Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genre-pragmatic Strategies in English Letter-of-application Writing of Jordanian Arabic–English Bilinguals

This study reports an investigation of the genre components and pragmatic strategies of letters of applications written by Jordanian Arabic–English bilinguals. Specifically it is set up to trace how far novice non-native speakers of English are able to utilise the generic components and politeness strategies of the target language that strongly correlate with communicative success in social interactions. A corpus of 90 job application letters written by 90 job applicants was collected and analysed within the move structure analysis proposed by Bhatia (1993) and the framework of Brown and Levinson's (1987) model of politeness. The results indicate that politeness strategies are inappropriately utilised and the genre components are poorly managed in the letters of applications. The letters reflect particular strategic moves that are not usually utilised by English native speakers. The bilingual writers tend to avoid negative politeness but make frequent inappropriate use of positive politeness strategies due to their ignorance of the social-cultural constraints governing their selection. This suggests a difference based on areas of cultural transfer rather than on a language effect. We hope the results of this study will be of help to foreign language instructors in increasing their students' consciousness of cross-cultural preferences, the essential genre specific meaning components and appropriate pragmatic strategies in order to write in a manner that is acceptable to native speakers of the target language.
Teachers’ feelings during curriculum change in the United Arab Emirates: opening Pandora’s box

This paper reports partial findings of a qualitative interpretive study of female secondary school English language teachers’ perceptions of curriculum change in the United Arab Emirates. The sample consisted of 16 female teachers in three secondary schools who had experience teaching the former and the current English language curricula. Data collection methods included repeated recorded face‐to‐face semi‐structured interviews, member‐checking group interviews and document reviews. Interpretation of the data revealed that participants had contradictory affective reactions to curriculum change since they approved of some aspects of change but were disturbed by other aspects. Their feelings evolved with time to become more positive as they became more familiar with the new curriculum. A considerable number of the participants had low morale as they perceived their role in curriculum change as marginal, inferior and passive. Many teachers felt they did not have a voice due to issues of hierarchy and control. The study recommends giving a voice to teachers in curriculum change by involving them in curriculum development processes to eliminate negative psychological effects such as marginalisation and powerlessness.
Technocratic precautionary principle: Korean risk governance of mad cow disease

This study investigates the multiplicity of sciences and the assemblage of technocracy with the precautionary principle (PP) in the Korean risk governance of mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy [BSE]). It conducts a policy typological analysis and a sociocultural analysis of the PP. Korean BSE policies are built on the technocratic PP. This principle emphasizes the scientific evidence of risk, although taking precautionary policy actions against BSE. This principle led to the absence of a total BSE inspection, a specified risk material policy for Korean cattle, a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point policy for beef processing and circulation, and an animal feed ban on nonruminants. Moreover, the BSE debate is not one about a unified science vs. a unified PP, but rather it concerns complex struggles between PPs in alliance with different sciences.
Log-Spiral Keypoint: A Robust Approach toward Image Patch Matching

Matching of keypoints across image patches forms the basis of computer vision applications, such as object detection, recognition, and tracking in real-world images. Most of keypoint methods are mainly used to match the high-resolution images, which always utilize an image pyramid for multiscale keypoint detection. In this paper, we propose a novel keypoint method to improve the matching performance of image patches with the low-resolution and small size. The location, scale, and orientation of keypoints are directly estimated from an original image patch using a Log-Spiral sampling pattern for keypoint detection without consideration of image pyramid. A Log-Spiral sampling pattern for keypoint description and two bit-generated functions are designed for generating a binary descriptor. Extensive experiments show that the proposed method is more effective and robust than existing binary-based methods for image patch matching.
The Athlete and the Spectator Inside the Man

Athletic contests constitute an important aspect of human affairs. However, the evolutionary origins of athletic behavior, that is, behavior which is associated with participating in and watching athletic contests, are rather obscure, as they do not seem to contribute directly to increasing survival or reproductive success. This article argues that athletic behavior has been shaped in ancestral times jointly by intrasexual selection forces, where men look for potential allies, and intersexual selection forces, where men look for spouses for their female relatives. On the basis of this evolutionary framework, a number of hypotheses are derived: First, men are more interested than women in taking part in and watching sports. In addition, men are more interested than women in taking part in and watching competitive sports than non-competitive sports, and are more interested in team sports than individual sports. Finally, men and women differ in their motives for participating in sports, while the sex differences in athletic behavior between men and women are consistent across different cultures. Evidence from a sample composed of 37 different countries provides support for all hypotheses.
Experiencing the transition from an apprenticeship to higher education

