Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EFFECTS OF SITUATIONAL FACTORS ON ACADEMIC DELAY OF GRATIFICATION IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

College students responded to the Academic Delay of Gratification Scale for eight kinds of hypothetical instruction and learning situations established by manipulating factors such as degree of teacher strictness, class utility value, and class intrinsic value. The main results indicated that when either the utility or intrinsic value of a class was low, a higher degree of teacher strictness was associated with a stronger tendency to delay immediate gratification. In addition, the tendency to delay immediate gratification was strongest when both the utility and intrinsic values of the class were high. These results suggest that situational factors affect the academic delay of gratification among college students in instruction and learning situations.
Translanguaging through Visual Arts in Early Childhood: A Case Study in a Hong Kong Kindergarten

Over the decades, western academic literature has embraced the power of visual arts as the first language with which children connect with the people and environment of their world. However, children in Hong Kong, a multi-cultural region in a Chinese context, have limited experiences in using visual language in the kindergartens due to pre-schools’ academic-oriented atmosphere and focus on primary school readiness. Rather than engaging in visual arts, students are forced to start writing Chinese characters and English alphabets at age four or even younger. Though previous literature has explained that mixing languages in culturally-diverse classrooms has a positive influence on students, the integration of visual language has seldom been studied. This study, conducted through the lens of contemporary linguistics, examines how translanguaging emerged in children’s artworks in four K3 level (aged 5-6) classes in a Hong Kong kindergarten. Altogether, 88 children participated in the study (N = 32 girls and 56 boys), of whom 57 were Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong citizens and the rest were non-Cantonese speaking children (26 Mainland Chinese; two Nepalese; three Pakistanis). Children participants’ artworks were collected from an activity designed by the researcher and, through content analysis, divided into three categories: (1) exploratory experiences; (2) object references; and (3) visual components. These ground-breaking findings indicate that translanguaging does not exist only in verbal languages; the participating children tried to make good use of visual language, along with Chinese and English words they had learnt, to share their ideas, thoughts, and feelings. This study may inspire early childhood educators in culturally diverse region such as Hong Kong to explore how visual arts can help children from diverse backgrounds to express their voices.
Rain Scatter Interference in mm-Wave Broadband Fixed Wireless Access Networks Caused by a 2-D Dynamic Rain Environment

The classical Mie scattering theory together with the bistatic radar equation has been applied in this paper to quantify interference levels in broadband fixed wireless access (BFWA) for two different network topologies: mesh and cellular. The complete scattering analysis takes into account the realistic variations of rainfall along the propagation paths and inside the common volume. The interfering element is a rain cell model that follows closely the experimental characteristic dimension, decay and movement obtained in recent research by the authors. The signal-to-interference power ratios (S/I) for two different frequencies, 28 and 42 GHz, and several scattering angles have been calculated. They show that, when two beams cross each other, rain-induced interference must be taken into account for an efficient planning of radio communication systems operating at these millimeter-wave frequencies as well as for an adequate design and implementation of fade mitigation techniques.
Exploring the current context for Professional Learning Networks, the conditions for their success, and research needs moving forwards

The emergence of networks within education has been driven by a number of factors, including: the complex nature of the issues facing education, which are typically too great for single schools to tackle by themselves; changes to educational governance structures, which involve the hollowing out of the middle tier and the introduction of new approaches with an individualized focus; in addition is the increased emphasis on education systems that are ‘self-improving and school-led’. Within this context, the realization of teacher and school improvement actively emerges from establishing cultures of enquiry and learning, both within and across schools. Since not every teacher in a school can collaboratively learn with every other teacher in a network, the most efficient formation of networks will comprise small numbers of teachers learning on behalf of others. Within this context, Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) are defined as any group who engage in collaborative learning with others outside of their everyday community of practice; with the ultimate aim of PLN activity being to improve outcomes for children. Research suggests that the use of PLNs can be effective in supporting school improvement. In addition, PLNs are an effective way to enable schools to collaborate to improve educational provision in disadvantaged areas. Nonetheless harnessing the benefits of PLNs is not without challenge. In response, this paper explores the notion of PLNs in detail; it also sheds light on the key factors and conditions that need to be present if PLNs are to lead to sustained improvements in teaching and learning. In particular, the paper explores the role of school leaders in creating meaningful two-way links between PLNs and their schools, in order to ensure that both teachers and students benefit from the collaborative learning activity that PLNs foster. The paper concludes by suggesting possible future research in this area.
Estimating climatological planetary boundary layer heights from radiosonde observations: Comparison of methods and uncertainty analysis

