Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the degree of humorous enjoyment in reading Chinese language errors

Abstract Second language learners often make errors when they use their target language for communication. People perceive some of these errors as humorous. Many factors influence these perceptions. The purpose of this study is to investigate how these factors affect people’s perceptions when they read CSL (Chinese as a second language) learners’ humorous errors. The factors mainly refer to error stimuli and readers’ backgrounds. The researcher collected 25 error stimuli from two popular and often-cited online articles. 57 participants responded to these errors and rated them in the following three categories: Very Funny, Somewhat Funny, and Not Funny. These participants included 51 Native Speakers (NSs) of Chinese and six Non-Native Speakers (NNSs). The NSs consisted of 28 females and 23 males. Out of the participants, 17 were Chinese teachers and 40 were non-teachers. The results indicate that teachers perceived these texts as less funny than non-teachers; No significant gender difference was found; NNSs seemed to perceive these error stimuli as less funny than NSs, however, readers should be cautious in interpreting this result because of the limited number of NNSs. In addition, this study compared the humorous texts that were perceived as the funniest and the ones perceived as the least funny. The results demonstrate that an error-evoked “Very Funny” joke text had two overlapping and opposing scripts. The more overlapping and opposing the two scripts within a joke text were, the more humorous enjoyment a reader experienced. These findings improve our understanding of the interrelationship of language and humor that has been neglected in CSL, Chinese linguistics, and humor literature.
Plato on Virtuous Leadership: An Ancient Model for Modern Business

The business ethics and leadership literature has paid little attention to the analysis of virtue in the Socratic dialogues, but Platoâ€™s account of virtue and persuasion offer relevant insights for business leaders. In the Republic, Platoâ€™s description of five types of leaders offers a new perspective on leadership selection and development using the moral psychology of both virtuous and non-virtuous leaders. In this article, I explain Platoâ€™s account of virtue and knowledge, his three-part moral psychology, the four cardinal virtues that virtuous leaders develop, and his continuum of five leader types. I apply Platoâ€™s model to leadership issues in todayâ€™s corporate world and explain how the model can guide leaders, board members, and investors.
Examination of Emotion-modulated Processing using Eye Movement Monitoring and Magnetoencephalography

Research shows that emotional items are associated with enhanced processing and memory. However, emotional memories are composed of not only memory for the specific emotion-eliciting item, but also other items associated with it, as well as memory for how these items are related. The current thesis utilized verbal report, eye movement monitoring and magnetoencephalography in order to examine how emotions may influence online processing and memory for associated information. It was found that while emotions influenced attention to both the emotion-eliciting item and associated information during the encoding stage, this was not related to subsequent memory performance as indexed by verbal report. It was also found that while emotions impaired detailed memory for associated information, it did not affect the ease or speed at which those memories could be accessed. In using MEG, it was found that emotions may modulate not only how participants’ view associated information, but it may also modulate the type of representation formed. Together, findings from the current work suggests that: (1) emotions influence online processing and memory for associated information; (2) emotions modulate memory for associated information via routes other than overt attention; (3) encoding and retrieval may occur in stages; and (4) memory exerts early influences on processing. The current work shows that emotions modulate online processing of associated iii neutral information in a top-down manner, independent of differences in its physical properties. Work from this thesis encourages a reconceptualization of emotion, memory and perception and how they relate to one and another. Rather than viewing them as independent modular processes, they may, in fact, be more widely distributed in the brain and interact more closely than previously described. This may be evolutionarily adaptive allowing us to quickly and efficiently form memories for emotional events/scenes that can later guide perception and
Active Content-Based Crowdsourcing Task Selection

Crowdsourcing has long established itself as a viable alternative to corpus annotation by domain experts for tasks such as document relevance assessment. The crowdsourcing process traditionally relies on high degrees of label redundancy in order to mitigate the detrimental effects of individually noisy worker submissions. Such redundancy comes at the cost of increased label volume, and, subsequently, monetary requirements. In practice, especially as the size of datasets increases, this is undesirable. In this paper, we focus on an alternate method that exploits document information instead, to infer relevance labels for unjudged documents. We present an active learning scheme for document selection that aims at maximising the overall relevance label prediction accuracy, for a given budget of available relevance judgements by exploiting system-wide estimates of label variance and mutual information. Our experiments are based on TREC 2011 Crowdsourcing Track data and show that our method is able to achieve state-of-the-art performance while requiring 17% - 25% less budget.
Weakly supervised techniques for domain-independent sentiment classification

