Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of language ideologies in the self-efficacy of preservice bilingual education teachers

ABSTRACT This article examines the language ideologies associated with the sense of self-efficacy of bilingual preservice teachers about their Spanish-language skills. Current teacher shortages in the field of bilingual education and increased professional demands placed over pre- and in-service bilingual teachers compel teacher education programs to adapt their designs to the needs of future teachers. These needs are determined, to a great extent, by the perceptions that bilinguals have over their own ability to use Spanish as a medium of instruction and to teach Spanish as a subject. Using grounded theory, the study sought to analyze how language ideologies impact the self-efficacy of bilingual preservice teachers. Results show that ideologies connected to the hegemonic position of English in society had a strong effect on the sense of self-efficacy of the preservice teachers about the Spanish language. Consequently, teacher education programs preparing bilingual educators need to oppose and counteract ideologies affirming the hegemony of the English language, proposing instead perspectives favorable to linguistic pluralism.
Time dependent dispersivity behavior of non-reactive solutes in a system of parallel fractures

Abstract. In order to obtain meaningful predictions of contaminant transport, an accurate way of quantifying dispersivity needs to be developed. Results from the theoretical studies suggest that dispersion and the associated dispersivity is non-fickian near the source of contaminant and it grows with travel time and distance. In most tests of a limited duration it is quite probable that the asymptotic regime is not reached, and a proper interpretation of the test should be based on the time-dependent results due to the difficulty associated with the expensive experimental setups added to the marked scarcity of field data. An attempt has been made using spatial moment analysis to evaluate the time dependent dispersivity for a system of parallel fractures with matrix diffusion. The study is limited to non-reactive solutes, having a constant continuous source. An empirical relation to evaluate the dispersivity was developed by us based on the sensitivity analysis, when distinct parallel fractures have constant aperture width and is found to be functions of matrix porosity, matrix diffusion coefficient and injected fracture velocity at pre-asymptotic stage. The system becomes more complex when the aperture widths of the distinct parallel fractures are varied, as it appears that the initial development period of non-fickian behavior may be long due to the continuous lateral mixing of the solute body. It is found that dispersivity at pre-asymptotic regime increases with the coefficient of variation for distinct parallel fractures with varying aperture widths.
Phonon-roton modes in liquid 4He coincide with Bose-Einstein condensation

We present neutron scattering measurements of the phonon-roton (P-R) and layer modes of liquid 4He confined in MCM-41 under pressure up to 38 bar. The data shows unambiguously that the P-R mode exists at low temperature only. As temperature is increased, there is a gradual transfer of intensity from the P-R mode to the normal liquid response, which lies at a lower energy at higher pressure. The transfer takes place with no observable mode broadening. The loss of P-R modes is identified with the loss of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). The mode giving rise to the specific heat, cV, of liquid 4He in porous media (e.g., gelsil) at higher temperature is the layer mode since the energy of the mode extracted from cV and the layer mode energy are the same.
Recommendation as a Multi-Criteria Decision Making Problem

This chapter aims to provide an overview of the class of multi -cri eria recommender systems. First, it defines the recommendation p roblem as a multicriteria decision making (MCDM) problem, and reviews MCDM m ethods and techniques that can support the implementation of multi-criter ia recommenders. Then, it focuses on the category of multi-criteria rating recommenders – techniques that provide recommendations by modelling a user’s utility for a n item as a vector of ratings along several criteria. A review of current algorit hms that use multi-criteria ratings for calculating predictions and generating recomm endations is provided. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion on open issue s and future challenges for the class of multi-criteria rating recommenders.
The Economic Cost of Airline Flight Delay

Flight delay has become widespread in the United States with nearly one-quarter of all flights delayed by more than 15 minutes in 2007. This paper determines the economic costs of delayed flights, including the direct effects of increased airline cost and the indirect effects of lost labour productivity for business travellers, an opportunity cost of time for leisure travellers, and changes in consumer spending on travel and tourism goods and services. US net welfare would increase by d17.6 billion for a 10 per cent reduction in flight delay and by d38.5 billion for a 30 per cent reduction. © 2013 LSE and the University of Bath
Bayesian EM-based demodulators for frequency-selective fading channels

In this paper, the problem of adaptive MAP symbol detection in the uncoded transmission as well as the problem of adaptive APP demodulation in the coded transmission of data symbols over the frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel are explored within the framework of the Bayesian expectation-maximization (BEM) algorithm. In particular, two novel versions of the BEM-based detection and demodulation algorithms are derived. In contrast to the earlier developments of BEM algorithms, the formulations derived in this paper lead to the computationally efficient algorithms which avoid the matrix inversions while using sequential processing over the time and trellis branch indexes. In addition, it is shown how the recursive versions of the BEM algorithms can be combined with the well-known forward-backward processing soft-input soft-output (SISO) algorithms resulting in adaptive SISOs with soft decision directed (SDD) channel estimators. An application of the proposed algorithms to the iterative "turbo-processing" receivers illustrates how these SDD channel estimators can efficiently exploit the extrinsic information obtained from the SISO decoder in order to enhance their estimation accuracy.
A Review of Peer-to-Peer Botnet Detection Techniques

