Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generalizations about Using Value-Added Measures of Teacher Quality

The extensive investigation of the contribution of teachers to student achievement produces two generally accepted results. First, there is sub stantial variation in teacher quality as measured by the value added to achievement or future aca demic attainment or earnings. Second, variables often used to determine entry into the profession and salaries, including post-graduate schooling, experience, and licensing examination scores, appear to explain little of the variation in teacher quality so measured, with the exception of early experience. Together these findings underscore explicitly that observed teacher characteristics do not represent teacher quality.
Why are marriage and family formation increasingly disconnected across Europe? A multilevel perspective on existing theories

Childbearing outside of marriage has increased drastically in recent decades. However, the existing explanations for this development are not coherent. Proponents of the Second Demographic Transition framework view the rise in nonmarital childbearing as part of a pattern of progress driven by processes such as emancipation from traditional social norms, whereas other scholars perceive this trend in the context of a “pattern of disadvantage,” as nonmarital births are often concentrated among lower socioeconomic groups. In this paper, we posit that the relevance of the aforementioned theoretical explanations might vary depending on the geographic scale at which variation occurs: that is, across nation states, subnational regions, or individuals. To explore this hypothesis, we analyse harmonised survey data from 16 European countries. We apply hierarchical models to study how the likelihood that a woman living in a couple will have her first child either within nonmarital cohabitation or within marriage is linked to national and subnational regional variation in socioeconomic conditions that are related to explanations based on the existing theoretical considerations. Our results suggest that the Second Demographic Transition framework is very important for understanding variation between countries, whereas arguments pointing to a pattern of disadvantage seem to be more relevant at the individual and subnational regional level. It thus appears that taking a multilevel perspective can help us better understand why the existing theoretical explanations are not fully coherent.
Detecting traffic differentiation in backbone ISPs with NetPolice

Traffic differentiations are known to be found at the edge of the Internet in broadband ISPs and wireless carriers [13, 2]. The ability to detect traffic differentiations is essential for customers to develop effective strategies for improving their application performance. We build a system, called NetPolice, that enables detection of content- and routing-based differentiations in backbone ISPs. NetPolice is easy to deploy since it only relies on loss measurement launched from end hosts. The key challenges in building NetPolice include selecting an appropriate set of probing destinations and ensuring the robustness of detection results to measurement noise. We use NetPolice to study 18 large ISPs spanning 3 major continents over 10 weeks in 2008. Our work provides concrete evidence of traffic differentiations based on application types and neighbor ASes. We identify 4 ISPs that exhibit large degree of differentiation on 4 applications and 10 ISPs that perform previous-AS hop based differentiation, resulting in up to 5% actual loss rate differences. The significance of differences increases with network load. Some ISPs simply differentiate traffic based on port numbers irrespective of packet payload and the differentiation policies may only be partially deployed within their networks. We also find strong correlation between performance differences and Type-of-Service value differences in the traffic.
Ten Years after ... Transition and Economics

This paper attempts to portray a synthesis of what has been learned in the past 10 years with regard to the transition process. It contrasts the mainstream “Washington consensus” view of transition with the “evolutionary institutionalist” perspective. It argues that the latter gives a more adequate and complete picture both of the transition processes and of economic systems and is of better help to prevent serious transition failures.
An exploration of anxiety problems in a secondary school

This research explores the identification of anxiety problems within the context of a girls’ secondary school in the South of England. A qualitative methodology was adopted using semi-structured interviews and group interviews to explore the perceptions of staff and pupils. These were transcribed and thematically analysed following the six-stage model as advocated by Braun and Clarke. Phase 1 involved exploring staff perceptions about how anxiety problems present and are identified in pupils, as well as what the facilitators and barriers are for this process. It was found that there was good understanding amongst staff about the presentation of anxiety problems and a clear understanding of the processes that followed when anxiety problems were identified. The main facilitator for identifying problems was the multiple information gathering that existed within the school and the main barrier was the fact that the school was not actively looking for anxiety problems. Phase 2 of the research involved carrying out semi-structured interviews with two groups of Year 11 pupils to explore if their perceptions were congruent with Phase 1. The biggest barriers to the pupils disclosing problems were the school’s policy to always inform parents and the stigma they felt was associated with having a mental health problem. They also expressed mixed views about the school’s efforts to provide mental health education and promote resilience showing a suspicion that the underlying agenda was still about educational outcomes. The research supports the introduction of universal screening approaches within schools to gather information over time which informs a comprehensive wellbeing strategy with a graduated response to need. It also highlights the importance of gathering the views of pupils around the practices and culture of school life. Educational psychologists are well placed to support schools in these endeavours
Feeding methane vents and gas hydrate deposits at south Hydrate Ridge

