Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gamification at Universiti Malaysia Sabah: A Case Study of Enhancing English among Undergraduate Students

In general, the term gamification is defined as the use of game facets in nongame contexts. This study aims at investigating undergraduate students’ perception on gamification as an alternative platform to facilitate their language learning processes as well as their acceptance of gamification according to gender. The psychometric properties of a questionnaire on the acceptance of gamification (PLE) particularly in terms of its validity and reliability were also examined in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to test the reliability and validity of the measurement model by looking at the results of composite reliability, average variance extracted, and standardized loadings of the construct measures. Goodnessof- fit indices of the measurement model were also examined. The results of the study have shown that users of PLE were positive towards its usefulness in assisting their language learning and enhancing their performance, and confident of its ease of use. In general, the users have positive attitudes towards using PLE in language learning and they showed positive intention in using gamification in their future language learning. It is believed that this study would not only provide a good understanding of the undergraduate students’ acceptance of gamification in learning, but also shed light to the understanding of the future game use of these students. Therefore, it is recommended that gamification (PLE for instance) could be applied at the tertiary level in order to gamify educational contexts as one of the methods to make learning more interesting, motivational, and less conventional; and to promote autonomy and that learning does not remain within the boundaries of the classroom.
The management of personnel records for accountability, good governance and protection of human rights at the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe

The article gives an empirical assessment of how personnel records are managed at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) to facilitate administration and protection of individual employee’s rights. The study employed the descriptive survey method and triangulation of both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Data were collected through interviews, observations and content analysis of the university reports. The major findings were that NUST does not retire employee records to a Records Centre; records of those who have since departed/retired are kept in boxes in a strong room, NUST is fast running short of filing space, and there is restriction of access to employee records. To improve on the management of employee records that continue to increase and are voluminous, NUST needs to establish a university records centre and retire records to an offsite records centre.
Giant outburst of EXO 2030+375: pulse-phase resolved analysis of INTEGRAL data

In June–September 2006 the Be/X-ray binary EXO 2030+375 experienced the second giant outburst since its discovery. The source was shown to have a complicated pulse-averaged X-ray spectral continuum with possible evidence of cyclotron absorption features. In this paper we present the first pulse-phase resolved analysis of the broad band X-ray spectra of EXO 2030+375 obtained with the INTEGRAL observatory close to the maximum and during the decay phase of the giant outburst. We report a strong variability of the spectrum with pulse phase. Alternative spectral continuum models are discussed. The dependence of the spectral parameters on pulse phase during the maximum of the outburst and the evolution of the pulse profiles with time are qualitatively consistent with the pulsar’s emission diagram changing from the fan-beam geometry close to the maximum of the outburst to a combination of pencil and fan beams (of comparable intesities) at the end of the decay phase. Evidence of a cyclotron absorption line around 63 keV at the pulse phase interval preceeding the main peak of the pulse profile is present in the spectrum obtained close to the maximum of the outburst.
Mundane Content on Social Media: Creation, Circulation, and the Copyright Problem

This article examines the practices of social media users and explores how people value, protect, and circulate content on social media platforms. Legal scholarship shows us that much of the mundane online distribution and consumption of media infringes copyright law and as a result raises complex questions around the distribution and circulation of content. Through exploring this misalignment between copyright law and everyday social media practices, this article identifies existing norms on social media platforms and asks whether they could provide guidance for a future copyright reform agenda. Drawing on a series of group interviews with people who identified as regular users of social media, we explored emergent norms of attribution and circulation. Applying a grounded theory approach, an emergent thematic analysis of the data uncovered a range of responses coalescing around the themes of attribution, platform norms, and commercialization. The data show that people make complex and nuanced decisions around when they should attribute content, seek permission to use content, or allow others to use their content. We suggest that these decisions are informed by the vernaculars of each platform and a critical assessment of the broader commercial logics of social media, which results in many people placing a greater importance around attribution. The authors conclude by proposing that rather than stretching the logic of a legal framework that is increasingly not fit for purpose for everyday social media content distribution, policymakers should take into account these emergent practices on social media platforms when considering reform opportunities.
Migrant and/or Care Workers? Debating the Ethnicization of the Elderly Care Market in Italy and the United Kingdom

Abstract:Care marketization has generally supported ethnicization of care work in many countries. While economic and institutional theories have explained how migrants have been included as functional workers, the social inclusion of them in the hosting societies has been largely neglected. Focusing on the role of ideas and public discourse, this article considers through a content analysis of newspaper articles how the role of migrant care workers has been the object of public discussion in two countries characterized by care marketization: Italy and the United Kingdom. It shows how ethnicized care markets have been differently legitimized through distinct social and cultural dynamics
Sensemaking and Sensegiving: Leadership Processes of New College Presidents.