In recent years, Peer-to-Peer technology has an ext ensive use. Botnets have exploited this technology efficiently and introduced the P2P botnet, which us es P2P network for remote control of its bots and become one of the most significant threats to compu ter networks. They are used to make DDOS attacks, generate spam, click fraud and steal sensitive info rmation. Compared with traditional botnets, P2P bot nets are harder to be defended and hijacked. In this stu dy we discuss various P2P botnet detection approaches and evaluate their effectiveness. We identify the advantages and shortcomings of each of the discussed techniques. This can guide the researchers to a bet ter understanding of P2P botnets and easier for the m developing more sufficient detection techniques. Ou r evaluation shows that each technique has its own advantages and limitations. Two or more detection t echniques might be used together, in order to have a robust P2P botent detection.
Cumulative sessions of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) build up facilitation to subsequent TMS‐mediated behavioural disruptions

A single session of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can induce behavioural effects that outlast the duration of the stimulation train itself (off‐line effects). Series of rTMS sessions on consecutive days are being used for therapeutic applications in a variety of disorders and are assumed to lead to the build‐up of cumulative effects. However, no studies have carefully assessed this notion. In the present study we applied 30 daily sessions of 1 Hz rTMS (continuous train of 20 min) to repeatedly modulate activity in the posterior parietal cortex and associated neural systems in two intact cats. We assessed the effect on visuospatial orientation before and after each stimulation session. Cumulative sessions of rTMS progressively induced visuospatial neglect‐like ‘after‐effects’ of greater magnitude (from 5–10% to 40–50% error levels) and increasing spatial extent (from 90–75° to 45–30° eccentricity locations), affecting the visual hemifield contralateral to the stimulated hemisphere. Nonetheless, 60 min after each TMS session, visual detection–localization abilities repeatedly returned to baseline levels. Furthermore, no lasting behavioural effect could be demonstrated at any time across the study, when subjects were tested 1 or 24 h post‐rTMS. We conclude that the past history of periodically cumulative rTMS sessions builds up a lasting ‘memory’, resulting in increased facilitation to subsequent TMS‐induced disruptions. Such a phenomenon allows a behavioural effect of progressively higher magnitude, but equal duration, in response to individual TMS interventions.
Seeking Polymeric Prodrugs of Norfloxacin. Part 2. Synthesis and Structural Analysis of Polyurethane Conjugates

Oligo(ε-caprolactone) and oligolactide were synthesized via ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters in the presence of creatinine as initiators. Thus obtained oligomers were successfully used in the synthesis of novel polyurethane conjugates of norfloxacin. The structures of the polymers and conjugates were elucidated by means of MALDI-TOF MS, NMR and IR studies.
Circulating Plasma Micro RNAs in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder Treated with Antidepressants: A Pilot Study

Objective Significant progress was made in the understanding etiopathogenic factors related to MDD, including through research on the role of micro RNAs (miRs). We investigated plasma miRs as potential markers for MDD in patients treated with antidepressants. Methods At the initiation and at the end of twelve weeks of treatment, blood samples were collected and a structured diagnostic interview and a standardized depression rating scale for the presence and severity of major depression were done. The average decrease in HAMD score was 76.89%. Plasma miR expression profiling was performed by real time PCR. The lists of up-regulated (cut-off=2) and down-regulated miRs were imported into the miRWalk2.0 algorithm and used for target predictions. KEGG database pathways analysis was used to retrieve the pathways significantly targeted by at least two of the miRs. Results Of the 222 miRs detected in plasma samples of MDD patients, 40 were differentially expressed after treatment. Twenty-three miRs were significantly overexpressed with fold changes between 1.85 and 25.42, and 17 miRs were significantly downregulated with fold changes from 0.28 to 0.68. Pathway analysis revealed a list of 29 pathways for up-regulated miRs, and 20 pathways for down-regulated miRs. Six dysregulated miRs are common to all the top five pathways (Wnt signaling, Cancer, Endocytosis, Axon guidance, MAPK signaling): miR-146a-5p, miR-146b-5p, miR-221-3p, miR-24-3p, miR-26a-5p. Conclusion Overall, our miRWalk analysis of changes in plasma microRNAs after treatment of patients with major depression might open a new avenue for the understanding of Escitalopram mode of action and for its side effects.
IR singularities in noncommutative perturbative dynamics