[1] Planetary boundary layer (PBL) processes control energy, water, and pollutant exchanges between the surface and free atmosphere. However, there is no observation-based global PBL climatology for evaluation of climate, weather, and air quality models or for characterizing PBL variability on large space and time scales. As groundwork for such a climatology, we compute PBL height by seven methods, using temperature, potential temperature, virtual potential temperature, relative humidity, specific humidity, and refractivity profiles from a 10 year, 505-station radiosonde data set. Six methods are directly compared; they generally yield PBL height estimates that differ by several hundred meters. Relative humidity and potential temperature gradient methods consistently give higher PBL heights, whereas the parcel (or mixing height) method yields significantly lower heights that show larger and more consistent diurnal and seasonal variations (with lower nighttime and wintertime PBLs). Seasonal and diurnal patterns are sometimes associated with local climatological phenomena, such as nighttime radiation inversions, the trade inversion, and tropical convection and associated cloudiness. Surface-based temperature inversions are a distinct type of PBL that is more common at night and in the morning than during midday and afternoon, in polar regions than in the tropics, and in winter than other seasons. PBL height estimates are sensitive to the vertical resolution of radiosonde data; standard sounding data yield higher PBL heights than high-resolution data. Several sources of both parametric and structural uncertainty in climatological PBL height values are estimated statistically; each can introduce uncertainties of a few 100 m.
Joint watermarking and progressive geometric compression of 3D meshes

With the ever-increasing development of digital technologies and digital 3D models, the question of 3D mesh protection has becoming more and more important. One of the problems in digital watermarking is to decide how to embed in a 3D mesh as many bits of information as possible while ensuring that the hidden information can be correctly retrieved after 3D mesh compression. This paper describes a hybrid watermarking/compression system, adapted to semi-regular 3D meshes. The central contribution is to integrate blind watermarking, to geometric progressive compression algorithm. The latter consists on semi-regular wavelet transform and zerotree coding approach. The proposed embedding method operates in the discrete wavelet transform domain using dither modulation principal. This work shows the ability of joint watermarking/compression scheme to guarantee watermark robustness against compression attacks while inducing a low quality degradation.
Optimizing JAsCo dynamic AOP through HotSwap and Jutta

The main drawback of all dynamic AOP technologies available today is the rather high performance overhead in comparison to static weaving approaches. In this paper, we propose an approach to improve the performance of both the interception mechanism and the aspect interpreter of a dynamic AOP system. The interception of the base application is optimized by employing the Java HotSwap technology in such a way that only those joinpoints where aspects are applied upon are trapped. When new aspects are added, all corresponding joinpoints are hotswapped for a trapped version. Likewise, when aspects are removed, the corresponding traps are removed, if no other aspect is applicable at the given trap. In order to improve the aspect interpreter, we propose the Jutta system that allows generating and caching a highly optimized code fragment for each joinpoint. This code fragment contains the combined aspectual behavior for the joinpoint at hand. We integrate HotSwap and Jutta in the JAsCo dynamic AOP system and perform extensive benchmarks to evaluate the performance gain of this approach. In addition, the enhanced JAsCo performance is compared to a selection of current state-of-the-art dynamic AOP approaches. These benchmarks indicate that JAsCo, enhanced with HotSwap and Jutta, is able to improve on the current state-of-the-art performance-wise.
Japanese pitch accent in an English/Nupe/Hausa trilingual

Pitch accent, which distinguishes words in Standard Japanese, is difficult for speakers of English to acquire. This is likely to be because pitch in English does not have lexical function. However, alternative explanations could be insufficient Standard Japanese input or lack of explicit instruction. This paper reports on an English/Nupe/Hausa trilingual learner of Japanese who uses Standard Japanese pitch accent accurately, in spite of no residence in Japan or explicit instruction on pitch accent. Nupe and Hausa are tonal i.e. have lexical pitch. The aim of the paper is to report on the accuracy and stability of the participant’s pitch accent; to consider how their language background has aided this acquisition, and to discuss implications for monolingual English speaking learners of Japanese. The data consists of a three minute audio recording of a presentation given in Japanese. The participant produced 90% of words with accurate Standard Japanese pitch accent and 93% of repeated words with accurate stable pitch accent. The participant’s successful acquisition of pitch accent is argued to be because of the presence of lexical pitch in Nupe and Hausa. Since they achieved this despite no explicit instruction, stay in Japan, or a native-speaker tutor, the difficulty monolingual English speakers have acquiring pitch accent cannot be easily dismissed due to lack of explicit instruction or input. This finding provides support for the argument that English speakers’ difficulty acquiring Japanese pitch accent is due to pitch not being lexical in English. However, other bilinguals (English + tone language) are needed to strengthen this claim.
The Pomp of Power: Black Mayoralties in Urban America*