It is the intention of the UK government to enhance progression routes for apprentices to higher education. However, little research has been carried out into why former apprentices pursue higher education or the experiences of this transition. This paper seeks to redress this gap by reporting three case studies of former apprentices who had completed or were completing a higher education qualification in England. Each case study represents a different route to higher education: progressing to a full-time higher education course; pursuing a part-time route to sustain full-time employment; and undertaking a career change during the transition to higher education. The paper addresses their experiences of the apprenticeship, the decision-making to progress and the perceived outcomes of their transition so far. Analysis draws on Fuller and Unwin’s expansive–restrictive framework and conceptual lenses for understanding learning. The findings revealed that although their apprenticeships were restrictive in different ways, progression was pursued for a number of reasons involving the context in which apprenticeships were completed, the relationship to their employer, the higher education context and their understanding of learning. Experiences of boundary crossing were particularly associated with more complex descriptions of personal transformation and learning as becoming.
Continuous live imaging of adult neural stem cell division and lineage progression in vitro

Little is known about the intrinsic specification of adult neural stem cells (NSCs) and to what extent they depend on their local niche. To observe adult NSC division and lineage progression independent of their niche, we isolated cells from the adult mouse subependymal zone (SEZ) and cultured them at low density without growth factors. We demonstrate here that SEZ cells in this culture system are primarily neurogenic and that adult NSCs progress through stereotypic lineage trees consisting of asymmetric stem cell divisions, symmetric transit-amplifying divisions and final symmetric neurogenic divisions. Stem cells, identified by their astro/radial glial identity and their slow-dividing nature, were observed to generate asymmetrically and fast-dividing cells that maintained an astro/radial glia identity. These, in turn, gave rise to symmetrically and fast-dividing cells that lost glial hallmarks, but had not yet acquired neuronal features. The number of amplifying divisions was limited to a maximum of five in this system. Moreover, we found that cell growth correlated with the number of subsequent divisions of SEZ cells, with slow-dividing astro/radial glia exhibiting the most substantial growth prior to division. The fact that in the absence both of exogenously supplied growth factors and of signals provided by the local niche neurogenic lineage progression takes place in such stereotypic fashion, suggests that lineage progression is, to a significant degree, cell intrinsic or pre-programmed at the beginning of the lineage.
An Investigation of the Characteristics of Australian Charitable Donors

Ads using a range of emotional appeals have been used in different donation campaigns, but, if not managed well, can evoke anger and irritation and as a result alienate potential donors. An understanding of the key donors’ demographics, psychographics, and perception of charities can then help build a better advertising campaign toward donation intention. This research therefore aims to investigate this proposition by building and extending on previous research on an Australian sample. The sample was randomly drawn from the Australian White Pages, and identified respondents were mailed a self-administered survey. Results showed that donors are likely to be older and less highly educated. Religiosity was found to have low influence on charitable donations. Australian donors were also more likely to have positive attitudes toward international charities as opposed to national charities. Further research should focus on cross-country comparisons of donor characteristics to provide a more holistic perspective on donor behavior and thus assist managerial decisions in the marketing of charities.
Teaching Students with Disabilities

This article explores trends in research since the 1975 passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), notes gaps in the literature, and offers suggestions for future directions music education researchers could take in exploring the needs and experiences of music teachers and their students with disabilities. A majority of existing literature examines teacher perceptions and attitudes toward students with special needs and preservice music teacher preparation. As the number of students served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act continues to grow, and policy changes create more complex expectations of teachers, music education researchers need to continue to study these topics and broaden research to include outside perspectives, assessment and evaluation, and more research on classroom practices and voices of students with disabilities in order to better serve music teachers and their students.
Access to Dual Enrollment Courses and School-Level Characteristics

