Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ learning style preference and their gender, proficiency level and achievement score

Abstract The present study intended to determine the learning style preference (LSP) of Iranian non-academic EFL students and examined if there was any relationship between their LSP and the three variables of gender, English proficiency level and final achievement scores. To this end, the Kolb Learning Style Inventory version 3.1, Oxford Placement Test 2 and a final achievement test were administered to 327 Iranian students in English language institutes. As for participants’ LSP, descriptive statistics showed that 39% of the participants were characterized as Assimilators and 40% Divergers. Besides, results of the computed Pearson Contingency Coefficient and Cramer’s V indicated that there was a low association between participants’ learning style preference (LSP) and their gender, proficiency level and achievement scores. The results of the study, therefore, supported the need for further exploration of the teaching and learning situation and related factors to identify how best to take account of students’ learning styles and what factors may have a stronger association with learners’ LSP.
A Model to Seize the Instantaneous Performance of P2P Streaming Platforms: Simulative and Experimental Validation

In recent years P2P technology has gained great popularity not only in file sharing applications but also in the field of video distribution. This work proposes a simple model to assess the performance a P2P system designed for video streaming can achieve, measured in terms of average video delivery rate. The model allows to compute system efficiency in a simple but accurate way through the partition of peers in two distinct populations: bad peers, that are not collaborative, and good peers, that contribute to share their video contents with others. As a meaningful example, it is employed to investigate the behavior of a real P2P prototype subject to high peer dynamics: its effectiveness is proved via experimental results, and sheds a new light on the way a streaming service overlay can be centrally and timely monitored.
Risk factors for DSM-III-R posttraumatic stress disorder: findings from the National Comorbidity Survey.

The present study examined the association of childhood risk factors with exposure to traumas and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a unique symptom configuration after exposure to an unusual, extreme event. Data come from the US National Comorbidity Study of 5,877 respondents aged 15-54 years conducted between September 1990 and February 1992. The risk factors examined were preexposure affective, anxiety, and substance use disorders; parental mental and substance use disorders; parental aggression toward the respondent and toward the other parent; and a nonconfiding relationship with the mother during childhood. Analyses were stratified by gender and adjusted for demographic variables and traumatic experiences prior to the index trauma. The occurrence of trauma was associated with many risk factors in women but few in men. Similarly, more risk factors predicted PTSD in women than in men. Overall, when respondents were grouped into broad trauma categories, an increase in the number of risk factors was associated with higher rates of PTSD. However, in analyses of the trauma subsample that adjusted for individual type of trauma (e.g., rape, physical attack), only one risk factor (history of affective disorder) predicted PTSD in women, and two (history of anxiety disorder and parental mental disorder) predicted PTSD in men. The results thus indicate that although these risk factors have an important association with PTSD, they operate largely by predicting trauma exposure rather than by predicting the onset of disorder after exposure.
Young learners: teachers' conceptualisation and practice of literacy in Australian preschool contexts

Abstract This paper examines how literacy is defined and enacted by teachers in early childhood programmes pointing to the differing ways views of early literacy impact practice. It is argued here that early literacy development during the years before school is dependent on children's experiences of having literacy activities modelled around them and the ways in which adults include them in their everyday literacy interactions. Early childhood teachers reveal differing understandings of early literacy during the years before formal school and this impacts their decisions concerning literacy activities and practice within their preschool rooms. Three early childhood teachers are presented here, through video clips and video-stimulated interviews around their literacy activities with preschool children. They demonstrate a range of practice which is shown to depend on their views of young children's literacy development. These vignettes have implications for further professional discussion and learning.
Optimal Ridge Detection using Coverage Risk

We introduce the concept of coverage risk as an error measure for density ridge estimation. The coverage risk generalizes the mean integrated square error to set estimation. We propose two risk estimators for the coverage risk and we show that we can select tuning parameters by minimizing the estimated risk. We study the rate of convergence for coverage risk and prove consistency of the risk estimators. We apply our method to three simulated datasets and to cosmology data. In all the examples, the proposed method successfully recover the underlying density structure.
Comparative germination of Tamarix ramosissima spring and summer seeds

