Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The acquisition of complex wh- questions in the L2 English of Canadian French and Bulgarian speakers: Medial wh-constructions, inversion phenomena, and avoidance strategies

THIS DISSERTATION EXAMINES THE DEVELOPMENT OF LONG-DISTANCE WHMOVEMENT QUESTIONS IN THE L2 ENGLISH OF (CANADIAN) FRENCH AND BULGARIAN SPEAKERS. THE MAIN PHENOMENON UNDER INVESTIGATION IS MEDIAL WHCONSTRUCTIONS (WHSCOPE MARKING AND WHCOPYING). SUCH CONSTRUCTIONS ARE OF PARTICULAR INTEREST BECAUSE THEY ARE UNATTESTED IN BOTH THE L I AND THE L2 OF THE TWO LEARNER POPULATIONS; AT THE SAME TIME, THEY ARE LICENSED OPTIONS IN A NUMBER OF OTHER TYPOLOGICALLY DISTINCT LANGUAGES, OF WHICH THE PARTICIPANTS REPORT NO KNOWLEDGE. AS SUCH, MEDIAL WHCONSTRUCTIONS POSE A LEARNABILITY PROBLEM IN L2 ACQUISITION: HOW CAN A LEARNER "KNOW" SOMETHING THAT IS NOT SUPPORTED BY EITHER THE NATRVE LANGUAGE OR THE TARGET INPUT, BUT IS ATTESTED IN OTHER LANGUAGES? TWO EXPERIMENTS, A WRITTEN GRAMMATICALITY JUDGMENT MULTIPLE-CHOICE TASK AND AN ORAL ELICITED PRODUCTION TASK, WERE CARRIED OUT WITH THE TWO DIFFERENT LEARNER POPULATIONS AND WITH ENGLISH NATIVE SPEAKER CONTROLS. THE WRITTEN EXPERIMENTS SHOWED THAT MEDIAL WHCONSTRUCTIONS CO-EXIST AND COMPETE WITH THE TARGET ENGLISH LONG-DISTANCE STRUCTURE AT THE EARLY AND INTERMEDIATE STAGES OF ACQUISITION OF BOTH THE FRENCH AND THE BULGARIAN SPEAKING PARTICIPANTS; AT THE ADVANCED STAGES OF ACQUISITION, BOTH POPULATIONS SHOWED EVIDENCE THAT MEDIAL WHREPRESENTATIONS HAD BEEN SUCCESSFULLY ELIMINATED FROM THE INTERLANGUAGE GRAMMAR, AND THE L2 DATA CONVERGED WITH THAT OF THE NATIVE SPEAKERS. IN THE ORAL ELICITATION EXPERIMENTS BOTH THE FRENCH AND THE BULGARIAN SPEAKING PARTICIPANTS RESORTED TO MEDIAL WHAND A NUMBER OF OTHER STRATEGIES AIMED AT AVOIDING LONG-DISTANCE WHMOVEMENT; I ARGUE THAT SUCH STRATEGIES ARE DUE TO BOTH THE DERIVATIONAL COMPLEXITY AND THE HIGH PROCESSING LOAD ASSOCIATED WITH LONG-DISTANCE WHMOVEMENT. THE ACCOUNT DEVELOPED TO ADDRESS THE FINDINGS OF THE DISSERTATION INCORPORATES INSIGHTS FROM BOTH NATIVIST AND DOMAIN-GENERAL VIEWS ON ACQUISITION. THE PROPOSAL IS THAT L2 GRAMMARS HAVE TO BE UG-CONSTRAINED IN ORDER FOR THE LEARNABILITY PROBLEM TO BE RESOLVED. IN ADDITION, THE ACQUISITION PROCESS HAS TO BE STRONGLY DRP/EN BY THE INPUT, ALLOWING LEARNERS TO MAKE EXTENSIVE USE OF A GENERAL PROBABILISTIC LEARNING MECHANISM; THIS MECHANISM HELPS THEM TO GRADUALLY ELIMINATE THE COMPETING REPRESENTATIONS UNSUPPORTED BY THE L2 INPUT AND TO CONVERGE WITH THE GRAMMATICAL TARGET. THIS APPROACH IS IN PRINCIPLE APPLICABLE TO BOTH L I AND L2 ACQUISITION AND ACCOUNTS FOR SOME RELEVANT SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE TWO. THESIS ADVISORS: JUANA LICERAS NINA KAZANINA (UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA) (UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL) EXTERNAL EXAMINER: LYDIA WHITE (MCGILL UNIVERSITY) INTERNAL EXAMINERS: MARIA LUISA RIVERO (UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA) ASH ASUDEH (CARLETON UNIVERSITY) ANDRES SALANOVA (UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA)
Calling Iranian learners of L2 English: effect of gloss type on lexical retention and reading performance under different learning conditions