Increasing the percentage of adults with a college credential is paramount to sustaining our economic competitiveness. One strategy that has potential to help achieve the goal of increased postsecondary degree production is dual enrollment, which allows high school students to enroll in college-level courses for credit that can be applied simultaneously toward their high school and college degree requirements. However, dual enrollment can only help if students have access. This study capitalizes on a policy shift in the state of Virginia to descriptively assess whether dual enrollment offerings are disproportionally associated with certain high school characteristics. Although the policy shift had positive implications for access to dual enrollment courses, we found that access remains inequitably distributed. High schools that are located in suburbs and the northern region of the state, as well as high schools that are comprised of a high percentage of underrepresented students, continue to lag in their offering of dual enrollment courses. We posit explanations for these inequities and discuss implications in light of Virginia's goal to award 100,000 additional degrees by 2020.
Essay Review : Language Development and Social Interaction in Blind Children. By M. Pérez-Pereira and G. Conti-Ramsden (Hove, Sussex; Psychology Press Ltd). Hardback, £24.95. ISBN 0-86377-795-3

children with impairments should be studied. In this review essay, rather than attempt an overview of the entire book, I want to take the opportunity to discuss and elaborate some very important methodological points which this book raises. I have chosen to do this for two reasons. The first is because, like Miguel P6rez-Pereira and Gina ContiRamsden, I believe that it is crucial that we approach research with children with impairments with great care. The second is that a particular strength of the book for me lies in what P6rez-Pereira and Conti-Ramsden have to say about methodology and the examples of good methodological practice which many of their own studies demonstrate.
Sequence of the Hexameric Juvenile Hormone-binding Protein from the Hemolymph of Locusta migratoria*

The cDNA for the hexameric hemolymph juvenile hormone-binding protein (JHBP) from the migratory locust has been cloned and sequenced. Antiserum raised against purified JHBP was used to identify clones in an expression library. The 4.3-kilobase JHBP mRNA codes for 668 amino acids (74.4 kDa) and contains 2 kilobases of 3′-untranslated region. The derived amino acid sequence reveals that locust JHBP represents a new group within the hexamerin family of arthropod proteins. JHBP appears to be more closely related to arthropod hemocyanins, the believed ancestors of the family, than to the other known insect hexamerins. The mRNA shows a high (89%) bias to codons ending in G or C and the codons ending in A or T are clustered and concentrated toward the 5′ end, suggesting a mosaic gene structure. The recombinant bacterially expressed protein bound [3H]JH III with the same affinity as the protein from hemolymph. A truncated version of JHBP lacking 53 amino acids from the N terminus did not bind JH III. Hybridization analysis of fat body JHBP mRNA in locusts that had been treated with precocene and a JH analog did not give clear evidence for regulation by JH.
Cultural Diffusion of a Novel Food-finding Behaviour in Urban Pigeons: an Experimental Field Test

The cultural diffusion of a novel food-finding behaviour, piercing the paper cover of a box containing seed, was experimentally provoked in two flocks of pigeons (Columba livia): a closed aviary flock and an open urban flock. In the urban flock, piercing behaviour spread to 24 previously naive individuals. The rate of cultural diffusion was more rapid in the urban flock than in the aviary. In both situations, many individuals simply fed from the discoveries of birds that pierced, but this effect slowed diffusion less in the open urban flock because experienced piercers left the flock and naive birds entered it. Individual trial-and-error learning and natural shaping can be ruled out as mechanisms of diffusion in the present case.
Robust and high-fidelity guidewire simulation with applications in percutaneous coronary intervention system

Real-time and realistic physics-based simulation of deformable objects is of great value to medical intervention, training, and planning in virtual environments. This paper advocates a virtual-reality (VR) approach to minimally-invasive surgery/therapy (e.g., percutaneous coronary intervention) in medical procedures. In particular, we devise a robust and accurate physics-based modeling and simulation algorithm for the guidewire interaction with blood vessels. We also showcase a VR-based prototype system for simulating percutaneous coronary intervention and mimicing the intervention therapy, which affords the utility of flexible, slender guidewires to advance diagnostic or therapeutic catheters into a patient's vascular anatomy, supporting various real-world interaction tasks. The slender body of guidewires are modeled using the famous Cosserat theory of elastic rods. We derive the equations of motion for guidewires with continuous energies and integrate them with the implicit Euler solver, that guarantees robustness and stability. Our approach's originality is primarily founded upon its power, flexibility, and versatility when interacting with the surrounding environment, including novel strategies in the hybrid of geometry and physics, material variability, dynamic sampling, constraint handling and energy-driven physical responses. Our experimental results have shown that this prototype system is both stable and efficient with real-time performance. In the long run, our algorithm and system are expected to contribute to interactive VR-based procedure training and treatment planning.
Information Format and Choice Task Effects in Decision Making