Log and core data document gas saturations as high as 90% in a coarse‐grained turbidite sequence beneath the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) at south Hydrate Ridge, in the Cascadia accretionary complex. The geometry of this gas‐saturated bed is defined by a strong, negative‐polarity reflection in 3D seismic data. Because of the gas buoyancy, gas pressure equals or exceeds the overburden stress immediately beneath the GHSZ at the summit. We conclude that gas is focused into the coarse‐grained sequence from a large volume of the accretionary complex and is trapped until high gas pressure forces the gas to migrate through the GHSZ to seafloor vents. This focused flow provides methane to the GHSZ in excess of its proportion in gas hydrate, thus providing a mechanism to explain the observed coexistence of massive gas hydrate, saline pore water and free gas near the summit.
Dynamics of Non-Verbal Vocalizations and Hormones during Father-Infant Interaction

Although researchers have established the roles of oxytocin (OT) in promoting affiliative bonds and cortisol (CT) in adapting to stress, the investigation of their interplay with non-verbal behaviors has only recently begun. In this study, we employed social signal-processing techniques to investigate relationships between non-verbal features: infant and father vocalizations, infant-directed speech, speech turn-taking (STT) and hormonal dynamics (OT and CT). Thirty-five fathers were asked to interact with their infants following the fathers self-administration of OT or placebo. We consider the three episodes of the Still Face (SF) paradigm: (1) a baseline normal interaction episode, (2) the SF episode, in which the father becomes unresponsive and maintains a neutral facial expression, and (3) a reunion in which parents and their infants re-engage in interaction. This paradigm elicited stress in the infant. Statistical relationships are assessed by correlation analysis and linear mixed models (LMMs). The results indicate that (i) infant vocalization and STT are key social cues regulating interactions during the stress-inducing and reunion episodes, with infant vocalization leading the interaction dynamics; (ii) father empty pause was the main adaptive behavior of fathers after SF; (iii) OT did not modulate infant STT or father STT/fatherese; (iv) CT appeared to modulate the interaction.
TrueLabel + Confusions: A Spectrum of Probabilistic Models in Analyzing Multiple Ratings

This paper revisits the problem of analyzing multiple ratings given by different judges. Different from previous work that focuses on distilling the true labels from noisy crowdsourcing ratings, we emphasize gaining diagnostic insights into our in-house well-trained judges. We generalize the well-known DAWIDSKENE model (Dawid & Skene, 1979) to a spectrum of probabilistic models under the same "TrueLabel + Confusion" paradigm, and show that our proposed hierarchical Bayesian model, called HYBRIDCONFUSION, consistently outperforms DAWIDSKENE on both synthetic and real-world data sets.
Desertification in Ethiopian highlands

Ethiopia is severely affected by recurring droughts and slowly advancing desertification processes. During the 1972/73, 80/81 and 84/85 drought and famine years, the social and the economic development of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas of the country were seriously affected. The 1984/85 drought claimed the lives of more than two hundred thousand people and millions of livestock. Ethiopian land which falls within the UNEP’s definition of desertification is estimated to cover 71.5% of the country’s total land area. Overgrazing, deforestation, poor farming practices and using dung for fuel are the major causes of land degradation in Ethiopia. An estimated 70–75% of Ethiopia’s livestock population is concentrated in the highlands. The recorded annual soil erosion (surface soil movement) in Ethiopia ranges from low of 16 tons/ha/yr to high of 300 tons/ha/yr depending mainly on the slope, land cover, and rainfall intensities. The total estimated annual soil loss (surface soil movement) from the cultivated, range and pasture lands (780,000 km) in Ethiopia is estimated to range from low of 1.3 to an average of 7.8 billion metric tons per year. An Ethiopian highland reclamation study (FAO 1984) put the degraded area on the highlands at 27 million ha of which, 14 million hectares is very seriously eroded with 2 million ha of this having reached a point of no return. The Ethiopian government has carried out a massive soil and water conservation scheme through a “food for work” programme. But the magnitude of land degradation and the vastness of degraded land is so large that the impacts of conservation work seem comparatively small when viewed from a national perspective. The absence of ownership of land and other forms of benefit sharing and incentives, have been a major draw back. Conservation based sustainable development strategy guided by full grassroot participation is recommended. Resource ownership rights, appropriate land use plans at community level, intensification of production with the application of small scale irrigation integrated with local knowledge, and instituting proper population pressure releasing mechanisms are key areas to be considered.
An Experimental Approach to Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks with Off-the-Shelf IEEE 802.11 Devices

