Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effects of using peer, self and teacher-assessment on Iranian EFL learners' writing ability at three levels of task complexity

In the present study, the effects of using peer-, self-, and teacher-assessment on nurturing students’ accuracy in writing skill were analyzed and furthermore, the researchers intended to perform the study at three levels of task complexity (simple, medium and complex), to find out whether being engaged in more complex tasks will help students improve accuracy in writing. This study was performed based on a framework for task design proposed by Robinson (2001, 2003, 2005, & 2007). To fulfill the purpose of this study, 81 (48 female and 33 male) upper-intermediate EFL learners of Iranmehr language institutes were chosen among a total number of 117 by means of a Nelson English Language Proficiency Test as the homogeneity test. Afterwards they were divided into three groups of Teacher Assessment (control group), Peer- and Self- Assessment (as experimental groups). After a pre-test, the students were exposed to some training for writing at three different levels of task complexity. Each student was assessed based on the group s/he was placed in using a rating scale in peer, and self-assessment groups. Then the post-test was administered and the gathered data was analyzed. The results indicated that although all three methods of assessment led to the students’ progress, however, Self-Assessment method was the most effective method and Teacher and Peer were the second and third respectively. Furthermore, although a rise in the complexity level led to increment in results consistently, the increment in the second level was much higher than the third one which was contributable to less concentration in the third level.
Cortical and Hippocampal Atrophy in Patients with Autosomal Dominant Familial Alzheimer’s Disease

Background: Both familial and sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) result in progressive cortical and subcortical atrophy. Familial autosomal dominant AD (FAD) allows us to study AD brain changes presymptomatically. Methods: 33 subjects at risk for FAD (25 for PSEN1 and 8 for APP mutations; 22 mutation carriers and 11 controls) and 3 demented PSEN1 mutation carriers underwent T1-weighted MPRAGE 1.5T MRI. Using the hippocampal radial distance and cortical pattern matching techniques, we investigated the effects of carrier status and dementia diagnosis on cortical and hippocampal atrophy. All analyses were corrected for age and relative age (years to median age of disease onset in the family). Results: The dementia cases had pronounced cortical atrophy in the lateral and medial parietal, posterior cingulate and frontal cortices and hippocampal atrophy bilaterally relative to both nondemented carriers and controls. Nondemented carriers did not show significant cortical thinning or hippocampal atrophy relative to controls. Conclusions: FAD is associated with thinning of the posterior association and frontal cortices and hippocampal atrophy. Larger sample sizes may be necessary to reliably identify cortical atrophy in presymptomatic carriers.
Evidence of a Sex-Dependent Association between the MSX1 Locus and Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip with or without Cleft Palate in the Chilean Population

Prior studies have implicated an involvement of the Msx1 homeobox gene in cleft palate in mice and its homolog in humans (called MSX1 in the HOX7 gene, located on chromosome 4). In this study we present evidence of a sex-dependent association between MSX1 and nonsyndromic cleft lip/palate (NSCLP) in the Chilean population. The sample included 73 NSCLP cases, 37 from multiplex families (Mx), 36 from simplex families (Sx), and 87 controls. Polymerase chain reaction amplification of the MSX1 intragenic microsatellite (CA)n-sequence shows significant (p = 0.035) differences in the allele frequencies between NSCLP-Mx males and control males. These differences are mainly due to frequency differences in allele *2 (173 base pairs) among cases (21.9%) and controls (13.2%). When the NSCLP cases are subdivided by sex and positive family history (Mx versus Sx), the Mx males (27.8%) as well as the total NSCLP-Mx cases (25.7%) showed significantly higher frequencies of allele *2, compared to controls (11.4% and 13.2%, respectively). Analysis of the genotype data indicates that the relative risk for NSCLP is greater for persons carrying allele *2 (i.e., odds ratio [OR] larger than 1), reaching significance for all Mx cases (OR = 2.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10 to 6.52) and even more pronounced for Mx males (OR = 3.33; 95% CI, 1.08 to 10.32). Taken together, these findings support the hypothesis that the genetic variation at the MSX1 locus is a predisposing gene involved in sex-dependent susceptibility to clefting and that it also differentiates simplex from multiplex families.
Social Mobility and Education of Finnish Cohorts Born 1936—75

This is a study of the intergenerational occupational class mobility of cohorts born 1936—75 in Finland and of the role of the changes in educational attainment. The data are taken from the Finnish Census Panel, from which mobility tables for 5-year cohorts that have reached the age of 25 have been constructed at 7 time-points: 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2000. The period change in social fluidity appears to be towards greater openness for both men and women. However, the cohort differences are more significant. Class origins and destinations are more strongly associated with the youngest cohorts than with the cohorts born in 1951—65, suggesting a strengthening of social inheritance. The period change can be explained by the changes in educational attainment. However, although the changes in the origin—education association play some role in reducing cohort differences, controlling education-related variation does not change them very much. The findings suggest that, in order to explain the cohort differences, it might be worthwhile considering institutional factors other than education.
Electoral Reform and Political Stability in Lesotho