This study sought to compare how three different gloss types (text–picture, text–audio and text–picture–audio) affected English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. The study also compared how results on comprehension and vocabulary acquisition differed across three learning conditions (i.e., incidental, intentional and explicit instruction). A between-groups design was employed with four groups (N = 135) of Iranian university learners of L2 English. The participants (with upper-intermediate proficiency level) read English texts. Written recall and multiple-choice questions were used to measure reading comprehension; vocabulary knowledge scale (VKS) and contextualized vocabulary knowledge test (CVKT) were used to assess vocabulary acquisition. Results of statistical analyses revealed that while the text–picture–audio gloss type consistently resulted in better vocabulary learning and reading comprehension, the learning conditions varied in terms of their immediate and delayed effect on vocabulary and reading scores. This study suggests that learner performances across gloss types are condition specific and provides both pedagogical and theoretical implications. What is already known about this topic Electronic glosses foster reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. There are different positions about the effectiveness of form focused instruction in grammar, with the focus on forms approach having a higher acceptable rate in SLA. But, this issue has been rarely researched in vocabulary acquisition. What this paper adds This study supports the complementary nature of dual annotations in vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. This study extends the issue of form focused instruction to vocabulary learning by comparing the incidental, intentional and incidental–intentional learning orientations. This study evaluates the interaction between the multiple gloss types and the learning orientations. Implications for theory, policy or practice This study provides both pedagogical and theoretical implications.
stress in human coronary artery endothelial cells Genomic analysis of immediate / early response to shear

stress in human coronary artery endothelial cells Genomic analysis of immediate/early response to shear You might find this additional info useful. 24 times a year (twice monthly) by the American Physiological Society, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD systems with techniques linking genes and pathways to physiology, from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. It is published publishes results of a wide variety of studies from human and from informative model Physiological Genomics
Assessing the Atmospheric Oxygen Balance in a Region of Rapid Urbanization: A Case Study in the Pearl River Delta, China

Oxygen is a product of photosynthesis and is essential for human survival. It also has a profound effect on ecosystems as the atmospheric oxygen balance is the basis for regional ecological sustainability. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) has experienced rapid urbanization and has become one of China’s three major urban agglomerations. This study focused on the oxygen balance of the PRD in 2011, and established a model to calculate the oxygen balance that was suitable for a region of rapid urbanization by applying remote sensing gross primary production data via the C-Fix model. The influencing factors for the oxygen imbalance were analyzed and it was suggested that more attention be paid to the management of oxygen emissions than oxygen consumption. The results indicated that the oxygen balance capacity of the PRD was weak, with an oxygen consumption 9.37 times that of its oxygen emission. Zhaoqing and Huizhou are the main sources of oxygen in the PRD, with an oxygen emission density more than 4.67 times that of Dongguan or Zhuhai. Guangzhou and Shenzhen are the main oxygen sinks, with a total oxygen consumption more than 5.49 times that of Zhaoqing. Moreover, the oxygen balance of the PRD is more sensitive to oxygen emissions than consumption. Therefore, it could be inferred that the land urbanization has a stronger influence on the oxygen balance than the population urbanization.
Studying Late Propagations Using Software Repository Mining

While source code cloning is generally regarded as a bad software development strategy, there are, however, several studies which seem to indicate the contrary. One of the clone evolution patterns that can potentially lead to software defects is called the Late Propagation (LP). A LP occurs, when related clones are changed consistently, but not at the same time. The clone instance, which receives the update at a later time, might exhibit unintended behaviour if the modification was a bugfix. In this paper we present an approach to extract late propagations from software repositories. Using this approach, we will study LPs in four software system, which allows us to investigate the propagation time, commit activity and the effects of LPs. Finally, we present a number of suggestions to improve on the work done in this thesis.
Language, executive functioning and symptomatology—Is fluency a transversal tool in schizophrenia?