Although urban scholarship has come to better understand the dynamics of black political incorporation in the United States, to date scant empirical attention has been paid to an important element of minority representation in local politics-the rise of black mayors. The present study addresses this gap in the extant literature. Copyright (c) 2006 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.
The Vinculin-ΔIn20/21 Mouse: Characteristics of a Constitutive, Actin-Binding Deficient Splice Variant of Vinculin

Background The cytoskeletal adaptor protein vinculin plays a fundamental role in cell contact regulation and affects central aspects of cell motility, which are essential to both embryonal development and tissue homeostasis. Functional regulation of this evolutionarily conserved and ubiquitously expressed protein is dominated by a high-affinity, autoinhibitory head-to-tail interaction that spatially restricts ligand interactions to cell adhesion sites and, furthermore, limits the residency time of vinculin at these sites. To date, no mutants of the vinculin protein have been characterized in animal models. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, we investigate vinculin-ΔEx20, a splice variant of the protein lacking the 68 amino acids encoded by exon 20 of the vinculin gene VCL. Vinculin-ΔEx20 was found to be expressed alongside with wild type protein in a knock-in mouse model with a deletion of introns 20 and 21 (VCL-ΔIn20/21 allele) and shows defective head-to-tail interaction. Homozygous VCL-ΔIn20/21 embryos die around embryonal day E12.5 showing cranial neural tube defects and exencephaly. In mouse embryonic fibroblasts and upon ectopic expression, vinculin-ΔEx20 reveals characteristics of constitutive head binding activity. Interestingly, the impact of vinculin-ΔEx20 on cell contact induction and stabilization, a hallmark of the vinculin head domain, is only moderate, thus allowing invasion and motility of cells in three-dimensional collagen matrices. Lacking both F-actin interaction sites of the tail, the vinculin-ΔEx20 variant unveils vinculin's dynamic binding to cell adhesions independent of a cytoskeletal association, and thus differs from head-to-tail binding deficient mutants such as vinculin-T12, in which activated F-actin binding locks the protein variant to cell contact sites. Conclusions/Significance Vinculin-ΔEx20 is an active variant supporting adhesion site stabilization without an enhanced mechanical coupling. Its presence in a transgenic animal reveals the potential of splice variants in the vinculin gene to alter vinculin function in vivo. Correct control of vinculin is necessary for embryonic development.
The impact of the worldwide Millennium Development Goals campaign on maternal and under-five child mortality reduction: ‘Where did the worldwide campaign work most effectively?’

ABSTRACT Background: As the Millennium Development Goals campaign (MDGs) came to a close, clear evidence was needed on the contribution of the worldwide MDG campaign. Objective: We seek to determine the degree of difference in the reduction rate between the pre-MDG and MDG campaign periods and its statistical significance by region. Design: Unlike the prevailing studies that measured progress in 1990–2010, this study explores by percentage how much MDG progress has been achieved during the MDG campaign period and quantifies the impact of the MDG campaign on the maternal and under-five child mortality reduction during the MDG era by comparing observed values with counterfactual values estimated on the basis of the historical trend. Results: The low accomplishment of sub-Saharan Africa toward the MDG target mainly resulted from the debilitated progress of mortality reduction during 1990–2000, which was not related to the worldwide MDG campaign. In contrast, the other regions had already achieved substantial progress before the Millennium Declaration was proclaimed. Sub-Saharan African countries have seen the most remarkable impact of the worldwide MDG campaign on maternal and child mortality reduction across all different measurements. In sub-Saharan Africa, the MDG campaign has advanced the progress of the declining maternal mortality ratio and under-five mortality rate, respectively, by 4.29 and 4.37 years. Conclusions: Sub-Saharan African countries were frequently labeled as ‘off-track’, ‘insufficient progress’, or ‘no progress’ even though the greatest progress was achieved here during the worldwide MDG campaign period and the impact of the worldwide MDG campaign was most pronounced in this region in all respects. It is time to learn from the success stories of the sub-Saharan African countries. Erroneous and biased measurement should be avoided for the sustainable development goals to progress.
Started but Contested: Analyzing US and British Counter-Extremism Strategies

Abstract Counter-extremism approaches in America and Britain have come under criticism and scrutiny due to the recurrence of terrorist incidents and the perception that they are alienating Muslim communities. This essay analyzes the course of counter-extremism policy development on both sides of the Atlantic and proposes potential solutions to some of the most entrenched difficulties that policymakers have encountered.
Generating event logics with higher-order processes as realizers