An important sub-task of sentiment analysis is polarity classification, in which text is classified as being positive or negative. Supervised machine learning techniques can perform this task very effectively. However, they require a large corpus of training data, and a number of studies have demonstrated that the good performance of supervised models is dependent on a good match between the training and testing data with respect to the domain, topic and time-period. Weakly-supervised techniques use a large collection of unlabelled text to determine sentiment, and so their performance may be less dependent on the domain, topic and time-period represented by the testing data. This paper presents experiments that investigate the effectiveness of word similarity techniques when performing weakly-supervised sentiment classification. It also considers the extent to which the performance of each method is independent from the domain, topic and time-period of the testing data. The results indicate that the word similarity techniques are suitable for applications that require sentiment classification across several domains.
Development and validation of an automatic spoken Spanish test

A computer-based Spoken Spanish Test (SST) was developed to provide an accurate and convenient assessment of speaking and listening for learners of Spanish. The SST is intended to measure a candidate’s receptive familiarity with a variety of forms of Spanish and the candidate’s facility in speaking Spanish. The SST test takes between 15 and 20 minutes to complete, all the items are presented in spoken Spanish, and the test is administered and scored completely automatically. The SST has seven sections, a reading section, a series of elicited imitations, a sentence construction section, two vocabulary sections, a section with opinion questions, and a section with story retelling. The SST items were assembled into tests presented to 579 adult non-native Spanish learners (mostly university students) and to 435 native Spanish speakers. The paper describes validation of the automatic scoring system with reference to concurrent administrations of ACTFL, ILR, and SPT Oral Proficiency Interviews conducted by certified interviewers/raters.
Parental Values of Children's Personality across Race, Social Class, and Gender of Child.

AUTHOR Baker, Spencer R. ; Havill, Valerie L. ; Victor, James B. ; Roberts, Amy B. TITLE Parental Values of Children's Personality across Race, Social Class, and Gender of Child. PUB DATE 1999-04-00 NOTE 38p. ; Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (Albuquerque, NM, April 15-18, 1999). PUB TYPE Reports Research (143) Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Cultural Context; *Cultural Differences; *Parent Attitudes; *Personality Traits; Racial Differences; *Research Methodology; Sex Differences; Social Differences; *Values IDENTIFIERS Salience
Coping Strategies of Economically Destitute Women Who Acquired HIV Through Paid Blood and Plasma Collections in Rural China

Little is known about the lives and hardships of socially marginalized and economically destitute women in rural Central China living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), who acquired the virus through commercial blood and plasma donations in the mid-1990s. Women living with HIV and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) experience significant economic hardships and social exclusion in a male dominated, traditional, rural Chinese society, including the loss of labor power, financial burdens, and HIV-related stigma. This qualitative study examined strategies used by these marginalized women to cope with these hardships. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data from 15 interviews from women in Fuyang City, Anhui. Findings reveal that women undertook a variety of coping strategies: migrating to smaller towns, reducing labor intensity, reallocating labor within households, supplementing incomes by taking on additional jobs, borrowing money from relatives, reducing food consumption, lowering standards of living, withdrawing children from school, strategically disclosing HIV status and background information to employers, as well as avoiding weddings or funerals. This study identifies policy implications that can be used by social workers to mitigate the deleterious social and economic impacts of HIV and AIDS on the lives of women in vulnerable rural households in central China.
Bayesian Back-Propagation

Connectionist feed-forward networks, t rained with backpropagat ion, can be used both for nonlinear regression and for (discrete one-of-C ) classification. This paper presents approximate Bayesian meth ods to statistical components of back-propagat ion: choosing a cost funct ion and penalty term (interpreted as a form of prior probability), pruning insignifican t weights, est imat ing the uncertainty of weights, predict ing for new pat terns ("out -of-sample") , est imating the uncertainty in the choice of this predict ion ("erro r bars" ), estimating the generalizat ion erro r, comparing different network st ructures, and handling missing values in the t raining patterns. These methods extend some heurist ic techniques suggested in the literature, and in most cases require a small addit ional facto r in comput at ion during back-propagat ion, or computation once back-pro pagat ion has finished.
Plasma Cell Generation by IL-21, a Novel Regulation of B Cell Differentiation and