Although somewhat chequered, Lesotho's political and constitutional history has been relatively smooth and peaceful compared to what was experienced by many African countries. The struggle for independence and the ultimate handover of power to the Basotho King by Britain were free of violence. Yet this did not lead to a stable and consensual post-colonial society in Lesotho. Intermittent peace-threatening episodes pervade Lesotho's 37-year period of independence. This notwithstanding, the country has enjoyed short periods of constitutional rule, the first being from 1966 to 1970 while the second roughly extends from 1993 to today, that is 2003. What might have been a democratic transition for Lesotho was dealt a severe blow by Chief Jonathan's annulment of the first post-independence elections, which he had lost to his rival, Ntsu Mokhehle. Because of a 20-year one-party rule that followed, constitutionalism as understood today to mean espousal of certain values about the fundamentals of government and governance was barely able to take root within the Lesotho polity. The return in 1993 to constitutional rule and the reinstatement of popular elections as formulae for distributing power and appointing rulers are still the focus of party-political contentions as these are not anchored in an electoral system with an in-built conflict resolution mechanism. This paper explores these issues.
Adults' estimates of pre‐school children's verbal and motor abilities compared with those children's scores on an individual developmental test

Forty-seven mothers estimated their pre-school children's development on a psychometrically constructed multidomain mothers' inventory. Similar data were obtained for the same children from 13 pre-school teachers. The mothers' and pre-school teachers' estimates were compared to the children's scores on McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA). The mothers' inventory responses yielded convergent–divergent correlations with the MSCA results; in two domains out of seven, their standardized estimations were significantly lower than standardized MSCA scores, and in no case higher. Teachers' estimates deviated more than mothers' estimates from MSCA verbal and motor development scores, though in the latter case the difference between teachers and mothers were less marked. Both mothers' and teachers' difference scores (i.e. deviation of their estimates from MSCA scores) were highly correlated with the respective MSCA scores. However, when the difference scores are adjusted for shared error variance, the correlations shrink and are in most cases non-significant.
A narrative approach for speech signal based MMSE estimation using quantum parameters

In this paper, the performance of different estimators in estimating the speech signal through Quantum parameters can be analyzed. The main objective is to estimate the speech signal by a set of linear and Non-linear estimators that are proposed to be efficient in performance. The Minimax mean square error estimator is designed to minimize the worst-case MSE. In an estimation context, the objective typically is to minimize the size of the estimation error, rather than that of the data error as a cause, in many practical scenarios the least-squares estimator is known to result in a large MSE. A comparative analysis between MMSE estimator with other linear and nonlinear estimators can be performed. The analysis proved that the MMSE estimator can outperform both from linear and nonlinear estimator.
Differences in Persistence Patterns Between Life and Physical Science Majors : The Role of Grades , Peers , and Preparation

Using longitudinal administrative data from a large elite research university, this paper separately analyzes the determinants of persistence for life and physical science majors. My results confirm much of the previous research on major persistence in the sciences, but I document that many findings are solely driven by persistence patterns in the physical sciences. For example, I show that the previously documented gender gap in science major persistence is due entirely to a large gap in the physical sciences. Despite large differences in persistence patterns between physical and life science, persistence in both fields is similarly influenced by grades. I provide suggestive evidence that students in both fields are “pulled away” by their high grades in non-science courses and “pushed out” by their low grades in their major field. In the physical sciences, analyses using within course and cohort variation show that peer quality in a student’s introductory courses has a lasting impact on the probability of persisting. ∗I would like to thank Ron Ehrenberg, George Jakubson, Joshua Price, Mirinda Martin, Doug Webber, Ken Whelan, and Carrie Ost for very helpful comments. I thank the Sloan Foundation for financial support. Also, I am indebted to the entire Institutional Research and Planning Department at Cornell University, and in particular Marin Clarkberg and Dan McGough for invaluable help with data.
Education and fragile states

Within the fragile states agendas and policies of development agencies and organisations education is of concern; education is a social service sector in which the impacts of state fragility are significant, in terms of access and quality of provision for children, working conditions and support for teachers, good governance and legitimacy for the society/community as a whole. However, this article argues that education should be at the centre of fragile states discussions as more than a basic service; in relation to fragility, education is at the same time cause, effect, problem and possible solution. Education needs to be part of fragility analysis as well as in the identification of priority stabilising interventions. In education – as in other sectors and domains – gender equality and state fragility are inherently connected and gender equality must be integrated through all analysis and interventions. The article ends with some recommendations for moving in this direction.
pH of tooth surface in healthy adolescents at rest and after a glucose rinse: effect of 72 hours of plaque accumulation.