Spectrum sensing is essential to the realization of spectrum agility in cognitive radio (CR) networks. Although fundamental tradeoffs and theoretical limits associated with spectrum sensing have been studied extensively, there have been very few experimental studies focused on building a spectrum "sensor" with commercial off-the-shelf devices. We have therefore built a prototype of CR-based sensor implementation with off- the-shelf IEEE 802.11 devices. 1 In particular, we have explored issues in implementing a spectrum sensor, mostly at the MAC layer, as well as the difficulty in implanting sensing functions into industrial network interfaces. Our experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of building a spectrum sensor and the construction of an incumbent-detection mechanism with off-the- shelf devices. We have also identified technical difficulties, such as device-dependency in determining the detection threshold, in- band signal jamming between secondary devices, and adjacent channel interference due to out-of-band signal emission. This experimental experience has led us to suggest a sensor design guideline for commercial wireless interfaces which can also facilitate other CR-related research.
The Influence of Contextual Cues in Judgment Formation: An Ecologically Valid Test

An ecologically valid experiment investigated the propositions that (a) people’s judgments are influenced by contextual cues, (b) that they are often unaware that those cues influenced them, and (c) that even when they know the cues should influence them, they do not readily incorporate those cues into their judgment formation. After participating in a realistic simulation of a shopping experience, 405 consumers made judgments about whether the product they examined contained fresh or preserved grapefruit sections. Our findings show that despite being aware that contextual cues (such as the location within a store where the product is sold, the type of container it is sold in, and whether the container is chilled or not) generally influence the judgment at hand, people generally fail to realize that their specific judgments were influenced at all. These findings replicate prior studies, thereby extending the generalizability and robustness of prior research.
Nonnative Accents and Conflict Management: The Mediating Roles of Stereotype Threat, Regulatory Focus, and Conflict Behaviors on Conflict Outcomes

Nonnative Accents and Conflict Management: The Mediating Roles of Stereotype Threat, Regulatory Focus, and Conflict Behaviors on Conflict Outcomes Regina Kim The proposed study explores the experiences of nonnative speakers when they interact with native speakers in conflict situations. The aim of the study is to test if nonnative speakers experience stereotype threat when interacting with native speakers in conflict situations and, if so, to examine how stereotype threat affects their regulatory focus, conflict behaviors, and outcomes. A serial mediation model with three mediators (stereotype threat, regulatory focus, conflict behaviors) will be tested. This study contributes to the field of organizational psychology and conflict studies by 1) extending stereotype threat literature and examining nonnative speakers as a social identity group that experiences stereotype threat, 2) exploring the effects of stereotype threat in a conflict context, and 3) extending workforce diversity literature and examining language diversity in relation to conflict-related behaviors and outcomes in organizational settings. The findings from the proposed study offer insights into understanding the effects of language diversity on conflict dynamics within the increasingly globalized, multi-cultural world of organizations.
Teacher Mental Health, School Climate, Inclusive Education and Student Learning: A Review

Teachers are in a profession with high demands as they work to meet the diverse learning needs of their students. Consequently, many teachers experience high levels of stress contributing to burnout, and unfortunately, many leave the profession. Teacher mental health may contribute to the resilience of teachers who choose to stay in the profession. Positive school climate also has the potential to contribute to teacher mental health and to provide an optimal environment to support student learning and growth. Knowledge of school climate and factors relating to teacher well-being are critical to allow for interventions to best support teachers and students in school settings. Additionally, there is a growing trend toward inclusive education practices that influences teacher well-being, student outcomes, and parent experiences. The aim of this review paper is to provide an overview of existing literature relating to teacher well-being and school climate factors in relation to student learning. Furthermore, this paper will extend findings from existing literature to provide directions for future research and applied educational practices. Résumé Les enseignants pratiquent un métier fort exigeant où ils doivent répondre aux divers besoins d’apprentissage de leurs élèves. Par conséquent, bon nombre d’enseignants subissent beaucoup de stress, ce qui peut mener à l’épuisement professionnel et faire en sorte qu’un grand nombre d’entre eux décident de renoncer à leur métier. Une bonne santé mentale peut contribuer à la résilience des enseignants qui décident de rester dans la profession. Un climat scolaire sain peut aussi favoriser la santé mentale des enseignants et fournir un environnement optimal qui appuie l’apprentissage et la croissance des élèves. La connaissance du climat scolaire et des facteurs en lien avec le bien-être des enseignants est essentielle à la mise en œuvre d’interventions qui soutiennent le mieux les enseignants et les élèves dans le contexte scolaire. De plus, on observe une tendance croissante aux pratiques inclusives en éducation qui influent sur le bien-être des enseignants, les résultats des élèves, et l’expérience des parents. Le présent article de synthèse vise à fournir un aperçu de la documentation existante sur le bien-être des enseignants et les facteurs du climat scolaire en lien avec l’apprentissage des élèves. De plus, le présent article intégrera les conclusions de la documentation existante afin d’orienter la recherche ultérieure et les pratiques éducatives appliquées.
Monte Carlo photoionization simulations of diffuse ionized gas