Despite a large number of studies on fluency disorders in schizophrenia, it is still not clear whether executive functioning and fluency tasks are empirically linked and how symptomatology could specifically get involved on these influences. We carried out analyses of performances in several verbal fluency tasks, a non-verbal fluency task and an executive test (FAB) in 25 schizophrenics and 25 healthy subjects matched in terms demographic data. Patients also completed the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale in order to control for their clinical profile. Our results suggest that schizophrenic patients show both category and letter fluency deficits with a greater impairment for letter fluency. They also display poorer performances for the non-verbal fluency task. In patients, all the verbal and non-verbal fluencies are significantly correlated with the FAB total score. By contrast, in controls, only letter fluency correlates with the FAB total score, which is congruent with previous literature on the healthy mechanisms of verbal fluency. Besides, factorial analyses show that symptomatology is specifically related to particular indexes of fluency tasks. Taken together, these data lead to support the hypothesis of retrieval rather than semantic difficulties and alargest involvement of executive functioning in schizophrenics during tasks that require a certain degree of efficiency, with performance being influenced by the clinical profile. Yet, the relation between fluency scores and executive functioning has to be more intensively explored and further studies should include semantic memory measures that fit with pathology’s constraints and characteristics.
Diabetic Retinopathy Risk Factors: Plasma Erythropoietin as a Risk Factor for Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether any stage of diabetic retinopathy (DR) is associated with levels of plasma erythropoietin and other plasma parameters. METHODS It was examined a representative sample of 180 type 2 diabetes patients aged 40 to 79 years. Ophthalmic examination including a funduscopic examination, performed by an experienced ophthalmologist and the retinal finding were classified according to the grading system for diabetic retinopathy of ETDRS (Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study). It was measured the levels of plasma erythropoietin, cholesterol, triglyceride, apolipoproteins A and B, C-reactive protein, fasting blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) in 88 DR patients and 92 controls without DR. Risk factors correlated with DR were compared between groups. RESULTS The study group of 180 patients included 72 males and 108 females. The mean age of the patients with and without DR was 57.36 ± 8.87 years and 55.33 ± 8.28 years, respectively. Of the 88 patients with DR, only 9 (10%) had proliferative DR and the rest suffered from non-proliferative DR. The mean plasma levels of erythropoietin in proliferative DR group showed a significant difference in comparison to other groups. The mean plasma levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, apolipoproteins A and B, C-reactive protein, and fasting blood glucose were not significantly different in the three groups except for HbA1C. The absolute relative risk (ARR) also showed that erythropoietin was an increasing risk for proliferative DR (ARR, 1.17; 95% confidence interval, 1.060 to 1.420; odds ratio,1.060). CONCLUSIONS Of the factors studied, erythropoietin level showed significant increase in proliferative DR group. The stepwise raised in mean plasma erythropoietin level which demonstrates significant correlation with proliferative DR versus remaining two groups, will be an indication of its role in proliferative DR.
Color image gradients for morphological segmentation: the weighted gradient improved by automatic imposition of weights

In a previous paper some metrics were proposed to compute gradient from color images by exploiting the intuitive notion of dissimilarity among colors. The weighted gradient, one of the six methods introduced, provided the best segmentation results (following a subjective visual criterion) when applied in conjunction with the watershed from markers technique. Despite the excellent results achieved by the linear combination of the gradients from each band of the original image under the HSI color space model, the weighted gradient lacked a systematic method to give weights to each gradient. The goal of this work is to propose such a systematic method, by computing the similarity between the image to compute the gradient and an "ideal image", whose histogram has a uniform distribution. Some segmentation experiments were done and the automatic weighted gradient provides results as good as the manual one.
Calcineurin regulates myocardial function during acute endotoxemia.