Tamarix ramosissima has bi-seasonal flowering and fruit-setting characteristics. This study compared the morphology and germination characteristics of seeds from Tamarix ramosissima plants during the spring flowering period and the summer flowering period. The results are as follows: there is no significant difference in morphology, such as size and thousand-seed weight, between seeds from different the spring and summer flowering periods. Freshly harvested spring and summer flowering period seeds can both rapidly germinate under the 5/15 °C, 5/25 °C, 15/25 °C or 25/35 °C thermoperiods. Average germination time of the spring flowering period seeds is shorter than that of the summer flowering period seeds, with a TG50 of 2-18 hours (TG50 = the time when germinate percentage reached 50 %). NaCl solutions at concentrations below 0.2 mol/L have no significant effect on the germination of Tamarix ramosissima seeds from either flowering periods. However, at above 0.4 mol/L, higher NaCl concentrations adversely affect the Tamarix ramosissima seeds' germination rates. Seeds from the summer flowering period have higher tolerance of NaCl solutions than seeds from the spring flowering period. Seeds that were incubated in NaCl solution for 8 days cannot recover after being transferred to distilled water (0 % recovery), indicating that NaCl treated seeds permanently lost their germination capability. After storing in room temperature for 2 months, Tamarix ramosissima seeds from both spring and summer flowering periods maintain above 80 % viability. After 2 months, the seed viabilities decrease as the storage time lengthens. The viabilities of seeds from both spring and summer flowering periods decrease to about 40-50 % after storage for 6 months. This study can provide scientific basis for rational utilization of the biological resources in arid desert ecosystems.
Forgetting in spatial memories acquired in a virtual environment

This study examined forgetting in spatial memories acquired in a virtual environment. In the two experiments, participants learned the locations of eight objects. In Experiment 1, the objects were presented as photographs in either a laboratory or in an equivalent virtual environment. Irrespective of learning condition, accuracy of recall of the locations was found to deteriorate after a retention interval of approximately 1 week. In Experiment 2, following virtual learning, three groups of participants performed a series of non-spatial tasks of low, intermediate or high difficulty. The tasks were presented in a retention interval of 2 hours. A comparison of recall accuracy before and after presentation of the interference tasks indicated that that the groups were not differentially affected by the difficulty of the retroactive interference tasks. However, the groups differed in their subjective assessment of the mental workload involved in the tasks. The results are discussed with reference to a prominent theory of forgetting. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A cross‐cultural study of pre‐adolescents’ moral, religious and spiritual questions

This study investigated differences across four countries in the amount and nature of above‐average ability and average‐ability pre‐adolescents’ everyday life, scientific, moral, spiritual and religious questions. The participants (N = 975) of this study were fifth‐and sixth‐grade elementary school students from different schools in Finland (N = 367), the USA (N = 164), Hong Kong (N = 169) and Bahrain (N = 275). Approximately half of the students in each country came from special programmes or schools serving above‐average‐ability students. The results showed that above‐average‐ability students from each participating country asked more scientific and moral questions than their average‐ability peers. This finding was not found to be gender‐related. Furthermore, in each country the average‐ability students asked more everyday life questions than their gifted peers. The Christian influence in the Finnish and US data, and Muslim influence in the Bahrain data were seen in the spiritual and religious questions asked by pre‐adolescents. Additionally, in all the data sets girls asked more spiritual and religious questions than boys. The results point to the need for teachers to discuss moral, religious and spiritual questions influencing pre‐adolescents’ futures.
Schistosoma mansoni: the presence and ultrastructure of vitelline cells in adult males

ABSTRACT The presence of vitelline cells in male Schistosoma mansoni from both mixed and single sex infections in mice is described. Ultrastructurally these vitelline cells resemble the mature, Stage 4 cells from normal female worms. As yet no developing vitelline cells (Stages 1 to 3) have been found. The cells do not appear to form complete lobules as in the female.
Bounded Rationality, Emotions and Older Adult Decision Making: Not So Fast and Yet So Frugal

Herbert Simon’s work on bounded rationality has had little impact on researchers studying older adults’ decision making. This omission is surprising, as human constraints on computation and memory are exacerbated in older adults. The study of older adults’ decision-making processes could benefit from employing a bounded rationality perspective, but any such attempt must take into account the role that emotions play in older adults’ information processing, memory, and attention allocation. This is especially the case because older adults show relatively less decrements in performance when tasks are imbedded in or laden with emotional stimuli, and they exhibit a greater tendency to rely on emotional information. We examine recent work on bounded rationality and studies investigating older adults’ utilization of, and attention to, emotional information, with the aim of creating a framework that captures the mechanisms underlying older adults’ decision making.
Disabled Discourse: Hearing accounts of deafness constructed through Japanese television and film

Representations of deafness in the Japanese media are incorporated into the dominant discourse of disability. Deafness is accorded the terminology, institutionalised television slots and conventional narratives of disability. Special virtues and talents are assumed, including heroic perseverance through obstacles. Deaf characters are conceived in isolation, through a tragic loss of communication that brings abandonment and loneliness. This entrapment in a domain that embodies the gendered virtues and cultural values of silence is a hearing construction. Perceived losses and gains in communication and understanding are used as dramatic devices for characterisation, commentary and crisis. With regard to the availability of alternative accounts and interpretations, however, deaf people should not be presumed to be victims of as well as in the dramas.
Metacognitive Strategy Training for ESL Reading

