Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Style-shifting and accommodative competence in Late Middle English written correspondence: Putting Audience Design to the test of time

Abstract Style constitutes an essential component for the non-referential indexicality of speakers’ sociolinguistic behaviour in interpersonal communication. Historical Sociolinguistics applies tenets and findings of present-day research to the interpretation of linguistic material from the past, but without giving intra-speaker variation the same relevance as to inter-speaker variation. The aim of this paper is to show results obtained from the investigation of style-shifting processes in late medieval England by applying contemporary models of Audience Design to diaphasic variation from historical corpora of written correspondence. The study is carried out through the analysis of the use of the orthographic variable (TH) by male members of the Paston family from the Paston Letters corpus when addressing recipients from different social ranks. The data show both addressee and referee-based accommodation patterns in the communicative practice of medieval individuals. In addition to tracing language variation and change in speech communities, private letters may also shed light onto the motivations and mechanisms for intra-speaker variation in individuals and their stylistic choices in past societies.
Entropy and quantum states of tachyon supertube

We quantize the deformed modes of a single supertube solution with regular profile of circular cross section on the unstable non-BPS D3-branes by using the Minahan-Zwiebach tachyon action. The result is used to count the microstates in an ensemble of supertube with fixed macroscopic quantities of charges Q D0 , Q F1 and angular momentum J. We show that the entropy of the system is proportional to (Q D0 Q F1−J)1/2, which is consistent with that calculated by the DBI action. Therefore, besides the well known properties that the kink solution (and its fluctuation) of tachyon DBI action corresponds with the brane solution (and its fluctuation) of DBI action, our result establishes a property that the entropy of the tachyon supertube in tachyonic DBI action corresponds with that of the supertube in DBI action.
Islamic State Propaganda: Between Social Movement Framing and Subcultural Provocation

ABSTRACT The Islamic State (IS) has become notorious for violent, brutal actions and the presentation of these actions in social and mainstream media. Excessive violence creates a spectacle for the news media. However, IS propaganda also emphasizes its role in state building and its engagement in social and welfare work. This twofold propaganda enables the mobilization of different audiences, but it also sends conflicting messages about the organization. In this article, we study the e-magazine Dabiq, emphasizing its methods of gaining support and attempting to recruit Western participants to violent jihadism. We use theories of social movement and subculture to reveal some of the underlying tensions in IS’s communicative strategies. The analysis first identifies how IS frames its propaganda, attempting to mobilize widespread support. Then, it highlights another dimension of IS’s rhetoric: provocations, the creation of sensationalist spectacles of violence and links to excitement seeking, stardom, and popular culture. We conclude that combining general anti-Western rhetoric and religious imagery with extraordinary depictions of violence has been both a strength and flaw in the organization’s propaganda.
The Impact of Likes on the Sales of Movies in Video-on-Demand : a Randomized Experiment

Peer-rating systems have become an increasingly popular way for consumers to learn about the quality of products. However, measuring the true impact of these ratings systems on consumer behavior represents a challenging empirical problem. In this paper we attempt to measure the impact of rating systems on consumer behavior by designing and implementing a randomized field experiment to determine the role that likes play on the sales of movies in Video-on-Demand (VoD). Specifically, we used the VoD system of a large telecommunications provider during the latter half of 2012. The VoD system of this provider suggests movies to subscribers when they log in. Suggested movies are displayed on the user's TV screen under several editorial menus. Under each menu movies are shown from left to right in decreasing order of the number of likes the movie received. During our experiment, movies were primarily placed in their true slots and shown along with their true number of likes. However, sometimes some movies had their positions swapped. These movies, randomly chosen, were therefore displayed out of order and with a fake number of likes. We found that promoting a movie by one slot increased weekly sales by 4% on average. We found that the amount of information publicly available about movies affected this statistic. Better known movies were less sensitive to manipulations. We also found that a movie promoted (demoted) to a fake slot sold 15.9% less (27.7% more) than a true movie placed at that slot, on average across all manipulations we introduced. Likewise, we found that a movie promoted (demoted) to a fake slot received 33.1% fewer (30.1% more) likes than a true movie at that slot. Therefore, manipulated movies tend to move back to their true slot over time. Hence, we find that the self-fulfilling prophecies widely discussed in the literature on the effect of ratings on sales are hard to sustain in a market in which goods are costly and sufficiently well-known. This process is likely to converge quickly, which might lead the telecommunications provider to promote different movies over time.
Constructing metropolitan scales: economic, political and discursive determinants