We analyse the IR singularities that appear in a noncommutative scalar quantum field theory. We demonstrate, with the help of the effective action and an appropriate field redefinition, that no IR singularities appear in the quadratic part at one-loop order. No new degrees of freedom are needed to describe the UV/IR mixing.
Biomechanics and neuropathology of adult and paediatric head injury

The objective of this study was to understand the biomechanics in age-related primary traumatic brain injuries (TBI) causing initial severity and secondary progressive damage and to develop strategy reducing TBI outcome variability using biomechanical reconstruction to identify types of causal mechanisms prior to clinical trials of neuro-protective treatment. The methods included the explanation of TBI biomechanics and physiopathological mechanisms from dual perspectives of neurosurgery and biomechanical engineering. Scaling of tolerances for skull failure and brain injuries in infants, children and adults are developed. Diagnostic assumptions without biomechanical considerations are critiqued. Methods for retrospective TBI reconstruction for prevention are summarized. Mechanisms of TBI are based on the differences between the mechanical properties of the head and neck related to age. Skull fracture levels correlate with increasing cranial bone thickness and in the development of the cranial sutures in infants and in adults. Head injury tolerance levels at three age categories for cerebral concussion, skull fracture and three grades of diffuse axonal injuries (DAI) are presented. Brain mass correlates inversely for TBI caused by angular head motions and locations of injurious stresses are predictable by centripetal theory. Improved quantitative diagnosis of TBI type and severity levels depend primarily on age and biomechanical mechanisms. Reconstruction of the biomechanics is feasible and enables quantitative stratification of TBI severity. Experimental treatment has succeeded in preventing progressive damage in animal TBI models. In humans this has failed, because the animal model received biomechanically controlled TBI and humans did not. Clinical similarities of human TBI patients do not necessarily predict equivalent biomechanics because such trauma can be produced in various ways. We recommend 'reverse engineering' for in-depth reconstruction of the TBI injury mechanism for qualitative diagnoses and reduction of outcome variability.
Establishment, competition and the distribution of native grasses among Michigan old‐fields

1 In this study the potential role of competition in influencing the distribution of three displaced native perennial grasses across complex gradients of plant productivity and species composition was investigated in Michigan old‐fields. To do this plant removal and propagule addition experiments were conducted at nine old‐field sites to examine the effects of living plant neighbours and litter on seedling establishment and growth of target species in relation to community biomass.
Visualizing Georeferenced Data: Representing Reliability of Health Statistics

The power of human vision to synthesize information and recognize pattern is fundamental to the success of visualization as a scientific method. This same power can mislead investigators who use visualization to explore georeferenced data—if data reliability is not addressed directly in the visualization process. Here, we apply an integrated cognitive-semiotic approach to devise and test three methods for depicting reliability of georeferenced health data. The first method makes use of adjacent maps, one for data and one for reliability. This form of paired representation is compared to two methods in which data and reliability are spatially coincident (on a single map). A novel method for coincident visually separable depiction of data and data reliability on mortality maps (using a color fill to represent data and a texture overlay to represent reliability) is found to be effective in allowing map users to recognize unreliable data without interfering with their ability to notice clusters and characterize patterns in mortality rates. A coincident visually integral depiction (using color characteristics to represent both data and reliability) is found to inhibit perception of clusters that contain some enumeration units with unreliable data, and to make it difficult for users to consider data and reliability independently.
Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns : 1961-1995 Demographic Programs Household Economic Studies

Over half of American women with a child less than 1 year of age are currently in the labor force. For many women, a child’s birth signals numerous changes in the daily schedule at work and at home that both the family and employer must confront and resolve. This report examines trends in maternity leave and employment patterns of women who gave birth to their first child between January 1961 and December 1995.
Dynamic Jump Risk and Portfolio Allocation

This paper presents a multivariate jump-diffusion model with positive and negative jumps in which volatilities and jump intensities are time-varying to study the effect of jump risk on a risk-averse investor’s optimum portfolio allocation. Motivated by the large returns – in both directions – across diverse financial markets during the current crisis, jump risk is modelled as systemic, i.e. all assets in the portfolio jump at the same time, and it distinguishes positive from negative jumps. Since jump risk tends to be clustered, the jump intensity is time-varying. Empirically, jump risk is shown to substantially alter the optimum portfolio allocation. Particularly, the distinction of jump directions as well as the introduction of stochastic volatility turn out to be important. The dynamics in the jump intensity, however, seem to introduce noise and, hence, turn out to be insignificant.
Study of Sensory, Pain Thresholds and Pain Tolerance in Persons with Visual Impairment