Our topic is broadening a practical ”proofs-asprograms” method of program development to “proofs-asprocesses”. We extend our previous results that implement proofs-as-processes for the standard model of asynchronous message passing computation to a much wider class of process models including the π-calculus and other process algebras. Our first result is a general process model whose definition in type theory is interesting in itself both technically and foundationally. Process terms are type free lambda-terms. Typed processes are elements of a co-inductive type. They are higher-order in that they can take processes as inputs and produce them as outputs. A second new result is a procedure to generate event structures over the general process model and then define event logics and event classes over these structures. Processes are abstract realizers for assertions in the event logics over them, and they extend the class of primitively realizable propositions built on the propositions-as-types principle. They also provide a basis for the third new result, showing when programmable event classes generate strong realizers that prevent logical interference as processes are synthesized.
Beyond Normal Competencies: Understanding Organisation Designs to Devlop and Sustain IT-Related Capabilities

It is apparent that IT resources are important for organisations. It is also clear that organisations unique competencies, their IT-related capabilities, leverage the IT resources uniquely to create and sustain competitive advantage. However, IT resources are dynamic, and evolve at an exponential rate. This means that organisations will need to sustain their competencies to leverage opportunities offered by new IT resources. Research on ways to sustain IT-related capabilities is limited and a deeper understanding of this situation is important. Amongst other factors, a possible reason for this lack of progress in this area could be due to the lack of validated measurement items of the theoretical constructs to conduct such studies. We suggest an environment in which organisations could build new and sustain their existing IT-related capabilities. We then report on the development of valid and reliable measures for this environment. The validated measures would be useful in extending our understanding on how firms could sustain their IT-related capabilities. This effort will provide a deeper understanding of how firms can secure sustainable IT-related business value from their acquired IT resources.
A crossover study of short daily haemodialysis.

BACKGROUND The benefits of daily haemodialysis (DHD) compared to conventional three times per week haemodialysis (CHD) have been described in a number of observational studies. Most of these previous studies however have not been performed with rigorous controls. METHODS We performed a crossover study following an A-B-A design: phase A was 4 weeks of thrice weekly dialysis, 3-4 h per treatment (CHD); phase B was 8 weeks of six times/week dialysis, each session being one-half of the usual time (DHD) and phase A with 4 weeks of thrice weekly dialysis (CHD) was repeated. Patients characteristics: n=12, six males; age 52+/-18 years, six diabetics. RESULTS Weekly single-pool Kt/V, equilibrated Kt/V and standard Kt/V of urea, and beta-2-microglobulin clearance values were greater during DHD. Eight of 12 patients who completed the study reported symptomatic benefits from DHD that partially or completely disappeared during the second period of CHD. Quality of life of patients improved during DHD. Three patients had problems with arteriovenous access during DHD. Average blood pressure was lower during DHD (systolic 139.5+/-22.7 mmHg) compared to the initial (147.7+/-21.4 mmHg, P<0.001) and last (146.4+/-20.0 mmHg, P<0.005) CHD periods. No significant changes in predialysis haemoglobin and the serum concentration of albumin, phosphate, beta-2-microglobulin or B-type natriuretic peptides (BNP) were observed, although BNP trended downward during DHD and returned to baseline level during the second period of CHD. The dose of erythropoietin did not change significantly. Patient compliance with the dialysis schedule was lower during DHD. Dialysis staff perceived an increased workload but felt that the patients benefited medically from DHD. CONCLUSIONS The results of this cross-over study suggest symptomatic benefits and decrease in blood pressure, but there are potential problems with compliance and vascular access during DHD.
Relationships among Fourth Graders’ Reading Anxiety, Reading Fluency, Reading Motivation, and Reading Comprehension

The aim of the current study was to examine the interrelations among reading anxiety, reading comprehension, reading fluency and reading motivation. In this study that is based on a predictive correlational design, the participants were made up of 128 fourth grade students. Structural equation modeling was performed to test our hypotheses regarding the direct and indirect relationships among intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, reading anxiety, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. The results showed that internal motivation has a substantial and positive effect on reading comprehension. Extrinsic motivation has a substantial positive effect on reading fluency. On the other hand, while extrinsic motivation is not a direct substantial predictor of reading comprehension, it has an indirect positive effect on reading comprehension. This relationship is mediated by reading fluency. Furthermore, reading fluency has a substantial and positive effect on reading comprehension and has a substantial and negative effect on reading anxiety. Finally, reading anxiety has a substantial and adverse effect on reading comprehension.
Value Judgments and Value Neutrality in Economics

The paper analyses economic evaluations by distinguishing evaluative statements from actual value judgments. From this basis, it compares four solutions to the value neutrality problem in economics. After rebutting the strong theses about neutrality (normative economics is illegitimate) and non-neutrality (the social sciences are value-impregnated), the paper settles the case between the weak neutrality thesis (common in welfare economics) and a novel, weak non-neutrality thesis that extends the realm of normative economics more widely than the other weak thesis does.