Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning Pragmatics through Computer-Mediated Communication in Taiwan

This study investigated the effectiveness of explicit pragmatic instruction on the acquisition of requests by college-level English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Taiwan. The goal was to determine first whether the use of explicit pragmatic instruction had a positive effect on EFL learners’ pragmatic competence. Second, the relative effectiveness of presenting pragmatics through two delivery systems—face-to-face, in-class activities and computer-mediated communication (CMC) via e-mail and WebCT—wascompared. One hundred and eighteen Taiwanese undergraduate students completed the entire study. There were 40 students in the control group, 36 students in the experimental/Teacher Instruction group and 42 students in the experimental/CMC group. The results showed that explicit pragmatic instruction had a positive impact on the EFL learners in both the Teacher Instruction and CMC groups. Learners who received explicit pragmatic instruction performed better on the Discourse Completion Task posttest than those who did not. The findings also indicated that technology can be a valuable tool for delivering pragmatics instruction.
Gender Differences in Exercise Determinants

To determine whether gender differences existed in the relationships among potential predictors of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), a heuristic model of nine explanatory variables was tested with the responses of 146 men and 158 women randomly selected from middle- and upper-income census tracts of a midwestern city. The models for men and women did not differ significantly. The findings suggest interventions to increase LTPA participation that enhance health self-determinism and social influences on exercise and influence the negative attitudes toward exercise held by those who have poorer perceived health status, smoke, or are oveweight.
Exploring inherent damping characteristic of LCL-filters for three-phase grid-connected voltage source inverters

This paper investigates the inherent damping characteristic of LCL-filters for three-phase grid-connected voltage source inverters (VSIs). Specifically, it is found that there is an inherent damping term embedded in the feedback loop when converter current is used for implementing closed-loop control. This additional damping term can indeed neutralize the resonance introduced by LCL-filters, and thus giving rise to a more stable system than that of grid current feedback control. In this case, only one set of current sensors is required to stabilize the system, doing away with passive damping, active damping or complex state observer. Theoretical analysis is then presented and lead to a general design guideline, which suggests a way of choosing the values of grid- and converter-side inductors, so that optimum damping can be naturally achieved by solely using converter current control. In the case when this design criterion is not fulfilled, a simple compensation method is also proposed to tune the damping factor. Both simulation and experimental results are finally provided to validate the theoretical findings developed in this paper.
ACDT: Architected Composite Data Types trading-in unfettered data access for improved execution

With Exascale performance and its challenges in mind, one ubiquitous concern among architects is energy efficiency. Petascale systems projected to Exascale systems are unsustainable at current power consumption rates. One major contributor to system-wide power consumption is the number of memory operations leading to data movement and management techniques applied by the runtime system. To address this problem, we present the concept of the Architected Composite Data Types (ACDT) framework. The framework is made aware of data composites, assigning them a specific layout, transformations and operators. Data manipulation overhead is amortized over a larger number of elements and program performance and power efficiency can be significantly improved. We developed the fundamentals of an ACDT framework on a massively multithreaded adaptive runtime system geared towards Exascale clusters. Showcasing the capability of ACDT, we exercised the framework with two representative processing kernels - Matrix Vector Multiply and the Cholesky Decomposition - applied to sparse matrices. As transformation modules, we applied optimized compress/decompress engines and configured invariant operators for maximum energy/performance efficiency. Additionally, we explored two different approaches based on transformation opaqueness in relation to the application. Under the first approach, the application is agnostic to compression and decompression activity. Such approach entails minimal changes to the original application code, but leaves out potential application-specific optimizations. The second approach exposes the decompression process to the application, hereby exposing optimization opportunities that can only be exploited with application knowledge. The experimental results show that the two approaches have their strengths in HW and SW respectively, where the SW approach can yield performance and power improvements that are an order of magnitude better than ACDT-oblivious, hand-optimized implementations. We consider the ACDT runtime framework an important component of compute nodes that will lead towards power efficient Exascale clusters.
No Novice Teacher Left Behind: Guiding Novice Teachers to Improve Decision-Making through Structured Questioning.

For many novice teachers, the first solo effort in the classroom is a “sink or swim” experience. With good pre-service preparation that includes extensive field experience, the beginning teacher may feel more confident, but even those with the most confidence still find the complexities of decision-making bewildering. For those novices who are less confident, frustration and depression may ultimately drive them from the classroom. In fact, nearly half of all new teachers leave teaching within the first five years (Boles & Troen, 2002).
Exosomes confer pro-survival signals to alter the phenotype of prostate cells in their surrounding environment