Aim and Introduction: It is often assumed that persons with visual impairment have a better sensory perception this ability helps them to perceive the environment better. To objectively study this assumption we carried out a study on sensory, pain thresholds and pain tolerance in persons with visual impairment. Materials and Methods: An electrodiagnostic stimulator was used to assess the sensory threshold, pain threshold and pain tolerance using a standard procedure. Result: The sensory and pain threshold, and the pain tolerance in persons with visual impairment was found 3.66 + 4, 8.35+ 4.14 , 13.19+4.93 respectively as compared to 9.96 + 2.7, 13.13+ 2.62, 15.41+ 2.88, respectively in subjects with normal vision . On statistical analysis these results were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusions: The sensory and pain threshold and the pain tolerance in persons with visual impairment were found to be lower in persons with visual impairment.
Consciousness of subjective time in the brain

“Mental time travel” refers to conscious experience of remembering the personal past and imagining the personal future. Little is known about its neural correlates. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we explored the hypothesis that mental time travel into “nonpresent” times (past and future) is enabled by a special conscious state (chronesthesia). Well-trained subjects repeatedly imagined taking one and the same short walk in a familiar environment, doing so either in the imagined past, present, or future. In an additional condition, they recollected an instance in which they actually performed the same short walk in the same familiar setting. This design allowed us to measure brain activity correlated with “pure” conscious states of different moments of subjective time. The results showed that the left lateral parietal cortex was differentially activated by nonpresent subjective times compared with the present (past and future > present). A similar pattern was observed in the left frontal cortex, cerebellum, and thalamus. There was no evidence that the hippocampal region is involved in subjective time travel. These findings provide support for theoretical ideas concerning chronesthesia and mental time travel.
Tuning the tinnitus percept by modification of synchronous brain activity.

PURPOSE Tinnitus, the perception of sound without the presence of a physical stimulus, provides the opportunity to study neural codes of percepts without simultaneous processing of stimuli. Previously, we have found that tinnitus is associated with enhanced delta- and reduced tau-power in temporal brain regions. By operantly modifying corresponding aspects of spontaneous EEG activity, the aim of the present study was to corroborate the assumption that tinnitus should be reduced if patterns of ongoing synchronous brain activity are normalised. METHODS In response to different variants of neurofeedback, a total of twenty-one patients produced significant changes in EEG frequency bands. RESULTS Simultaneous alteration of both frequency bands was strongly related to changes in tinnitus intensity matched before and after the intervention (r=-0.74). In those two patients with the greatest modulatory success, the tinnitus sensation resided completely in response to the treatment. Comparing the neurofeedback-treated patients with a group of patients trained with a frequency discrimination task (n=27), the tinnitus relief in the neurofeedback group was significantly stronger. CONCLUSIONS This study supports the notion that altered patterns of intrinsic ongoing brain activity lead to phantom percepts and offer new routes to the treatment of tinnitus.
Genetic contributions to agricultural sustainability

The current tools of enquiry into the structure and operation of the plant genome have provided us with an understanding of plant development and function far beyond the state of knowledge that we had previously. We know about key genetic controls repressing or stimulating the cascades of gene expression that move a plant through stages in its life cycle, facilitating the morphogenesis of vegetative and reproductive tissues and organs. The new technologies are enabling the identification of key gene activity responses to the range of biotic and abiotic challenges experienced by plants. In the past, plant breeders produced new varieties with changes in the phases of development, modifications of plant architecture and improved levels of tolerance and resistance to environmental and biotic challenges by identifying the required phenotypes in a few plants among the large numbers of plants in a breeding population. Now our increased knowledge and powerful gene sequence-based diagnostics provide plant breeders with more precise selection objectives and assays to operate in rationally planned crop improvement programmes. We can expect yield potential to increase and harvested product quality portfolios to better fit an increasing diversity of market requirements. The new genetics will connect agriculture to sectors beyond the food, feed and fibre industries; agri-business will contribute to public health and will provide high-value products to the pharmaceutical industry as well as to industries previously based on petroleum feedstocks and chemical modification processes.
Pair correlation of four-dimensional flat tori

1. Introduction. Berry and Tabor conjecture in [1] that the distribution of local spacings between the eigenvalues of the quantization of the Hamiltonian for generic completely integrable systems follows the distribution of local spacings between random numbers. (This is often called the " Poissonian " distribution.) In [5], Sarnak shows that the pair correlations of eigenvalues on almost all two-dimensional flat tori have this behavior. The key is that for two-dimensional flat tori, the Berry-Tabor conjecture reduces to a statement about the values at integers of homogeneous two-variable quadratic forms (see also [2] for another approach to the spacing of these forms). In [6] the author extends Sarnak's results to almost all nth-degree forms in n variables in a measure-theoretic sense. In this paper we consider a set of measure zero (and thus not covered by [6]) among all four-variable homogeneous quartic forms: those that are the squares of four-variable homogeneous quadratics. These correspond to the eigenvalues of four-dimensional flat tori (and thus the Berry-Tabor conjecture) in a manner that we now explain. Consider a positive-definite homogeneous polynomial P (x 1 ,. . , x 4) of degree 4. We are interested in the values taken by P at integers, a discrete set that can be ordered