IL-21 is a type I cytokine whose receptor is expressed on T, B, and NK cells. Within the B cell lineage, IL-21 regulates IgG1 production and cooperates with IL-4 for the production of multiple Ab classes in vivo. Using IL-21-transgenic mice and hydro-dynamics-based gene delivery of IL-21 plasmid DNA into wild-type mice as well as in vitro studies, we demonstrate that although IL-21 induces death of resting B cells, it promotes differentiation of B cells into postswitch and plasma cells. Thus, IL-21 differentially inﬂuences B cell fate depending on the signaling context, explaining how IL-21 can be proapoptotic for B cells in vitro yet critical for Ag-speciﬁc Ig production in vivo. Moreover, we demonstrate that IL-21 unexpectedly induces expression of both Blimp-1 and Bcl-6, indicating mechanisms as to how IL-21 can serve as a complex regulator of B cell maturation and terminal differentiation. Finally, BXSB- Yaa mice, which develop a systemic lupus erythematosus-like disease, have greatly elevated IL-21, suggesting a role for IL-21 in the development of autoimmune disease. The Journal of Immunology, 2004, 173: 5361–5371.
Mechanisms Involved in the Improvement of Lipotoxicity and Impaired Lipid Metabolism by Dietary α-Linolenic Acid Rich Salvia hispanica L (Salba) Seed in the Heart of Dyslipemic Insulin-Resistant Rats

This study explores the mechanisms underlying the altered lipid metabolism in the heart of dyslipemic insulin-resistant (IR) rats fed a sucrose-rich diet (SRD) and investigates if chia seeds (rich in α-linolenic acid 18:3, n-3 ALA) improve/reverse cardiac lipotoxicity. Wistar rats received an SRD-diet for three months. Half of the animals continued with the SRD up to month 6. The other half was fed an SRD in which the fat source, corn oil (CO), was replaced by chia seeds from month 3 to 6 (SRD+chia). A reference group consumed a control diet (CD) all the time. Triglyceride, long-chain acyl CoA (LC ACoA) and diacylglycerol (DAG) contents, pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHc) and muscle-type carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (M-CPT1) activities and protein mass levels of M-CPT1, membrane fatty acid transporter (FAT/CD36), peroxisome proliferator activated receptor α (PPARα) and uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) were analyzed. Results show that: (a) the hearts of SRD-fed rats display lipotoxicity suggesting impaired myocardial lipid utilization; (b) Compared with the SRD group, dietary chia normalizes blood pressure; reverses/improves heart lipotoxicity, glucose oxidation, the increased protein mass level of FAT/CD36, and the impaired insulin stimulated FAT/CD36 translocation to the plasma membrane. The enhanced M-CPT1 activity is markedly reduced without similar changes in protein mass. PPARα slightly decreases, while the UCP2 protein level remains unchanged in all groups. Normalization of dyslipidemia and IR by chia reduces plasma fatty acids (FAs) availability, suggesting that a different milieu prevents the robust translocation of FAT/CD36. This could reduce the influx of FAs, decreasing the elevated M-CPT1 activity and lipid storage and improving glucose oxidation in cardiac muscles of SRD-fed rats.
Language and the Evolution of Cognition

The main purpose of this article is to discuss the kinds of mental representations that are required for language to evolve. Firstly, I distinguish between cued and detached representations. A cued representation stands for something that is present in the current external situation of the representing organism, while a detached representation may stand for objects or events that are neither present in the current situation nor triggered by some recent situation. The inner environment of an agent is deÞned as the collection of all detached representations of the agent. The fundamental difference between signal and a symbol is that the reference of a symbol is a detached representation, while a signal refers to a cued representation. Icons also refer to detached representations, but unlike symbols, the choice of representation is not arbitrary, since an icon in some aspects resembles the thing it represents (Less)
Creating a space for increased community feeling among geographically distributed teachers

We present the initial stages of a project in which we focus on participatory design methods to build information and communication technology support that stimulate knowledge sharing in a group of geographically distributed teachers. Teachers in general spend most of their time in a classroom leaving few opportunities for social encounters and chats with their colleagues. The prototype we are developing focuses on informality and playfulness, that would increase the social communication and thereby the community feeling. In turn, this would ultimately increase learning among the setting members.
Electrochemical properties of titanium nitride nerve stimulation electrodes: an in vitro and in vivo study

The in vivo electrochemical behavior of titanium nitride (TiN) nerve stimulation electrodes was compared to their in vitro behavior for a period of 90 days. Ten electrodes were implanted in two Göttingen minipigs. Four of these were used for electrical stimulation and electrochemical measurements. Five electrodes were kept in Ringer's solution at 37.5°C, of which four were used for electrical stimulation and electrochemical measurements. The voltage transients measured in vivo were 13 times greater than in vitro at implantation and they continued to increase with time. The electrochemical properties in vivo and the tissue resistance (Rtissue) followed a similar trend with time. There was no consistent significant difference between the electrochemical properties of the in vivo and in vitro electrodes after the implanted period. The differences between the in vivo and in vitro electrodes during the implanted period show that the evaluation of electrochemical performance of implantable stimulation electrodes cannot be substituted with in vitro measurements. After the implanted period, however, the performance of the in vivo and in vitro electrodes in saline was similar. In addition, the changes observed over time during the post-implantation period regarding the electrochemical properties of the in vivo electrodes and Rtissue were similar, which indicates that these changes are due to the foreign body response to implantation.
Assessing the Incidence and Wage Effects of Over-Skilling in the Australian Labour Market