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men. Current research on tumour-related extracellular vesicles (EVs) suggests that exosomes play a significant role in paracrine signaling pathways, thus potentially influencing cancer progression via multiple mechanisms. In fact, during the last decade numerous studies have revealed the role of EVs in the progression of various pathological conditions including cancer. Moreover, differences in the proteomic, lipidomic, and cholesterol content of exosomes derived from PCa cell lines versus benign prostate cell lines confirm that exosomes could be excellent biomarker candidates. As such, as part of an extensive proteomic analysis using LCMS we previously described a potential role of exosomes as biomarkers for PCa. Current evidence suggests that uptake of EV's into the local tumour microenvironment encouraging us to further examine the role of these vesicles in distinct mechanisms involved in the progression of PCa and castration resistant PCa. For the purpose of this study, we hypothesized that exosomes play a pivotal role in cell-cell communication in the local tumour microenvironment, conferring activation of numerous survival mechanisms during PCa progression and development of therapeutic resistance. Our in vitro results demonstrate that PCa derived exosomes significantly reduce apoptosis, increase cancer cell proliferation and induce cell migration in LNCaP and RWPE-1 cells. In conjunction with our in vitro findings, we have also demonstrated that exosomes increased tumor volume and serum PSA levels in vivo when xenograft bearing mice were administered DU145 cell derived exosomes intravenously. This research suggests that, regardless of androgen receptor phenotype, exosomes derived from PCa cells significantly enhance multiple mechanisms that contribute to PCa progression.
Promising Gene Therapeutics for Salivary Gland Radiotoxicity

More than 0.5 million new cases of head and neck cancer are diagnosed worldwide each year, and approximately 75% of them are treated with radiation alone or in combination with other cancer treatments. A majority of patients treated with radiotherapy develop significant oral off-target effects because of the unavoidable irradiation of normal tissues. Salivary glands that lie within treatment fields are often irreparably damaged and a decline in function manifests as dry mouth or xerostomia. Limited ability of the salivary glands to regenerate lost acinar cells makes radiation-induced loss of function a chronic problem that affects the quality of life of the patients well beyond the completion of radiotherapy. The restoration of saliva production after irradiation has been a daunting challenge, and this review provides an overview of promising gene therapeutics that either improve the gland’s ability to survive radiation insult, or alternately, restore fluid flow after radiation. The salient features and shortcomings of each approach are discussed.
Incidence and Determinants of Acute Diarrhoea in Malaysia: A Population-based Study

Acute diarrhoea is a major health problem in many parts of the world, contributing to about 1.8 million deaths globally. The objectives of the study were to assess the incidence, determinants, and severity of acute diarrhoea in the population. A nation-wide cross-sectional survey involving about 57,000 respondents was conducted via face-to-face interview among eligible respondents of all ages. An acute diarrhoeal episode was defined as having three or more episodes of loose stools in any 24-hour period within the past four weeks before the interview. The severity was measured by duration of acute diarrhoea and associated symptoms. The variables tested as determinants were age, sex, ethnicity, the highest educational level, total monthly household income, and locality. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate procedures meant for complex study design were used in the analyses. The four-week incidence of acute diarrhoea was 5% [95% confidence interval (CI) 4.8-5.2]. The incidence of acute diarrhoea among the estimated population was the highest among young adults aged 20-29 years, Other Bumiputras (the pre-dominant ethnic group in East Malaysia), those with tertiary-level of education, those earning a monthly household income of less than RM 400, and rural dwellers. Only age, ethnicity, the highest level of education attained, and locality were significantly associated with acute diarrhoea in bivariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, these four variables were found to be the determinants of acute diarrhoea. Sex and monthly household income were excluded from the model. The mean duration of acute diarrhoea was 2.0 days (standard deviation 1.3). Forty-six percent of the respondents reported stomach cramps as an associated symptom. The findings revealed that acute diarrhoea is still a major public-health concern in Malaysia and grossly under-notified. There is a need for intensification of public-health intervention efforts to reduce the incidence of acute diarrhoea while improving surveillance and notification of the disease.
MicroRNA-125b transforms myeloid cell lines by repressing multiple mRNA