RATIONALE Cyclosporin A (CsA) is known to preserve cardiac contractile function during endotoxemia, but the mechanism is unclear. Increased nitric oxide (NO) production and altered mitochondrial function are implicated as mechanisms contributing to sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction, and CsA has the capacity to reduce NO production and inhibit mitochondrial dysfunction relating to the mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT). OBJECTIVES We hypothesized that CsA would protect against endotoxin-mediated cardiac contractile dysfunction by attenuating NO production and preserving mitochondrial function. METHODS Left ventricular function was measured continuously over 4 h in cats assigned as follows: control animals (n = 7); LPS alone (3 mg/kg, n = 8); and CsA (6 mg/kg, n = 7), a calcineurin inhibitor that blocks the MPT, or tacrolimus (FK506, 0.1 mg/kg, n = 7), a calcineurin inhibitor lacking MPT activity, followed in 30 min by LPS. Myocardial tissue was then analyzed for NO synthase-2 expression, tissue nitration, protein carbonylation, and mitochondrial morphology and function. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS LPS treatment resulted in impaired left ventricular contractility, altered mitochondrial morphology and function, and increased protein nitration. As hypothesized, CsA pretreatment normalized cardiac performance and mitochondrial respiration and reduced myocardial protein nitration. Unexpectedly, FK506 pretreatment had similar effects, normalizing both cardiac and mitochondrial parameters. However, CsA and FK506 pretreatments markedly increased protein carbonylation in the myocardium despite elevated manganese superoxide dismutase activity during endotoxemia. CONCLUSIONS Our data indicate that calcineurin is a critical regulator of mitochondrial respiration, tissue nitration, protein carbonylation, and contractile function in the heart during acute endotoxemia.
Clipping Noise in OFDM-Based Optical Wireless Communication Systems

In this paper, the impact of clipping noise on optical wireless communication (OWC) systems employing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is investigated. The two existing optical OFDM (O-OFDM) transmission schemes, asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM (ACO-OFDM) and direct-current-biased optical OFDM (DCO-OFDM), are studied. Time domain signal clipping generally results from direct current (DC) biasing and/or from physical limitations of the transmitter front-end. These include insufficient forward biasing and the maximum power driving limit of the emitter. The clipping noise can be modeled according to the Bussgang theorem and the central limit theorem (CLT) as attenuation of the data-carrying subcarriers at the receiver and addition of zero-mean complex-valued Gaussian noise. Analytical expressions for the attenuation factor and the clipping noise variance are determined in closed-form and employed in the derivation of the electrical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The validity of the model is verified through a Monte Carlo bit-error ratio (BER) simulation. Finally, the BER performance of ACO-OFDM with DCO-OFDM is compared for different clipping levels and multi-level quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) schemes.
Carotid Thrombosis in Childhood