Recent research in second language reading has focused on metacognition, literally, cognition of cognition. These studies investigate metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and the relationships among perception of strategies, strategy use, and reading comprehension. Strategy research suggests that less competent learners may improve their skills through training in strategies evidenced by more successful learners. Relatively little research on metacognitive strategy training has been done in a second language context or, more specifically, in second language reading. This article reports a study of metacognitive strategy training for reading in ESL. Strategy training was provided to experimental groups. Control groups received no strategy training, but participated in pre-and posttesting. Several research questions are addressed: “Does metacognitive strategy training enhance L2 reading? ” If so, “Does one type of strategy training facilitate L2 reading better than another? ” “How is the effectiveness of metacognitive strategy training related to the learning styles of the students? ” Results show that metacognitive strategy training is effective in enhancing second language reading, and that the effectiveness of one type of training versus another may depend upon the way reading is measured. Further, our results show that the effectiveness of the training is related to differences in the learning styles of the students.
Altered vastii recruitment when people with patellofemoral pain syndrome complete a postural task.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the recruitment of the vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) and vastus lateralis during voluntary tasks that challenge the stability of the knee and to evaluate whether there is a change in the coordination of the postural response by the central nervous system in subjects with patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS). DESIGN Cross-sectional. SETTING University laboratory in Australia. PARTICIPANTS Thirty-seven subjects with PFPS and 37 asymptomatic sex-matched controls. INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Recordings of electromyographic activity of the VMO, vastus lateralis, tibialis anterior, and soleus were made by using surface electrodes. Subjects rose onto their toes (rise task) or rocked back on their heels (rock task) in a visual choice-reaction time task. Electromyographic onsets were determined by using a computer algorithm and were verified visually. RESULTS Our results confirm that, in asymptomatic subjects, contraction of the VMO and vastus lateralis occurs as part of the feed-forward postural response associated with ankle movements in standing, and the contraction of these separate heads of the quadriceps group occurs simultaneously. However, when subjects with PFPS perform identical tasks, the electromyographic onset of the vastus lateralis occurs before that of the VMO. CONCLUSION These findings indicate a difference in motor control in subjects with PFPS. They also support the hypothesized relation between changes in the timing of activity of the vastii and PFPS and provide the theoretic rationale to support physiotherapy treatment commonly used in the management of PFPS.
Knowledge of connectors as cohesion devices in text: a comparative study of native-english and english-as-a-second-language speakers

Abstract : Knowledge of connectors as linguistic devices for establishing intersentential coherence was examined in three experiments. Native English and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) speakers completed a rational close task in which they chose among instances of four types of connectors: additives, causal, adversative, and sequential responses. Verbal explanations of the correct responses indicated that both native English and ESL students were aware of prescriptive usage rules and the differences in function and meaning among the four types of connectors. Analyses of the incorrect responses indicated a general tendency to overuse causal, and to a lesser extent, additive connectors. Verbal response justifications for incorrect answers indicated that the majority of errors were due either to inaccurate processing of the test or to an inability to choose the connector that fit an inappropriately inferred relation. The results are discussed in terms of the processing demands of the various types of connectors and the influence of everyday usage of casual and additive connectors on how individuals use and understand such terms. Implications for improving the design of content domain texts are provided and instructional strategies for use with ESL students are suggested.
Identification of Fibrous Cap Rupture With Magnetic Resonance Imaging Is Highly Associated With Recent Transient Ischemic Attack or Stroke

Background—High-resolution MRI has been shown to be capable of distinguishing intact, thick fibrous caps from thin and ruptured caps in human carotid atherosclerosis in vivo. The aim of this study was to determine whether MRI identification of fibrous cap thinning or rupture is associated with a history of recent transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke. Methods and Results—Fifty-three consecutive patients (mean age, 71 years; 49 male) scheduled for carotid endarterectomy were recruited after obtaining informed consent. Twenty-eight subjects had a recent history of TIA or stroke on the side appropriate to the index carotid lesion, and 25 were asymptomatic. Preoperative carotid MRI was performed in a 1.5-T GE Signa scanner that generated T1-, PD-, and T2-weighted and three-dimensional time-of-flight images. Using previously reported MRI criteria, the fibrous cap was categorized as intact-thick, intact-thin, or ruptured for each carotid plaque by blinded review. There was a strong and statistically significant trend showing a higher percentage of symptomatic patients for ruptured caps (70%) compared with thick caps (9%) (P =0.001 Mann-Whitney test for cap status versus symptoms). Compared with patients with thick fibrous caps, patients with ruptured caps were 23 times more likely to have had a recent TIA or stroke (95% CI=3, 210). Conclusions—MRI identification of a ruptured fibrous cap is highly associated with a recent history of TIA or stroke. Ongoing prospective studies will determine the predictive value fibrous cap characteristics, as visualized by MRI, for risk of subsequent ischemic events.
PPW Noise Mitigation in Multilayer PCBs by Means of Virtual Island And/or Array of Shorting Vias