Background We previously described a t(2;11)(p21;q23) chromosomal translocation found in patients with myelodysplasia or acute myeloid leukemia that leads to over-expression of the microRNA miR-125b, and we showed that transplantation of mice with murine stem/progenitor cells overexpressing miR-125b is able to induce leukemia. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of myeloid transformation by miR-125b. Design and Methods To investigate the consequences of miR-125b over-expression on myeloid differentiation, apoptosis and proliferation, we used the NB4 and HL60 human promyelocytic cell lines and the 32Dclone3 murine promyelocytic cell line. To test whether miR-125b is able to transform myeloid cells, we used the non-tumorigenic and interleukin-3-dependent 32Dclone3 cell line over-expressing miR-125b, in xenograft experiments in nude mice and in conditions of interleukin-3 deprivation. To identify new miR-125b targets, we compared, by RNA-sequencing, the transcriptome of cell lines that do or do not over-express miR-125b. Results We showed that miR-125b over-expression blocks apoptosis and myeloid differentiation and enhances proliferation in both species. More importantly, we demonstrated that miR-125b is able to transform the 32Dclone3 cell line by conferring growth independence from interleukin-3; xenograft experiments showed that these cells form tumors in nude mice. Using RNA-sequencing and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction experiments, we identified multiple miR-125b targets. We demonstrated that ABTB1, an anti-proliferative factor, is a new direct target of miR-125b and we confirmed that CBFB, a transcription factor involved in hematopoiesis, is also targeted by miR-125b. MiR-125b controls apoptosis by down-regulating genes involved in the p53 pathway including BAK1 and TP53INP1. Conclusions This study demonstrates that in a myeloid context, miR-125b is an oncomiR able to transform cell lines. miR-125b blocks myeloid differentiation in part by targeting CBFB, blocks apoptosis through down-regulation of multiple genes involved in the p53 pathway, and confers a proliferative advantage to human and mouse myeloid cell lines in part by targeting ABTB1.
Treating Alcoholism As a Chronic Disease

For many patients, alcohol and other drug (AOD) use disorders are chronic, recurring conditions involving multiple cycles of treatment, abstinence, and relapse. To disrupt this cycle, treatment can include continuing care to reduce the risk of relapse. The most commonly used treatment approach is initial intensive inpatient or outpatient care based on 12-step principles, followed by continuing care involving self-help groups, 12-step group counseling, or individual therapy. Although these programs can be effective, many patients drop out of initial treatment or do not complete continuing care. Thus, researchers and clinicians have begun to develop alternative approaches to enhance treatment retention in both initial and continuing care. One focus of these efforts has been the design of extended treatment models. These approaches increasingly blur the distinction between initial and continuing care and aim to prolong treatment participation by providing a continuum of care. Other researchers have focused on developing alternative treatment strategies (e.g., telephone-based interventions) that go beyond traditional settings and adaptive treatment algorithms that may improve outcomes for clients who do not respond well to traditional approaches.
The role of emotional promiscuity in unprotected sex

Sexual promiscuity is a known risk factor for unprotected sex. A related variable, emotional promiscuity, has conceptual relevance but has yet to be studied with respect to unprotected sex. Data from four studies (total N = 908) indicated that both sexual promiscuity and emotional promiscuity were associated with womens’ reports of unprotected sex. Independent of those contributions, the interaction between sexual promiscuity and emotional promiscuity was also significant for women: Scoring high on both variables was associated with the highest number of unprotected partners. This synergistic interaction emerged whether the question about number of unprotected partners referred to the past year or lifetime total. The interaction held up even after controlling for other relevant factors (lifetime partners, romantic beliefs, and attachment styles). In sum, among sexually active women, the susceptibility to falling in love puts them at risk for unprotected sex. Our discussion addresses possible mechanisms and why the key interaction only emerged in women.
Relationship Lending , Accounting Disclosure , and Credit Availability during Crisis

This paper examines whether the intensity of banking relationships, measured by the low number of banks a firm does business with, and accounting disclosure benefit firms with greater credit availability during periods of financial stress. We use survey data conducted by the World Bank, which include observations of small and medium sized firms in Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, and Thailand, for the Asian financial crisis years. In our model specifications, we treat the firm’s decision to build multiple banking relationships, to pledge collateral, and provide independent audits when applying for loans as endogenous variables. We find that with diverse borrowing, while Korean and Thai firms experience a higher likelihood of credit constraint, the Philippine firms enjoy greater credit availability. For Indonesian firms, lending relationships have no significant effect on credit availability. Moreover, we do not find evidence of greater credit availability for firms with independent audits. The country-varying results are consistent with the structure and the health of the banking systems in these countries. * The views expressed here are solely of authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. We thank Dan Nuxoll and Jack Reidhill for their comments. Sarah Junker provided research assistance. All errors are our own.
Manipulation of the Complement System for Benefit in Sepsis

There is evidence in sepsis, both in rodents and in humans, that activation of the complement system results in excessive production of C5a, which triggers a series of events leading to septic shock, multiorgan failure, and lethality. In rodents following cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), which induces polymicrobial sepsis, in vivo blockade of C5a using neutralizing antibodies dramatically improved survival, reduced apoptosis of lymphoid cells, and attenuated the ensuing coagulopathy. Based on these data, it seems reasonable to consider therapeutic blockade of C5a in humans entering into sepsis and septic shock. Strategies for the development of such an antibody for use in humans are presented.
Automatic symbolic analysis of switched-capacitor filtering networks using signal flow graphs