Although carotid occlusive disease is not uncommon in adults (Fisher, 1954; Samuel, 1956), it is rare in children. Since atherosclerosis is accepted by most authors as the major aetiological agent, this is not surprising. A search of the literature reveals 16 cases of carotid occlusion in persons 10 years of age or less (Duffy, Portnoy, Mauro and Wehrle, 1957; Cabieses and Saldias, 1956; Behrman, 1954; Shapiro, 1952; King and Langworthy, 1941; Litchfield, 1938; Gross, 1945; Martin, Lukeman, Ranson and Geppert, 1954; Goldstein and Burgess, 1958; Pouyanne, Arne, Loiseau and Mouton, 1957; Clark and Linell, 1954; Braudo, 1956; Fairburn, 1957) and a further six below the age of 20 (Pouyanne et al., 1957; Krayenbiihl and Weber, 1944; Petit-Dutaillis, Janet, Thiebaut and Guillaumat, 1949; Riechert, 1938; Caldwell, 1936). Arteriographic, necropsy or operative proof was provided in 17 of these cases; two were diagnosed on the absence of carotid pulsation on the side opposite the hemiplegia and three, associated with trauma, were accepted on convincing circumstantial grounds. An aetiology was indicated in 13 cases. Litchfield (1938) and Pouyanne et al. (1957) have each reported a case associated with severe throat infection. Gross (1945), in a review of arterial occlusion in infancy, reported two cases in whom emboli from a thrombosed persistent ductus arteriosus were considered to have caused the occlusion. One of these cases also had Fallot's tetralogy with polycythaemia. A paradoxical embolus of necrotic placental tissue was presumed by Clark and Linell (1954) to have caused internal carotid occlusion in an infant with erythroblastosis foetalis. In the case reported by Duffy et al. (1957) thrombosis was probably due to a congenital anomaly of the vessel wall. Martin et al. (1954) have described a case of mucormycosis of the central nervous system in which the thrombosed internal carotid artery was heavily invaded by the organism. Riechert's case (1938) appears to have been related to the presence of a nearby intracranial tumour. Trauma accounted for five cases (Braudo, 1956; Fairburn, 1957; Caldwell, 1936), direct injury to the soft palate being responsible in each instance. In all of the proven cases the occlusion was limited to one or other internal carotid artery; one of the others (King and Langworthy, 1941) was thought to have common carotid and right subclavian obstruction on clinical grounds. Bilateral carotid involvement is occasionally encountered (Ochs, Sensenbach and Madison, 1954; Batley, 1955; Silverstein, 1959; Brain, 1957), but has never previously been reported in a child. Common carotid thrombosis constitutes a small fraction of several series of carotid occlusive cases (Silverstein, 1959; Shapiro and Peyton, 1954; Ameli and Ashby, 1949; Gurdjian and Webster, 1953) but no proven case in childhood has yet been reported. The following case of a child with bilateral common carotid thrombosis may thus be worth reporting.
No Time Like The Present: Determinants Of Intentions To Engage In Bystander Anti-Racism On Behalf Of Indigenous Australians

The present study explored whether variables previously shown to relate to pro-social attitudes and behaviours could be applied to the intention to engage in bystander anti-racism on behalf of Indigenous Australians. 149 non-Indigenous participants were asked to indicate how likely they were to engage in bystander anti-racism in response to an ‘everyday’ racial discrimination scenario presented within an online survey. Being female, older, and politically left leaning correlated with bystander anti-racism intentions, as did higher levels of collective guilt, anger, empathic concern and lower levels of prejudice. Regression analysis revealed that being older and having higher levels of empathic concern predicted the intention to engage in bystander anti-racism. While it may seem rational that the ability to feel for the plight of another (empathic concern) is necessary for bystander anti-racism to ensue, older individuals may feel more competent in their ability to effectively intervene.
The Influence of Personal Factors to Changes in The Behavior of Organic Rice Farmers in Sragen District

This research examined the influence of personal / internal to the behavior of organic rice farmers in Sragen. Research using quantitative methods. The results of the study are described qualitatively. Relationships between variables models are described in qualitative descriptive. Hypothesis test by using path analysis program employing methods Amos SEM. Not all internal factors influence the change of behavior of conventional rice farmers to organic rice farmers in Sragen. The internal factors that influence it are: (a) motivation toward knowledge and attitudes; (b) supporting factors to the knowledge, attitudes and skills
Mining Workflow Outlier with a Frequency-Based Algorithm

Business Process includes workflows which integrated some critical activities among different departments. Workflow management is a quickly evolving technology that can assist business process reengineering and accomplish full or partial automatic processing of a business. Workflow plays a critical role in the ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) system since it aims to achieve maximum satisfaction for both employee and customers. Any workflow that is irrationally and irregularly designed will not only lead to an ineffective operation of enterprise but also limit the implementation of an effective business strategy. The research proposes an algorithm which makes use of the workflow’s executed frequency, the concept of distance-based outlier detection, empirical rules and Method of Exhaustion to mine three types of workflow outliers, including less-occurring workflow outliers of each process (abnormal workflow of each process), less-occurring workflow outliers of all processes (abnormal workflow of all processes) and never-occurring workflow outliers (redundant workflow). In addition, this research adopts real data to evaluate workflow mining feasibility. In terms of the management, it will assist managers and consultants in (1) controlling exceptions in the process of enterprise auditing, (2) simplifying the business process management by the integration of relevant processes and (3)persisting to improve the quality of business process and enhance enterprise performance.