AIM This study was performed to evaluate the effect of a glucose rinse and of plaque accumulation on pH of tooth surface in healthy adolescents with a device used in gastroenterology and never tested in the oral cavity. MATERIALS AND METHODS Values of pH were monitored in 12 adolescents using a portable device (pH-day 2® Menfis, bioMedica S.r.l., Bologna, Italy) with a disposable antimonium electrode kept in contact with the interproximal surface of the upper molars for 40 minutes respectively before and after a one-minute rinse with 10 ml of a 10% glucose solution. The same procedure was repeated in the same subjects after 72 hours of plaque accumulation. RESULTS The device tested resulted difficult to use on the tooth surface because of the size of the active part of the probe. The glucose rinse caused a statistically significant decrease of the mean pH, restrained in basal conditions (d = -0.16, p <0.05), clinically relevant after plaque accumulation (d = -1.24, p <0.05). Time in minutes of pH < 6 grew considerably only in case of combination of plaque accumulation and glucose rinse (d = 20.90, p <0.05). A Stephan's curve of drop and recover of the pH values was not recorded. CONCLUSIONS The continuous recording of pH of natural plaque present on the tooth could represent an alternative to other techniques found in literature. More studies are necessary to verify the suitability of this new device for the monitoring of pH in the oral cavity.
Critical and Moral Stances in Consumer Studies

Critical and Moral Stances in Consumer Studies A distinguished group of panelists – Juliet Schor, Don Slater, Sharon Zukin and Viviana Zelizer – convened at the first conference sponsored by the Consumer Studies Research Network, held at Barnard College in 2007, to discuss their views on the state of sociological consumer research. The panelists agreed to formalize in writing their thoughts in response to the one question that dominated the discussion, sparking considerable engagement with the audience. The event was organized by Dan Cook, Rutgers University, and J. Michael Ryan, University of Maryland.
Trajectories of School Connectedness Across the Middle School Years

Students become increasingly disconnected from their schools across the middle school years, but little is known about the factors contributing to changes in school connectedness. This study examined the time-invariant and time-varying roles of depressive symptoms and externalizing problems in trajectories of student-perceived school connectedness across the middle school years. Three yearly waves of data were collected from 296 students beginning in the sixth grade. Hierarchical linear modeling results indicated that school connectedness declined across time. Initial levels of adjustment problems at school entry were concurrently associated with lower levels of connectedness. Initial levels of externalizing problems did not account for rate of decline, but elevated levels of externalizing problems across the middle school years were associated with lower concurrent levels of connectedness. Surprisingly, initial levels of depressive symptoms predicted a slower rate of decline in connectedness for boys. Findings highlight the detrimental associations between adjustment problems and school connectedness.
How Do Intentions Affect Loss Aversion?

Previously (see Novemsky and Kahneman 2005), the authors proposed that intentions to exchange versus to consume a good moderate loss aversion for that good. In this rejoinder, the authors follow up on this idea, discussing several mechanisms that Ariely, Huber, and Wertenbroch (2005) propose by which intentions can moderate loss aversion. The authors consider both emotional attachment to the good and cognitive focus during evaluation as potential mediators of the effects of intentions on loss aversion.
The value of employment for people living with spinal cord injury in Norway

The purpose of this article is to examine the value of employment for people living with spinal cord injury in Norway. The main focus in the 31 interviews dealt with general perceptions of integration and participation. The value of employment was a major theme, primarily described by the participants in terms of personal and social identity in interaction with others, as a hegemonic social norm and a sense of moral obligation to contribute to society. The value of meaningful regular jobs – in contrast to government projects jobs or routine jobs – was emphasized.
Antimicrobial and molecular analysis of Salmonella serovar Livingstone strains isolated from humans in Tunisia and Belgium.

INTRODUCTION Salmonella Livingstone is one of the most common serotypes responsible for nosocomial outbreaks in Tunisia. In this study, 42 isolates of Salmonella Livingstone were analyzed. Most of these were isolated from humans (31 strains from Tunisia and 9 strains from Belgium) and 2 isolates came from food products (beef and pork). METHODOLOGY All strains were characterized by antibiogram, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and virulotyping. This last technique was carried out by simple PCR of five chromosomal genes (agfA, hin/H2, iroB, phoP/Q, and slyA) and two plasmid genes (spvA and spvC). RESULTS All Tunisian strains were resistant to amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ticarcillin, cefalotin, gentamicin, and kanamycin. They were also resistant to third-generation cephalosporin antibiotics (cefotaxim and ceftazidim). Belgian isolates were susceptible to all antibiotics tested. Further to MLST analyses, Tunisian strains belonged to the same sequence type, ST543. For Belgian isolates, eight strains had a ST543 profile, two strains had a ST638 profile, and one strain had a ST457 profile. Analyses of the virulence gene contents showed that strains isolated in different years and from different origins had the same virulence profile. These carried all five chromosomal genes and lacked plasmid-located virulence genes spvA and spvC. CONCLUSIONS A combination of different typing methods showed that the majority of Belgian strains and all Tunisian strains were closely related; they belonged to the same sequence type (ST543) and had the same virulence profile, but different antibiotic resistance profiles depended on the country of origin.
ACTIVITY LEVEL AND INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING IN NORMAL PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