This dissertation is a study of how new college presidents simultaneously learn about the organization while being in charge, how situational demands shape this process, and how leaders shape how others think. Traveling to over fourteen campuses, I completed eighteen semi-structured interviews with new presidents who were organizational outsiders and first-time college presidents. An equal third of these interviews were completed at baccalaureate colleges, master’s college and universities, and research universities. Motivations for this study include: 1) understanding why such a large percentage of presidents are hired as outsiders, estimated at around 80 percent in higher education compared to 40 percent in business (Blumenstyk, 2005); 2) why the tenure of college presidents seems relatively short (around 6-7 years) and if that really is a problem or is it a reasonable pace for organizational renewal and leadership transition; 3) understanding the experience of being in charge of an organization while also being a newcomer, and 4) to contribute to the theoretical perspective of sensemaking and sensegiving (Gioia & Chittipeddi, 1991; Weick, 1995), which, put simply, is how people think (sensemaking), and how people attempt to influence how others think (sensegiving). Utilizing grounded theory methods (Charmaz, 2006), some critical findings include how presidents use strategic ambiguity, cautiously know and doubt their knowledge when they begin, and find trusted individuals to help them interpret the organization. Appreciating the complexity and contingency of each president’s
The Role of Reading Order and Monitoring Skills During HypertextComprehension

In this paper we discuss two experiments on the role that comprehension monitoring skills play in selecting the reading order of hypertextual information and comprehending this information. In the first experiment, learners who could be characterized as learners with low prior knowledge comprehended the hypertext better when they selected a coherent reading order. Further, number of links per page had no effect on cognitive load or comprehension. Finally, link support enhanced comprehension. In the second experiment, we showed that low prior knowledge learners are able to select a high coherent reading order strategy provided that these learners have high monitoring skills with regard to their comprehension process. We conclude that an important characteristic of hypertext comprehension is the skill to monitor the level of coherence and regulating the reading order is in this respect essential.
Texture Feature based Automated Seeded Region Growing in Abdominal MRI Segmentation

A new texture feature based seeded region growing algorithm is proposed for the automated segmentation of organs in Abdominal MR image. Co-occurrence texture feature and semi-variogram texture feature are extracted from the image and the seeded region growing algorithm is run on these feature spaces. With a given Region of Interest(ROI), a seed point is automatically picked up based on three homogeneity criteria. A threshold is then obtained by taking a lower value just before the one causing 'explosion'. This algorithm is tested on 12 series of 3D abdominal MR images.
Mesenchymal stem cell-based NK4 gene therapy in nude mice bearing gastric cancer xenografts

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been recognized as promising delivery vehicles for gene therapy of tumors. Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of worldwide cancer mortality, and novel treatment modalities are urgently needed. NK4 is an antagonist of hepatocyte growth factor receptors (Met) which are often aberrantly activated in gastric cancer and thus represent a useful candidate for targeted therapies. This study investigated MSC-delivered NK4 gene therapy in nude mice bearing gastric cancer xenografts. MSCs were transduced with lentiviral vectors carrying NK4 complementary DNA or enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP). Such transduction did not change the phenotype of MSCs. Gastric cancer xenografts were established in BALB/C nude mice, and the mice were treated with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), MSCs-GFP, Lenti-NK4, or MSCs-NK4. The tropism of MSCs toward gastric cancer cells was determined by an in vitro migration assay using MKN45 cells, GES-1 cells and human fibroblasts and their presence in tumor xenografts. Tumor growth, tumor cell apoptosis and intratumoral microvessel density of tumor tissue were measured in nude mice bearing gastric cancer xenografts treated with PBS, MSCs-GFP, Lenti-NK4, or MSCs-NK4 via tail vein injection. The results showed that MSCs migrated preferably to gastric cancer cells in vitro. Systemic MSCs-NK4 injection significantly suppressed the growth of gastric cancer xenografts. MSCs-NK4 migrated and accumulated in tumor tissues after systemic injection. The microvessel density of tumor xenografts was decreased, and tumor cellular apoptosis was significantly induced in the mice treated with MSCs-NK4 compared to control mice. These findings demonstrate that MSC-based NK4 gene therapy can obviously inhibit the growth of gastric cancer xenografts, and MSCs are a better vehicle for NK4 gene therapy than lentiviral vectors. Further studies are warranted to explore the efficacy and safety of the MSC-based NK4 gene therapy in animals and cancer patients.
Body mass index, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio cut-off points for categorisation of obesity among Omani Arabs