The effects of the specific choice task undertaken and the format of information presentation on accuracy, choice time, subjective reactions, and format selection are considered. The notion that the degree of congruence between format and task influences performance is supported for the time data and to some extent for subjective reactions, but not for format selection or accuracy.
Academics’ teacher identities, authenticity and pedagogy

Nine academics participated in semi‐structured interviews to explore possible linkages between their teacher identities and the pedagogies they employ. A content analysis of the interviews was performed to gain insight into the factors playing a role in how academics define themselves as teachers, the larger educational goals they espouse and the pedagogies they use. The data were subsequently re‐interpreted through the lens of authenticity, an evocative yet elusive construct whose meaning was clarified in earlier work. The study surfaces several conceptual linkages between teacher identity, pedagogy and authenticity, and suggests that authenticity might constitute a crucial link between teaching and the achievement of complex learning outcomes at undergraduate level. Academics’ personal theories of teaching, in particular the conceptions they hold of learners, are revealed as critical to the extent to which their pedagogies are ‘authentic’; the latter, ideally, offering contexts within which students are supported in developing their authenticity.
Sociocultural Influences on the Explanation of Delinquency for Puerto Rican Youths

The present study examines the contributions of sociocultural context to delinquency theory to explain drug use and nondrug delinquency among Puerto Rican male adolescents in New York City. By integrating variables (familism and acculturation) that reflect the unique sociocultural processes in Puerto Rican communities with measures of social control and social learning theories, the direct effects of these socialization processes are analyzed to determine factors that contribute to delinquency or its avoidance. The results suggest that the specific cultural context of ethnic groups may be necessary to explain participation in delinquent behavior. Familism, a measure of individuals' expressed concern over family values rather than individual opportunities, was a consistent and direct contributor to the avoidance of deviance. This finding suggests that, in addition to respect and affection (family attachment), familial values, such as duty and obligation, are relevant to the cultural situation of adolescents. Acculturation was positively associated with participation in interpersonal violence and theft, but lower acculturation was related to participation in illicit drug use.
Social capital and national innovation system: a cross-country analysis

Purpose – In the last two decades, researchers have paid much attention to the role of cultural values on economic and social development. In particular, the crucial role of different aspects of culture on the development of innovation has been stressed in the literature. Consequently, it is vital to understand how social capital, as a core cultural value, affects the innovation process and the innovative performance at the national level. However, to date, the impact of different dimensions of social capital and innovation has not been properly portrayed or explained. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of four different dimensions of social capital (institutional and interpersonal, associational life and norms) on two of the main functions of national innovation system (NIS) (entrepreneurship and knowledge creation) based on over 50,000 observations in 34 countries. Design/methodology/approach – In this regard, national-level data from the World Values Survey database was emp.
Three Simple AdS/QCD Models and Heavy Quark Potentials

We construct three simple AdS/QCD models by the systematic procedure of GKN. In the ultraviolet region, all these models' gauge theory beta function approaches $-\lambda^2$. In the infrared region, the first model's $\beta\propto-\lambda^2$, the second one $\beta\propto-\lambda^3$, while the third one $\beta\propto-\lambda$. Here $\lambda$ is the 't Hooft coupling constant. We calculate the heavy quark potentials in these models by the holographic method and find that at the short separation limit, all the potentials asymptote to $-1/(\rho\big[\log\frac{1.19\ell}{\rho}\big]^{4/3})$, where $\ell$ is the radius of the asymptotical AdS space.
A Framework for Control-Reconfiguration Following Fault-Detection in Discrete Event Systems

Abstract We introduce a framework for control-reconfiguration in discrete event systems that performs fault-detection and then reconfigures the control to ensure that certain desired specifications are met. The controlled system has separate specifications prior to a fault versus after a fault (to allow for any changes in the specification owing to the occurrence of a fault). Prior to the occurrence of a fault, a certain controller is applied so as to ensure a given pre-fault specification. The same controller is continued to be used even after a fault and until its detection. Once a fault is detected, the control is reconfigured. All along the post-fault duration (prior to as well as after reconfiguration), the controlled system is required to satisfy a give post-fault specification. We mathematically formulate the above control problem and provide a condition for reconfigurability. We also establish the condition for the limiting case where control-reconfiguration is not required. Also, we introduce the notion of degree of disambiguability of faulty traces which when increased, increases the ability to meet the control requirements of pre- and post- fault specifications.