This paper examines the incidence and wage effects of overskilling in Australia. It finds that approximately 30 per cent of employees believed themselves to be moderately overskilled and 11 per cent believed themselves to be severely overskilled. The incidence of skills mismatch varied little when the sample was split by education. After controlling for individual and job characteristics as well as the potential bias arising from individual unobserved heterogeneity, severely overskilled workers suffer an average wage penalty of 10.2 per cent with the penalty ranging from about 6 per cent among vocationally qualified employees to just less than 20 per cent for graduates.
Afrontamiento del estrés por aculturación: inmigrantes latinos en Chile

Las minorias migrantes afrontan el estres aculturativo con respuestas conductuales y cognitivas. Las fuentes de estres de aculturacion incluyen la discriminacion, las diferencias socioculturales, la anoranza del origen y la ruptura familiar. Se entrevistaron a 853 inmigrantes peruanos y colombianos en Chile (51% mujeres, y edad M = 33.19; DE = 9.54). Se aplicaron escalas de estres de aculturacion y formas de afrontamiento. La distancia y anoranza familiar fue la principal fuente de estres siendo mayor entre los colombianos, quienes usan mas la movilidad individual, la distraccion y las comparaciones sociales, mientras los peruanos internalizan mas el estigma del inmigrante. Las comparaciones intergrupales y temporales se relacionaron con menor estres de aculturacion. Se discute la importancia de las formas de afrontar el estres en minorias migrantes.
Banking Market Conditions and Deposit Interest Rates

This paper addresses the impact market conditions on bank deposit interest rates. Examining data for 1988-2000, we find that rates are affected by market size structure (defined as the distribution of market shares of banks of different sizes whether or not the market share is achieved entirely in that local market). This is in addition to the effects of market concentration noted in earlier work. We also find large differences between urban and rural markets. In rural areas, changes in market concentration have no effect on deposit rates. These findings have implications for antitrust policy in banking.
Partially Disordered Structure in Intravirus Coat Protein of Potyvirus Potato Virus A

Potyviruses represent the most biologically successful group of plant viruses, but to our knowledge, this work is the first detailed study of physicochemical characteristics of potyvirus virions. We measured the UV absorption, far and near UV circular dichroism spectra, intrinsic fluorescence spectra, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) melting curves of intact particles of a potato virus A (PVA). PVA virions proved to have a peculiar combination of physicochemical properties. The intravirus coat protein (CP) subunits were shown to contain an unusually high fraction of disordered structures, whereas PVA virions had an almost normal thermal stability. Upon heating from 20°C to 55°C, the fraction of disordered structures in the intravirus CP further increased, while PVA virions remained intact at up to 55°C, after which their disruption (and DSC melting) started. We suggest that the structure of PVA virions below 55°C is stabilized by interactions between the remaining structured segments of intravirus CP. It is not improbable that the biological efficiency of PVA relies on the disordered structure of intravirus CP.
Searches for Giant Pulses from Extragalactic Pulsars

We discuss the giant-pulse phenomenon exhibited by pulsars and the distances to which giant pulses might be detected from extragalactic pulsars. We describe the conditions under which a single-pulse search is more sensitive than a standard periodicity search. We find that, for certain pulse-amplitude distribution power laws and time series lengths, single-pulse searches can be superior. We present the results of searches toward several extragalactic targets, including M33, the LMC (PSR B0540-69), and several other galaxies. While we have not conclusively detected giant pulses from any of these targets, these searches illustrate the methodology of, issues related to, and difficulties in these types of searches.
Understanding the Relation Between Participating in the New Culture and Identification: Two Studies With Latin American Immigrants

Participation in a new culture and identification with a new culture are important issues faced by millions of immigrants today. Literature describes three possible relations between participation and identification. First, some researchers postulate that they are part of the basic acculturation phenomenon and hence equivalent (Model 1). Others postulate that either identification with a new culture encourages participation in it (Model 2) or participation helps identification with a new culture (Model 3). The goal of the present article was to determine which model best describes the relation between participating in a new culture and identification with it. In Study 1, Latin American immigrants (N = 146) answered a questionnaire, and the fit of each of the three models was compared using path analyses. Results showed that the best fitting model was one where participation in the new culture positively predicted identification with it. These results were confirmed in Study 2, where semistructured interviews of 15 immigrants were analyzed. The two studies in the present article help us understand the relation between participation in the new culture and identification as well as the scope of the changes brought on by immigration.