Abstract Background There are no data on optimal cut-off points to classify obesity among Omani Arabs. The existing cut-off points were obtained from studies of European populations. Objective To determine gender-specific optimal cut-off points for body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) associated with elevated prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among Omani Arabs. Design A community-based cross-sectional study. Setting The survey was conducted in the city of Nizwa in Oman in 2001. Subjects and methods The study contained a probabilistic random sample of 1421 adults aged ≥20 years. Prevalent CVD risk was defined as the presence of at least two of the following three risk factors: hyperglycaemia, hypertension and dyslipidaemia. Logistic regression and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were used to determine optimal cut-off points for BMI, WC and WHR in relation to the area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity. Results Over 87% of Omanis had at least one CVD risk factor (38% had hyperglycaemia, 19% hypertension and 34.5% had high total cholesterol). All three indices including BMI (AUC = 0.766), WC (AUC = 0.772) and WHR (AUC = 0.767) predicted prevalent CVD risk factors equally well. The optimal cut-off points for men and women respectively were 23.2 and 26.8 kg m−2 for BMI, 80.0 and 84.5 cm for WC, and 0.91 and 0.91 for WHR. Conclusions To identify Omani subjects of Arab ethnicity at high risk of CVD, cut-off points lower than currently recommended for BMI, WC and WHR are needed for men while higher cut-off points are suggested for women.
Putting reins on the brain. How the body and environment use it

Radical embodied cognitive neuroscience (RECN) will probably rely on dynamical systems theory (DST) and complex systems theory for methods and formalism. Yet, there have been plenty of non-radical neurodynamicists out there for quite some time. How much of their work fits with radical embodied cognitive science, what do they need RECN for, and what are the inconsistencies between RECN and established neurodynamics that would have to be resolved? This paper is both theoretical hypothesis and review. First, it provides a brief overview of the typical, purely structural considerations why the central nervous systems (CNS) should be treated as a nonlinear dynamical system and what this entails. The reader will learn about the circular causality enclosing brain and behavior and different attempts to formalize this circularity. Then, three different attempts at linking dynamics and theory of brain function are described in more detail and criticized. A fourth method based on ecological psychology could fix some of the issues that the others encounter. It is argued that studying self-organization of the brain without taking its ecological embedding into account is insufficient. Finally, based on existing theoretical work we propose two roles that the CNS has to be fulfilling in order to allow an animal to behave adequately in its niche. In its first role the CNS has to be enslaved easily by patterns of behavior that guide the animal through its environment. In the second role the brain has to flexibly switch among patterns, what can be called the metastable circuit breaker. The relevance of this idea is supported using certain motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). These symptoms can be explained as consequent to an excessive stability of the (metastable) circuit breaker.
Antibacterial Activity of Plants Essential Oils Against Some EpidemiologicallyRelevant Food-Borne Pathogens

The antibacterial activity of essential oils hydrodistilled from local anise, coriander, cumin, marjoram, rose- mary and thyme were screened against a group of food-borne pathogens comprising Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium and Bacillus cereus. All the tested bacterial strains displayed varying degrees of susceptibility towards the examined oils. Nevertheless Gram-positive bacte- rial strains were more sensitive than Gram-negative organisms. Furthermore, the antimicrobial activities of the extracted essential oils were found to be related to their major components as identified by Gas chromatography-Mass spectroscopy. Essential oils containing phenolic or aldehydic terpenoids as major constituents were the most active (thyme and cumin oils), followed by those containing alcoholic terpenoids (marjoram and coriander oils). Meanwhile, essential oils contain- ing ketonic terpenoids as major components were moderately active (rosemary oil) and those containing phenolic ethers exhibited relatively weak activity (anise oil). In food industries, the tested essential oils can be used as natural antimicro- bial agents in the light of shift away from artificial agents and the move towards natural alternatives.
Parse tree visualization for Malay sentence (BMTutor)