In this study, the ability to inhibit motor movement is distinguished from a more generalized low activity level. It is argued that the former should be functional for problem-solving while the latter should not. With a sample of 42 nursery-school children, measures were taken of activity level during free play, of inhibition of motor movement, of IQ, and of performance on the Children's Embedded Figures Test. Scores on inhibition of movement proved to be positively correlated with the measures of intellectual ability, while general activity scores were not.
Multi-Layered Cancer Chromosomal Instability Phenotype

Whole-chromosomal instability (W-CIN) – unequal chromosome distribution during cell division – is a characteristic feature of a majority of cancer cells distinguishing them from their normal counterparts. The precise molecular mechanisms that may cause mis-segregation of chromosomes in tumor cells just recently became more evident. The consequences of W-CIN are numerous and play a critical role in carcinogenesis. W-CIN mediates evolution of cancer cell population under selective pressure and can facilitate the accumulation of genetic changes that promote malignancy. It has both tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressive effects, and their balance could be beneficial or detrimental for carcinogenesis. The characterization of W-CIN as a complex multi-layered adaptive phenotype highlights the intra- and extracellular adaptations to the consequences of genome reshuffling. It also provides a framework for targeting aggressive chromosomally unstable cancers.
Interoceptive Sensitivity Modulates Anxiety During Public Speaking

This study explored the relationship between interoceptive sensitivity and the experience of public-speaking anxiety. We compared participants with high and low interoceptive sensitivity concerning self-report and behavioral measures of anxiety and concerning physiological variables before, during, and after a public-speaking task. Participants with high interoceptive sensitivity reported significantly less state anxiety before and after performing a public speech as well as less habitual public-speaking anxiety. No significant differences in behavioral or physiological measures were observed. We assume that individuals with high interoceptive sensitivity, to whom physiological signals are more easily accessible, experience less uncertainty during public speaking and can thus adjust their emotional processes more adequately. This finding appears in line with Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis, which suggests that reasoning, decision-making, and social behavior are optimized by body-related signals in com.
Assessment of dairy farmers hygienic milking practices and awareness on cattle milk-borne zoonoses in Bishoftu, Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Bishoftu town, Ethiopia, from November, 2016 to April, 2017, to assess smallholder urban dairy farmers’ milk hygiene practices and awareness on cattle milk-borne zoonoses. Data were collected from a total of 100 randomly selected dairy farmers using structured questionnaire. The results of the study showed that all respondents practiced hand milking, with twice (90%), once (8%) and thrice (2%) milking frequency per day. Most of the respondents (86%) cleaned their barn before milking and 98% used treated pipe water supply for farm activities. Plastic containers were commonly used for storage and transportation of milk. About 26 and 28% of the farmers used individual and common towel for wiping udder after washing, respectively. Most of the farmers (98%) did not practice post-milking dipping of teats. In all the farmers interviewed, respondents’ awareness levels of milk-borne zoonoses were 38.89, 33.33, 19.84, 6.35 and 1.6% for tuberculosis, mastitis, anthrax, brucellosis and salmonellosis, respectively. Based on the findings of this study, farmers’ awareness level on cattle milk-born zoonoses was low except for tuberculosis and mastitis. In conclusion, there was little awareness about milk borne diseases and some farmers adhered to some dairy hygiene practices. Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen farmers’ awareness, extension services and training programs for smallholders in dairy industry on milking hygiene practices and post-harvest handling of milk, to minimize the likely losses due to rejection of spoiled milk and milk-borne dangers which may occur due to consumption of contaminated milk. Key words: Bishoftu, farmers’ awareness, milk-borne zoonoses, milking hygiene.
Group-to-Individual Transfer of Learning

We investigate the effects of group collaboration on member learning in a laboratory experiment. We test the hypothesis, based on theoretical ideas from research on cooperative learning, that groups provide opportunities for transfer of learning to individuals and that such learning occurs via cognitive and social processes that arise during group interaction. Eighty-six students solved puzzles either individually, in groups, or individually while observing a group. Analysis of subsequent individual performance on a transfer task showed that participating in or observing a group caused transfer of learning, whereas working alone did not. Furthermore, results suggest that transfer of learning occurred mainly due to cognitive, but not social, factors. Implications for structuring group work are discussed.