We demonstrate that the observed increase of some nebular line ratios with height above the midplane in the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) in the Milky Way and other galaxies is a natural consequence of the progressive hardening of the radiation field far from the midplane ionizing sources. To obtain increasing temperatures and line ratios away from the midplane, our photoionization simulations of a multicomponent interstellar medium do not require as much additional heating (over and above that from photoionization) as previous studies that employed one-dimensional, spherically averaged models. Radiation leaking into the DIG from density bounded H II regions is generally harder in the H-ionizing continuum and has its He-ionizing photons suppressed compared to the ionizing source of the H II region. In line with other recent investigations, we find that such leaky H II region models can provide elevated temperatures and line ratios, and a lower He + fraction in the DIG. For a composite model representing the relative spectral types of O stars in the solar neighbourhood, we find that the natural hardening of the radiation field reaching large heights in our simulations can explain most of the observed line ratios. However, additional heating is required to reproduce the largest line ratios in the DIG. Ke yw ords: radiative transfer ‐ H II regions.
Turbo decoding of concatenated channel coding and trellis shaping for peak power controlled single-carrier systems

Trellis shaping (TS) has found its application in the peak power control of band-limited single-carrier signals. Our recent work has demonstrated that a well-designed TS can control the symbol transitions such that the output signal has almost constant envelope, which significantly alleviates the linearity requirement of power amplifiers. Compared to transmission without constellation shaping, however, the TS involves signal constellation expansion exclusively for peak power control. Therefore, unlike trellis coded modulation (TCM) that increases the minimum Euclidean distances (MED), the TS decreases the MED, thus incurring the increase in signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR) required for achieving a certain error rate. In this letter, in order to overcome this drawback, we propose a serial concatenation of coding and shaping together with an effective decoding algorithm that utilizes the memory effect (i.e., error correcting capability) of the shaped symbols. The achievable performance of the proposed system is analyzed in terms of the average mutual information. The simulation results demonstrate that the iterative decoding of the proposed concatenated system with outer convolutional codes and inner trellis shaping offers a significant performance gain.
Relativistic Jet Response to Precession and Wave-Wave Interactions

Three-dimensional numerical simulations of the response of a Lorentz factor 2.5 relativistic jet to precession at three different frequencies have been performed. Low-, moderate-, and high-precession frequencies have been chosen relative to the maximally unstable frequency predicted by a Kelvin-Helmholtz stability analysis. The transverse motion and velocity decreases as the precession frequency increases. Although the helical displacement of the jet decreases in amplitude as the precession frequency increases, a helical shock is generated in the medium external to the jet at all precession frequencies. Complex pressure and velocity structure inside the jet are shown to be produced by a combination of the helical surface and first-body modes predicted by a normal mode analysis of the relativistic hydrodynamic equations. The surface and first-body modes have different wave speeds and wavelengths, are launched in phase by the periodic precession, and exhibit beat patterns in synthetic emission images. Wave (pattern) speeds range from 0.41c to 0.86c, but the beat patterns remain stationary. Thus, we find a mechanism that can produce differentially moving and stationary features in the jet.
Network Code Design from Unequal Error Protection Coding: Channel-Aware Receiver Design and Diversity Analysis

In this paper, we propose Unequal Error Protection (UEP) coding theory as a viable and flexible method for the design of network codes for multi-source multi-relay cooperative networks. As opposite to state-of-the-art solutions available for improving the diversity gain of cooperative networks, it is shown that the proposed method allows us to assign each source node the desired diversity gain, according to, e.g., the requested Quality of Service (QoS) or power constraints. The diversity advantage of the UEP-based network code design over conventional relay-only and XOR-only solutions is shown for the canonical two-source two-relay network. Furthermore, Maximum-Likelihood (ML-) optimum channel-aware receivers for multi-source multi-relay cooperative networks are developed, and their Average Bit Error Probability (ABEP) and achievable diversity over fading channels analytically studied. It is shown that only a cross-layer (joint) implementation of demodulation and network-decoding allows the destination to fully exploit the diversity inherently provided by the distributed network code. Finally, analytical derivations and findings are substantiated via Monte Carlo simulations.