investigates how speakers of typologically different languages with and without agrammatism allocate attention (eye-movements) when categorizing motion events and when encoding them verbally. The findings suggest that typology should account for the language-thought interface investigation and for aphasiology as a factor that can affect performances in various levels.
Islamic Finance Gears Up

** While gaining ground, the industry faces unique regulatory challenges Islamic finance is developing at a remarkable pace. Since its inception three decades ago, the number of Islamic financial institutions worldwide has risen from one in 1975 to over 300 today in more than 75 countries. They are concentrated in the Middle East and Southeast Asia (with Bahrain and Malaysia the biggest hubs), but are also appearing in Europe and the United States. Total assets worldwide are estimated to exceed $250 billion, and are growing at an estimated 15 percent a year (although cross-border data remain scarce). Islamic financial products are aimed at investors who want to comply with the Islamic laws (Sharia) that govern a Muslim's daily life. These laws forbid giving or receiving interest (because earning profit from an exchange of money for money is considered immoral); mandate that all financial transactions be based on real economic activity; and prohibit investment in sectors such as tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and armaments. Islamic financial institutions are providing an increasingly broad range of many financial services, such as fund mobilization, asset allocation, payment and exchange settlement services, and risk transformation and mitigation. But these specialized financial intermediaries perform transactions using financial instruments compliant with Sharia principles. What are the reasons behind the recent growth in Islamic finance? One is the strong demand from a large number of immigrant and nonimmigrant Muslims for Sharia-compliant financial services and transactions. A second is growing oil wealth, with demand for suitable investments soaring in the Gulf region. And a third is the competitiveness of many of the products, attracting Muslim and non-Muslim investors. Yet despite this rapid growth, Islamic banking remains quite limited in most countries and is tiny compared with the global financial system. For it to take off and play a bigger role, especially in the Middle East, policymakers must tackle enormous hurdles—notably on the regulatory front. Islamic banking has so far been spared from a serious financial crisis, with the exception of a few small cases (such as the Dubai Islamic Bank in 1998 and Ihlas Finans in Turkey in 2001). Nevertheless, building confidence in a new industry is fundamental for the development of Islamic finance. What is Islamic financing? The fact that Islamic laws prohibit paying and receiving interest does not imply that they frown on making money or encourage reverting to an all-cash or barter economy. They encourage all parties in a financial transaction to share the risk and profit or loss of the venture. Depositors in Islamic banking can be compared to investors or shareholders, who earn dividends when the bank makes a profit or lose part of their savings if the bank posts a
Experimental Markets Using the Electronic Market Place (EMP)

Abstract A computer system for implementing electronic markets on networks of personal computers is described. The program allows a researcher or teacher to design market simulations to meet a variety of goals, and records a complete set of market activities for analysis. Illustrations of example markets are provided, and the classroom application of market simulations in teaching agricultural economics is discussed.
Analytical solution of the Hunter-Saxton equation using the reduced dierential transform method

In this paper, the reduced differential transform method is investigated for a nonlinear partial differential equation modeling nematic liquid crystals, it is called the Hunter-Saxton equation. The main advantage of this method is that it can be applied directly to nonlinear differential equations without requiring linearization, discretization, or perturbation. It is a semi analyticalnumerical method that formulizes Taylor series in a very different manner. The numerical results denote that reduced differential transform method is efficient and accurate for Hunter-Saxton equation.
Resistance of CA1 Pyramidal Cells to STZ-Induced Diabetes in Young Rats Resistencia de las Células Piramidales CA1 a Diabetes Inducida por STZ en Ratas Jóvenes