ABSTRACT This editorial presents the reasons why the metropolitan scale is gaining momentum as a concept, as well as a process taking place in the real world, and considers its definition. The main questions and theories used in research on the metropolitan scale are introduced, followed by the research findings of the different papers in this special issue. By analysing the metropolitan scale in its economic, spatial and political dimensions, it has been possible to detect both similar and different kinds and degrees of development, and to focus on their determinants. Evidence of processes conducive to the construction of metropolitan scales in economic, spatial, political and discursive terms corresponds to rather weak and contentious policy agendas. There is no evidence of a direct correlation between the urban challenges brought about by globalization and the construction of metropolitan scales as the prevailing political solution. Where they do exist, the policies through which the metropolitan scale are constructed may have different goals and forms, depending on place-specific circumstances. If global forces play a role in the construction of urban/metropolitan spaces, this is mediated by local and national factors of an economic, political and cultural nature.
Gas breakdown in a focused beam of powerful sub-THz gyrotron

The results of experimental and theoretical investigations of gas breakdown thresholds in a focused beam of powerful sub-THz radiation are presented. The gas discharge, maintained by the powerful radiation of terahertz frequency band, is a new specific object of gas discharge physics. This paper presents the experiments with pulsed gyrotron capable of generation 250 kW power at 0.25 THz frequency. The gyrotron wave beam was focused by means of quasi-optical mirrors into the spot with diameter less than 3 mm that provided intensity into the focal spot up to 3.5 MW/cm 2 . Achieved electrical field intensity was enough for gas breakdown into the range of pressure values of 1-1500 Torr for various gases (argon, krypton, nitrogen, air). The boundary values of field intensity for discharge existence were measured. Noble gases data was compared to the analytical model of Raizer and Vyskrebentsev for monatomic gases. Introduction. The terahertz frequency range is currently the least studied from the point of view of gas discharge physics. Certain progress in the study of the discharge, sustained by the powerful radiation of the terahertz frequency range, was achieved due to the progress in the creation of powerful radiation sources in this band [1, 2]. For the first time, gas breakdown (atmospheric pressure air) in the terahertz frequency range was carried out by radiation from a submillimeter laser [3]. In this paper, it was demonstrated that for λ = 385 and 359 μm, the breakdown power density is of the order of 1 MW/cm 2 , which agrees well with the results in the infrared range (CO2 [4], Nd [5], and ruby [6] lasers) from the point of view that the breakdown intensity increases as ω 2 . This scaling was also confirmed in a recent experiments in the Budker Institute for Nuclear Research on a free-electron laser (FEL) [7, 8]. Moreover, in [8] the breakdown thresholds were measured not only in air at atmospheric pressure, but also in other gases (Ar, N2, CO2). Studies held at the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP RAS) since 2009 first of all connected with the creation of powerful THz gyrotrons [1]. In contrast to FEL [8] and submillimeter laser [3] THz gyrotrons allow one to investigate discharge phenomena in a single long pulse. 45 EPS Conference on Plasma Physics P4.4011
Interferences of visual masks with semantic and perceptual priming effects

Many studies demonstrate that visual stimuli can be processed even if they are not consciously perceived. These studies show that unconscious stimuli can be processed – amongst other things – in terms of their shape, color, and even semantic content. To prevent stimulus awareness, researchers present additional stimuli, visual masks, in close temporal and spatial proximity. Although different types of visual masks successfully reduce stimulus visibility it is not entirely clear in what way these masks interfere with information processing. Recent studies show that masks not only prevent stimulus awareness, but also reduce the extent of processing that occurs in the absence of consciousness. At the same time, priming studies that investigate the extent of processing in the absence of consciousness report that priming of low-level perceptual features is unaffected by masking, whereas priming of high-level semantic features is reduced under masking. This has often been interpreted as evidence that non-conscious processes are limited in depth. Here, we investigate an alternative explanation: Since different masks are used in semantic and perceptual studies, it is possible that the reduced effects in semantic studies are due to a confounding mask interference that is not present in perceptual studies. To clarify the role of visual masking for priming effects we examine the effects of conventional forward and backward masking techniques. To that end, we also introduce novel metacontrast masks for words. We find that different types of backward masks reduce stimulus visibility, but do not affect priming effects. Crucially, this was true for both priming of perceptual and semantic features. Forward masks, however, severely reduced perceptual priming effects. This suggests that reduced priming effects in semantic studies may be an artifact of the visual masking technique, since semantic priming studies typically involve forward masks, whereas priming studies on perceptual features often use only backward masks. When forward masks are avoided, semantic priming effects can be successfully dissociated from visibility. Our results bridge theories stating that priming effects are related to an early part of the neuronal response and neurophysiological masking studies stating that early neuronal responses are disrupted by forward masks, but not backward masks.
Ghrelin-Induced Orexigenic Effect in Rats Depends on the Metabolic Status and Is Counteracted by Peripheral CB1 Receptor Antagonism