In Malaysia, various efforts have been made by the government and language researchers in improving student’s ability of mastering Malay language (BM) due to their poor ability in grammar and sentence structure. In terms of technology, to date, there is no computer software or a prototype that is available that can help students in learning the BM sentence structure.Thus, BMTutor is introduced as a solution to this problem. BMTutor is a prototype for visualizing Malay sentence combined with sentence checker, sentence correction and word attribute components.BMTutor is intended to facilitate the learning process of sentence construction and grammatical structure in BM. It is also to enhance the learning process in BM that can be used by communities, especially students. An algorithm in designing BMTutor is discussed in this paper.The algorithm of the software is done sequentially as followed: 1) tokenizing 2) checking the number of words, 3) searching and comparing process to check the spelling or conjunctions, 4) assigning each word with a certain word class, 5) matching with rules, and 6) delivering/producing output (sentence correction or parse tree visualization, word attribute components, and parse tree from sentence examples). Based on the testing conducted, output from the development process shows that the prototype can correct all 15 invalid sentences and can produce parse tree visualization for all 20 sentences.
Effect of Income Heterogeneity on Price Response During the Diffusion of Wireless Service in Multiple Markets

To model diffusion of new products in a way that is adequate to prescribe prices, we propose a modification of the standard random coefficients logit model that allows for changes in the distribution of the sample population due to differential adoption rates. Essentially, we use our structural model to endogenously derive population “weights” to update the distribution over time. The interaction of observable demographics with the parameters of the utility specification helps the model explain differences in the rate of adoption across markets and time. This, together with the fact that our approach is well suited to deal with the potential problem of price endogeneity, makes our model ideal to prescribe prices. We use quarterly data on several European countries to estimate the diffusion of mobile phone services. Since in this category churn is elevated and penetration exceeds 100%, our approach deals with both replacement purchases and multiple adoptions. We find that our model does an excellent job matching both adoption rates and prices in the data. Income, but not age, turns out to be an important demographic to explain diffusion. In addition, other explanations such as network effects and technological changes result in insignificant coefficients.
Determinants of Modern Contraceptive Use among Women of Reproductive Age in Tanzania: Evidence from Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey Data

Introduction: Tanzania is among of the African countries with high maternal and child mortality rates and fast growing population. It also has high fertility rate and a huge unmet need for family planning. Contraceptive use reported to avert more than 1 million maternal deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa due to decline in fertility rate and thus help to achieve MDG 4 and 5. Therefore, this study aimed to determine factors influencing modern contraceptive use among women aged 15 - 49 years in Tanzania. Methods: This was a secondary analysis of Tanzania Demographic Health Survey (TDHS), 2010. A total of 475 clusters (urban and rural) composed of 9663 households were selected. During the survey, a total of 10,139 women aged 15 - 49 years were interviewed about sexual and reproductive matters using a standardized questionnaire. We restricted our analysis to married/cohabiting women (n = 6412) responded for in individual records and domestic violence (n = 4471). Univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed using Stata version 11.0. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals for determinants of modern contraceptive use were estimated. A P value of 5% (2 tails) was considered statistically significant. Results: Women empowerment (OR = 1.4; 95% CI: 1.13 - 1.63), male-female age difference of less or equal to nine (OR = 1.6; 95 CI: 1.01 - 2.66), and advice given at health care facilities on family planning (OR = 1.6; 95 CI: 1.37 - 1.96) were predictors of modern contraceptive use. Woman sexual violence was not associated with modern contraceptive use. Conclusions: The predictors of modern contraceptive use in our study correspond with previous studies in low and middle income countries. Women empowerment, male-female age difference, and child desire were important predictors for modern contraceptive use. This highlights the need to promote contraceptive use among women of reproductive age.
A Comparative Analysis of Identification of Hazardous Locations in Regional Rural Road Network

The first step of the road safety management cycle is the identification of hazardous road locations. Traditionally, the identification criterion in the Czech Republic has been recorded crash frequency; however, it has tended to omit the important influence of natural variations known as regression to the mean. Using the expected number of crashes and empirical Bayes adjustment is the recommended solution. This number is calculated with the use of a crash prediction model, taking into account available explanatory factors and controlling for potentially confounding variables at the same time. The aim of this study was to compare both traditional and empirical Bayes approaches to identification of hazardous road locations. A crash prediction model for the regional rural road network was developed for the purpose of the study. The whole 2nd class road network in Czech region of South Moravia was used. The resulting expected injury crash frequency was further adjusted by the empirical Bayes estimate. The empirical Bayes estimate was used as a criterion for the ranking of hazardous road locations list. At the same time, another list was produced using the Czech traditional criterion of recorded crash frequency. Three pairs of lists were developed for three time periods (2007 – 2009, 2008 – 2010 and 2009 – 2011) and compared. The results showed that the predictions models with EB adjustment offered the results which were more stable in time compared to the traditional approach. This proves the potential suitability of empirical Bayes approach identification in the road safety management practice.