Signal flow graphs (SFG's) are a powerful technique to analyze switched-capacitor (SC) circuits in a way that provides in-depth information about their operation and direct access to the corresponding symbolic z-transfer functions. Due to lengthy and error-prone symbolic manipulations this is manually manageable for simple first- or second-order circuits, but becomes unpractical for manipulating higher-order circuits which can not be decomposed into first- and second-order ones. Hence, there is an important need to provide designers with a computer-aided tool for the SFG symbolic analysis of a broad class of SC filtering networks, as described in this paper. Rule-based techniques are employed to capture from arbitrary circuit schematic and timing diagrams the corresponding symbolic SFG leading to the automatic generation of the associated z-transfer function. Symbols can then be instantiated to numerical values to obtain measurable data on a variety of performance indicators such as total capacitor area and capacitance spread as well as the resulting nominal frequency response and its variability against component errors. This is illustrated considering a variety of examples of SC filtering networks including, besides the more traditional filters, both finite and infinite impulse response decimators. >
Infrastructure Endowment and Corporate Income Taxes as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern European Countries

This paper analyses the importance of taxes on corporate income and production-related tangible infrastructure as determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). We operationalise taxes using effective average tax rates on the bilateral level and employ indices derived from principal component analysis as a proxy for the infrastructure endowment. In the empirical analysis we control for a possible interrelation between taxes and infrastructure as determinants of FDI - an issue usually neglected in the literature. Specifically, a favourable infrastructure endowment may compensate for relatively high taxes. Hence, higher taxes may not deter FDI. The results from our panel econometric analysis of bilateral outward FDI flows of seven home countries in eight CEECs for the 1995-2004 period in an augmented gravity model setting show that (i) both taxes and infrastructure play a role in the location decisions made by multinational enterprises; (ii) telecommunication and transport infrastructure are of special significance to FDI; and (iii) the tax-rate sensitivity of FDI indeed decreases with the level of infrastructure endowment.
Guaranteeing High-Level Behaviors while Exploring Partially Known Maps

This paper presents an approach for automatically synthesizing and re-synthesizing a hybrid controller that guarantees a robot will exhibit a user-defined high-level behavior while exploring a partially known workspace (map). The approach includes dynamically adjusting the discrete abstraction of the workspace as new regions are detected by the robot’s sensors, automatically rewriting the specification (formally defined using Linear Temporal Logic) and re-synthesizing the control while preserving the robot state and its history of task completion. The approach is implemented within the LTLMoP toolkit and is demonstrated using a Pioneer 3-DX in the lab.
Dokumentation der Erhebungs- und Auswertungsinstrumente zur schweizerisch-deutschen Videostudie. "Unterrichtsqualität, Lernverhalten und mathematisches Verständnis". 1. Befragungsinstrumente

Der dritte Band der Dokumentation der Erhebungs- und Auswertungsinstrumente zur schweizerisch-deutschen Videostudie beinhaltet alle Instrumente, welche im Rahmen der Videografierung der Unterrichtseinheiten und tutoriellen Situationen eingesetzt worden sind. Das verwendete Kameraskript zum standardisierten Videografieren der Unterrichtslektionen wird in Kapitel 1 dargestellt. Auf die anschliesende Aufarbeitung der Daten als Grundbedingung fur die weiteren Analysen wird in Kapitel 2 eingegangen. Zur Analyse des videografierten Unterrichts wurden zahlreiche Beobachtungsinstrumente entwickelt. Kapitel 3 gibt einen Uberblick uber diese verschiedenen Beobachtungsinstrumente, wobei auch auf methodische Aspekte wie zum Beispiel deren Entwicklung eingegangen wird. Anschliesend werden in den Kapiteln 4 bis 13 die verschiedenen Beobachtungsinstrumente vorgestellt. Das Vorgehen zur Erhebung handlungsleitender Kognitionen der Lehrpersonen anhand von Leitfadeninterviews wird in den Kapiteln 14 und 15 vorgestellt. Kapitel 16 bezieht sich masgeblich auf die tutoriellen Situationen des Textaufgabenmoduls, wobei die Lehrpersonen mittels verschiedener Instrumente zur Reflexion uber den Umgang mit Textaufgaben angeregt wurden. (DIPF/Orig.)
Psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial intentions among secondary students

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test a model of entrepreneurial intentions among secondary students based on their psychological characteristics. Furthermore, this seeks to determine whether teenage students (14-15 years old) possess entrepreneurial characteristics and whether these characteristics correspond to entrepreneurial intentions. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of secondary students was chosen ranging from 14 to 15 years old. Data were collected through a questionnaire and analysed by univarite statistics and structural equations modelling (PLS) to measure the relationship between the psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial intentions. Findings – The results demonstrate there is a relationship between (some) psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial intentions. The propensity to risk negatively influences entrepreneurial intentions, meanwhile self-confidence and the need for achievement positively influence the construct. The relationship between tolerance and .