Ghrelin is an endogenous regulator of energy homeostasis synthesized by the stomach to stimulate appetite and positive energy balance. Similarly, the endocannabinoid system is part of our internal machinery controlling food intake and energy expenditure. Both peripheral and central mechanisms regulate CB1-mediated control of food intake and a functional relationship between hypothalamic ghrelin and cannabinoid CB1 receptor has been proposed. First of all, we investigated brain ghrelin actions on food intake in rats with different metabolic status (negative or equilibrate energy balance). Secondly, we tested a sub-anxiogenic ultra-low dose of the CB1 antagonist SR141716A (Rimonabant) and the peripheral-acting CB1 antagonist LH-21 on ghrelin orexigenic actions. We found that: 1) central administration of ghrelin promotes food intake in free feeding animals but not in 24 h food-deprived or chronically food-restricted animals; 2) an ultra-low dose of SR141716A (a subthreshold dose 75 folds lower than the EC50 for induction of anxiety) completely counteracts the orexigenic actions of central ghrelin in free feeding animals; 3) the peripheral-restricted CB1 antagonist LH-21 blocks ghrelin-induced hyperphagia in free feeding animals. Our study highlights the importance of the animaĺs metabolic status for the effectiveness of ghrelin in promoting feeding, and suggests that the peripheral endocannabinoid system may interact with ghrelińs signal in the control of food intake under equilibrate energy balance conditions.
Investigating speaker features from very short speech records

A procedure is presented that is capable of accurately extracting various speaker features, and is of particular value for analyzing records containing single words and shorter durations of speech. By taking advantage of the fast convergence of adaptive filtering, the approach is capable of modeling the nonstationarities due to both the vocal tract and vocal cord dynamics. This procedure is quite simple, requires no manual intervention, and is particularly unique because it derives both the vocal tract and glottal signal estimates directly from the time-varying filter coefficients rather than the prediction error signal. Several glottal signals are derived using this procedure, and are plotted to demonstrate the kind of glottal characteristics obtained therein. Finally, in order to provide a more quantitative performance measure, the procedure is used in a simple automatic speaker identity verification application.
ASYMPTOTICS OF SPECTRAL DENSITY ESTIMATES

We consider nonparametric estimation of spectral densities of stationary processes, a fundamental problem in spectral analysis of time series. Under natural and easily verifiable conditions, we obtain consistency and asymptotic normality of spectral density estimates. Asymptotic distribution of maximum deviations of the spectral density estimates is also derived. The latter result sheds new light on the classical problem of tests of white noises.
Effect of rheumatoid arthritis on periodontitis: a historical cohort study

Purpose Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic multi-systemic disease that causes damage to the bone and connective tissues. This study was conducted in order to accurately measure the correlation between RA and periodontitis, and to obtain an unbiased estimate of the effect of RA on periodontal indices. Methods In this historical cohort study, which was conducted from February to May 2011 in Hamadan city, Iran, 53 exposed people (with RA) were compared with 53 unexposed people (without RA) in terms of clinical periodontal indices (the outcomes of interest) including 1) plaque index (PI), 2) bleeding on probing (BOP), and 3) clinical attachment loss (CAL). Results A sample of 106 volunteers were evaluated, 53 rheumatoid versus 53 non-rheumatoid subjects. There was a statistically significant correlation between RA and BOP (P<0.001) and between RA and CAL (P<0.001). However, there was no statistically significant correlation between RA and any of the periodontal indices. No correlation was seen between gender and any of the indices either. There was a strong positive correlation between age and all three periodontal indices (P<0.001). Conclusions The present study indicated a potential effect of RA on periodontal indices. However, much more evidence based on a prospective cohort study is needed to support the cause and effect relationship between RA and periodontal indices.
Fast, Cheap, and Creative: Evaluating Translation Quality Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

Manual evaluation of translation quality is generally thought to be excessively time consuming and expensive. We explore a fast and inexpensive way of doing it using Amazon's Mechanical Turk to pay small sums to a large number of non-expert annotators. For $10 we redundantly recreate judgments from a WMT08 translation task. We find that when combined non-expert judgments have a high-level of agreement with the existing gold-standard judgments of machine translation quality, and correlate more strongly with expert judgments than Bleu does. We go on to show that Mechanical Turk can be used to calculate human-mediated translation edit rate (HTER), to conduct reading comprehension experiments with machine translation, and to create high quality reference translations.
Cultivating Positive Teacher–Student Relationships: Preliminary Evaluation of the Establish–Maintain–Restore (EMR) Method