This paper describes the parallel-plate waveguide (PPW) noise mitigation by means of shorting vias and/or Virtual Island. The proposed method is already know in literature, nevertheless important considerations are here addressed: 1) the same noise mitigation level proposed in [S. Nam et. al., IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory and Technique (2005)] can be achieved by using only shorting vias, 2) the noise mitigation is strictly related to the number of shorting vias, the position and the distance from the signal via, 3) -60 dB noise suppression is obtained when array of shorting vias is used. The mitigation level is investigated both in time domain and frequency domain. Different configurations are studied and the impact of power plane with etched slots due to Virtual Islands on the signal integrity is also analyzed by evaluating TDR and insertion loss of a single-ended microstripline passing from top to bottom layer by means of a through via.
Zur Typologie der Dialekte in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz: Ein dialektometrischer Versuch

Die Arbeit an einer Karte zur sprachräumlichen Gliederung des Alemannischen brachte Zweifel am "Forschungskanon" zutage, der dieser Karte in einigen Teilen zugrunde gelegt werden mußte (vgl. Abb. 1; Bassler und Steger 1997: 505). Der vorliegende Artikel will daran anschließen und kurz den Forschungsstand zur typologischen Gliederung der Gesamtalemannia, also des Westoberdeutschen darstellen, ferner will er die sich abzeichnende Neuorientierung der Gliederungsschemata für das Südalemannische auf der Basis der Daten des Sprachatlasses der deutschen Schweiz wiedergeben. Schließlich soll mit Hilfe dialektometrischer Methoden der Versuch einer globalen Gliederung des Südalemannischen in der Schweiz vorgelegt werden.
A Comparison of Résumé Content Preferences of Fortune 500 Personnel Administrators and Business Communication Instructors

This study compares the résumé content preferences of Fortune 500 personnel ad ministrators and business communication instructors. There is also a comparison of the current personnel administrators' résumé content preferences to earlier research findings. Business communication instructor résumé content preference rankings were very similar to the current Fortune 500 personnel administrator rankings. There was agree ment on the relative importance of 60 of the 70 potential résumé content items. Statisti cally significant differences in rankings were found on 10 of the 70 items. For example, personnel administrators ranked job objective, grade point average, and reasons for leaving jobs significantly higher in importance than did the business communication instructors. The findings show a shifting in personnel administrators'preferences. They now want less personal information and more evidences of achievement and accomplish ments in college and on the job.
Heterogeneity of Synaptic Plasticity at Unitary CA3–CA1 and CA3–CA3 Connections in Rat Hippocampal Slice Cultures

Long-term potentiation (LTP) of unitary EPSPs, generated by pairs of monosynaptically connected CA3 and CA1 pyramidal cells, was compared with LTP of extracellularly evoked, multi-unitary EPSPs in rat hippocampal slice cultures. LTP was induced by repeated, synchronous pairing of low-frequency presynaptic and postsynaptic activity. Three differences were observed. First, LTP of multi-unitary EPSPs displayed two phases: transient (<5 min) and sustained. Potentiation of unitary EPSPs displayed both phases in 42% of experiments; the remainder showed sustained potentiation only. Unitary EPSPs displaying transient-sustained and only sustained potentiation could be recorded from single postsynaptic cells, indicating that excitatory synapses on a given cell are heterogeneous with respect to short-term plasticity. Second, whereas LTP of multi-unitary EPSPs never resulted in greater than twofold increases in amplitude (mean potentiation of 175% of control), maximal LTP of unitary EPSPs was as great as 13-fold (mean potentiation of 250%). Third, LTP could not be induced in 24% of unitary EPSPs. We provide here the first evidence for the coexistence of potentiatable and nonpotentiatable synapses on individual postsynaptic neurons. Thirty-seven percent of connections not displaying LTP exhibited long-term depression (LTD), suggesting that the connections were already maximally potentiated. In the remaining 63% of these pairs, neither LTP nor LTD could be induced, despite the existence of a pharmacologically identified, NMDA receptor-mediated EPSP component. In conclusion, there is considerable heterogeneity in the amplitude and time course of LTP expression at different synaptic connections. A substantial proportion of apparently nonplastic synapses probably accounts for the weaker potentiation displayed by compound EPSPs.