SUMMARY: The pyramidal cell density of CA1 hippocampal subfield following STZ-induced diabetes in young rats werestudied. 12 male albino 6-week Wistar rats were allocated equally in groups of normal and diabetic. Hyperglycemia induced byStreptozotocin (80 mg/kg) in animals of diabetic group. After 5 weeks of study, all the rats were sacrificed and coronal sections weretaken from dorsal hippocampal formation of the right cerebral hemispheres and stained with crysel violet. The area densities of the CA1pyramidal cells were measured and compared among two groups. No significant difference between the densities of two experimentalgroups was found. The results can arise from the short period of diabetes and also the possible regenerative processes in devel oping brainof the young diabetic rats which compensated significant diabetes-induced neuronal loss. KEY WORDS: Pyramidal cell density; CA1; Hippocampus; Diabetes; Rat. INTRODUCTION It has been shown that diabetes predisposes the patientfor neuropsychiatric deficits as stroke, cerebrovasculardiseases, diabetic encephalopathy, depression and anxiety(Kuhad & Chopra, 2007). Diabetic encephalopathy,characterized by impaired cognitive functions andneurochemical and structural abnormalities, involves directneuronal damage caused by intracellular glucose (Kuhad &Chopra). Primary diabetic encephalopathy may cause byhyperglycemia and impaired insulin action diabetes. Incontrast, secondary diabetic encephalopathy appears to arisefrom hypoxic–ischemic insults due to underlyingmicrovascular disease or as a consequence of hypoglycemia(Sima
High-Growth SME Support Initiatives in Nine Countries: Analysis, Categorization, and Recommendations

Several empirical studies confirm the importance of high-growth firms for job creation and economic growth. In order to promote economic growth, new jobs and new growing firms who actually generate employment, are needed. At the aggregate level, growing new firms are required for aggregate job creation. At the firm level, firmlevel growth is necessary for the provision of high-quality jobs. In this study we examine policy measures designed specifically for high-growth entrepreneurial firms, in an attempt to understand their anatomy, as well as present theory and recommendations for the design of more effective high-growth entrepreneurship policies. There have been too few studies that would provide a comprehensive treatise on the high-growth firm and its relation to SME Policy and Innovation Policy. The over-reaching objective of this paper is to identify and explore effective policy measures to support high-growth firms. The report seeks to identify insights relating to high-growth firms in particular, in an attempt to understand how these insights can be translated into effective support for high-growth firms. The broad objective of study was to find out what governments in different parts of the World are doing in order to promote entrepreneurial firm growth. The research identifies and describes policy and support initiatives specifically aimed at supporting rapidly growing entrepreneurial firm. The aim is to develop frameworks for understanding the anatomy of high-growth entrepreneurship policy measures and develop a framework for categorizing policy practices aimed at high-growth enterprises. The report also publishes a catalogue of growth-oriented policy measures across nine participating GEM countries. Interviews and archival materials were used to collect the data. The most important data was in the form of standard sheets for describing each measure that had been distributed to the team for data collection. The content-based and thematic categorization brought forward interesting results. Summarized, the key findings are: initiatives promoting rapid entrepreneurial growth should be highly selective; should have proactive approach; participation of privatesector actors is preferable; should address managerial motivation and skills; involve highly customized and tailored management development activities; policies require broad-based measures which address multiple aspects of policy design, implementation, and monitoring; at the level of the individual, firm, sector, and society. These policies should be horizontal by origin.
PROBE VEHICLE TRACK-MATCHING ALGORITHM BASED ON SPATIAL SEMANTIC FEATURES

Abstract. The matching of GPS received locations to roads is challenging. Traditional matching method is based on the position of the GPS receiver, the vehicle position and vehicle behavior near the receiving time. However, for probe vehicle trajectories, the sampling interval is too sparse and there is a poor correlation between adjacent sampling points, so it cannot partition the GPS noise through the historical positions. For the data mining of probe vehicle tracks based on spatial semantics, the matching is learned from the traditional electronic navigation map matching, and it is proposed that the probe vehicle track matching algorithm is based on spatial semantic features. Experimental results show that the proposed global-path matching method gets a good matching results, and restores the true path through the probe vehicle track.
Deposition of anthropogenic aerosols in a southeastern Tibetan glacier