Abstract Strong teacher–student relationships have long been considered a foundational aspect of a positive school experience. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effects of the establish–maintain–restore (EMR) method for improving teacher–student relationships and students’ classroom behavior while providing elementary teachers with structured professional development and follow-up support. A matched randomized design with a sample of fourth- and fifth-grade teachers and students was used to investigate whether the EMR method produced significant improvements in teacher–student relationships and student outcomes using hierarchical linear modeling to account for nesting at the classroom level. Results indicated that the EMR method was associated with significant improvements in teacher-reported teacher–student relationships as well as improvements in observed indices of students’ classroom behavior (academic engaged time and disruptive behavior). Findings also revealed that teacher-reported changes in teacher–student relationships were significantly associated with moderate changes in student classroom behavior. The implications of this study for school-based universal prevention and directions for future research are discussed.
Self-Regulation, Engagement, and Developmental Functioning in Preschool-Aged Children

Self-regulation can be relevant for engagement, as children need to be able to modulate behaviors and control attention to be engaged. Although previous studies focus on the relation between self-regulation and engagement, little is known about this subject in children with disabilities or at risk. This study analyzes relations between self-regulation and engagement in inclusive preschool settings, considering children’s developmental functioning (DF). The main goal is to examine whether DF moderates the relation between self-regulation and engagement. Participants include three groups of children: with disabilities (n = 54), at risk (n = 78), and typically developing (n = 115). DF was assessed with a short version of the Matrix for Assessment of Activities and Participation; self-regulation with Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders; and engagement with Child Observation in Preschool. Results indicated that higher levels of self-regulation were related to higher levels of engagement. A moderation effect between self-regulation and DF was also found: in the group of children with disabilities, the influence of self-regulation on engagement was larger. This highlights the relevance of promoting self-regulation, particularly in children with lower DF.
Lessons From Healthcare Providers' Attitudes Toward Pay-for-performance: What Should Purchasers Consider in Designing and Implementing a Successful Program?

We conducted a systematic review to summarize providers' attitudes toward pay-for-performance (P4P), focusing on their general attitudes, the effects of P4P, their favorable design and implementation methods, and concerns. An electronic search was performed in PubMed and Scopus using selected keywords including P4P. Two reviewers screened target articles using titles and abstract review and then read the full version of the screened articles for the final selections. In addition, one reference of screened articles and one unpublished report were also included. Therefore, 14 articles were included in this study. Healthcare providers' attitudes on P4P were summarized in two ways. First, we gathered their general attitudes and opinions regarding the effects of P4P. Second, we rearranged their opinions regarding desirable P4P design and implementation methods, as well as their concerns. This study showed the possibility that some healthcare providers still have a low level of awareness about P4P and might prefer voluntary participation in P4P. In addition, they felt that adequate quality indicators and additional support for implementation of P4P would be needed. Most healthcare providers also had serious concerns that P4P would induce unintended consequences. In order to conduct successful implementation of P4P, purchaser should make more efforts such as increasing providers' level of awareness about P4P, providing technical and educational support, reducing their burden, developing a cooperative relationship with providers, developing more accurate quality measures, and minimizing the unintended consequences.
Computational Investigation of the Effect of Lipid Membranes on Ion Permeation in Gramicidin A

Membrane proteins are embedded in a lipid bilayer and interact with the lipid molecules in subtle ways. This can be studied experimentally by examining the effect of different lipid bilayers on the function of membrane proteins. Understanding the causes of the functional effects of lipids is difficult to dissect experimentally but more amenable to a computational approach. Here we perform molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations to study the effect of two lipid types (POPC and NODS) on the conductance of the gramicidin A (gA) channel. A larger energy barrier is found for the K+ potential of mean force in gA embedded in POPC compared to that in NODS, which is consistent with the enhanced experimental conductance of cations in gA embedded in NODS. Further analysis of the contributions to the potential energy of K+ reveals that gA and water molecules in gA make similar contributions in both bilayers but there are significant differences between the two bilayers when the lipid molecules and interfacial waters are considered. It is shown that the stronger dipole moments of the POPC head groups create a thicker layer of interfacial waters with better orientation, which ultimately is responsible for the larger energy barrier in the K+ PMF in POPC.