[1] Measurements of elemental carbon (EC), water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC), and inorganic ions from a very high resolution snow/firn core retrieved from a glacier on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau reveal increasing concentrations associated with deposition of anthropogenic aerosols during the period 1998–2005. EC, WIOC, and SO42− concentrations in the core were 4.7, 56.0, and 4.2 ng g−1 in 1998, but increased to 16.8, 144.4, and 162.1 ng g−1 in 2005, respectively. Comparison of EC to SO42− and K+ concentrations indicates a relatively greater impact of fossil fuel burning on EC deposition compared to biomass burning. Significant contribution of secondary OC production is apparent from the low EC/WIOC ratios. EC concentrations show large seasonal variability, with nonmonsoon precipitation containing more than double the concentrations found in monsoon snowfall. Since snow cover on the Tibetan Plateau extends to its maximum aerial extent during the nonmonsoon season, the high EC concentrations in snowfall during this time can cause advanced snowmelt and enhanced radiative forcing.
Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) in ambient air over Hong Kong: analytical methodology and field measurement

In this paper, an analytical method using a simple semi-manual cryo-trap technique coupled to gas chromatograph with flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) was developed for the determination of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) in ambient air. Five common BVOC species have been tested, including isoprene and 4 monoterpenes, i.e. α-pinene, β-pinene, 3-carene (Δ) and limonene. The detection limits were estimated to be about 20 ppt for isoprene and 10 ppt for monoterpenes, with sample injection volume of 50 mL. Based on vegetation types, field measurement work was conducted over urban and rural sites of Hong Kong during summer and winter of 2007. Canister sampling technique was applied in the field measurement. Isoprene contents in rural ambient air were found to be in the range of 60∼1560 ppt in winter and 260∼3270 ppt in summer, respectively. However, in the measurement of monoterpenes, due to their extremely low concentration in the air samples, only β-pinene and limonene were detected by the developed analytical method.
The Effects of Concrete Pavement Mix Design Parameters on Durability under Freeze and Thaw Condition

This paper is based on an experimental research that examined the effects of concrete`s major parameters on durability of concrete pavements and curbs under freezing and thawing cycles. These parameters include concrete mix design parameters such as water-cement ratio, fine aggregate percentage and using air entraining admixture and simulating real freeze-thaw cycles that infrastructures undergo by considering deicing salt and water flow. Four types of concrete samples were prepared and submerged in four different freeze-thaw conditions. Their weight and compressive strength were measured and the results were analyzed. Based on the results, regression analysis was used and two linear models were developed to predict the weight loss and compressive strength loss of concrete under freeze-thaw cycles. The results indicated that fine aggregate percentage is a key factor in durability of concrete, and concrete samples with 6% air underwent less deterioration in comparison to concrete with lower water-cement ratio. In addition, water flow increases the deterioration of concrete under freeze-thaw cycles specially when deicing salt is present.
An Adaptive Multi-hop Clustered Voting to Improve the Message Trust in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks

The Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is used in intelligent transportation systems to make communication between vehicles and make appropriate decisions with regard to road or traffic conditions. Some main research issues in VANETs are unreliability in communication, delay/precision of decision making, information overheads, and handling the nodes dynamicity. This paper aimed to provide an efficient voting method to improve the reliability of decision making for message voting. It also reduces the voting delay and network information overhead. The proposed method is simulated in NS2. The experimental results indicated that the proposed method’s decision making precision is improved between 6 % and 30 % compared to similar methods in the literature, under conditions such as traffic amount, number of nodes and operation period time. It also reduces the number of transferred packets between 1 % and 9 % in different environmental conditions.
On the Analysis of Product Appropriateness Principles

The purpose of this study is to explore appropriateness of the various products presented in the market and the application of appropriateness principles to the product design. To obtain appropriateness principles, this study compares and analyzes a variety of products available in the market. After obtaining preliminary principles, many times convergence and analysis are operated for getting more accurate principles. Then, AHP method is used for evaluating importance of every appropriateness principles and appropriateness principles are obtained. And, the appropriateness principles are used to construct the design process of appropriateness product. Finally, some design cases are operated and appropriateness principles are evaluated for the products of design cases. The results of this study are obtained 10 appropriateness principles: freedom, demand, environmental protection, effectiveness, intuition, compliance, simplicity, optimal performance, simplicity, fault tolerance. And, weights of appropriateness principles get in this paper.