Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphosyntactic processing in advanced second language (L2) learners: An event-related potential investigation of the effects of L1–L2 similarity and structural distance

Different theoretical accounts of second language (L2) acquisition differ with respect to whether or not advanced learners are predicted to show native-like processing for features not instantiated in the native language (L1). We examined how native speakers of English, a language with number but not gender agreement, process number and gender agreement in Spanish. We compare agreement within a determiner phrase (órgano muy complejo ‘[DP organ-MASC-SG very complex-MASC-SG]’) and across a verb phrase (cuadro es auténtico ‘painting-MASC-SG [VP is authentic-MASC-SG]’) in order to investigate whether native-like processing is limited to local domains (e.g. within the phrase), in line with Clahsen and Felser (2006). We also examine whether morphological differences in how the L1 and L2 realize a shared feature impact processing by comparing number agreement between nouns and adjectives, where only Spanish instantiates agreement, and between demonstratives and nouns, where English also instantiates agreement. Similar to Spanish natives, advanced learners showed a P600 for both number and gender violations overall, in line with the Full Transfer / Full Access Hypothesis (Schwartz and Sprouse, 1996), which predicts that learners can show native-like processing for novel features. Results also show that learners can establish syntactic dependencies outside of local domains, as suggested by the presence of a P600 for both within and across-phrase violations. Moreover, similar to native speakers, learners were impacted by the structural distance (number of intervening phrases) between the agreeing elements, as suggested by the more positive waveforms for within-phrase than across-phrase agreement overall. These results are consistent with the proposal that learners are sensitive to hierarchical structure.
School tracking and educational inequality: a comparison of 12 education systems in Switzerland

Using data from the super-sample of the ‘PISA Suisse’ 2003 assessment, this article examines the relationship between the characteristics of education systems (made up of homogeneous or heterogeneous tracks) and their consequences in terms of effectiveness and equity. Our results indicate that it is not so much the official structure of tracks as the ways in which tracking is really organised – and, in particular, the degree of segregation that tracking methods involve – which make it possible to explain inequalities among students. They also show that some education systems are more inegalitarian than others and that the factors leading to inequalities can vary significantly from one Swiss canton to another. Finally, through multilevel analyses, we demonstrate that when the individual and aggregate characteristics of students are taken into account, the type of track a student attends is of only limited significance for explaining inequalities, which suggests that the effects of tracking are in fact linked to the nature of the population educated in the tracks.
Distance Estimation in a Small-Scale Environment

In a test of cognitive distance perception participants estimated a walk in a picturesque village to be, on average, twice as long as an equal-length journey in a city. It is unlikely that any or all of the factors at present known to influence distance perception can account for such a large difference. A small correlation between estimate size and subject's height in the village but not the city suggests that distance estimates were based on different factors in the two places and that the scale of our interaction with our environment may influence our judgment of distance. It is hypothesized that small-scale places without cars may seem much larger than expected and that space may, so to speak, be made as if out of nothing by appropriate design.
Dot Blot Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Monitoring the Fate of Insecticidal Toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis in Soil

The release of transgenic plants and microorganisms expressing truncated genes from Bacillus thuringiensis that code for active insecticidal toxins rather than for the inactive protoxins could result in the accumulation of these active proteins in soil, especially when bound on clay minerals and other soil particles. To monitor the fate of these toxins in soil, a dot blot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that detects free and particle-bound toxins from B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki and subsp. tenebrionis was developed. The lower limit of detection of the toxins, either free or adsorbed or bound on the clay minerals montmorillonite (M) or kaolinite (K) or on the clay-particle-size fraction separated from soil (by sedimentation according to Stokes' Law), was approximately 3 ng. Antibodies (Ab) to the toxins from B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki and from B. thuringiensis subsp. thuringiensis were raised in goats and rabbits, respectively, and each Ab was rendered specific by adsorption onto CNBr-activated Sepharose coupled with the other toxin. The preadsorbed Ab were specific for the toxins from both subspecies, both free and bound on M, K, or the clay-particle-size fraction of soil. The toxins that were added to sterile and nonsterile soil amended with M or K or not amended were detected on the clay-particle-size fraction of the soil after various periods of incubation by the dot blot ELISA. No toxins were detected on the silt- and sand-particle-size fractions. Each dot blot, containing various amounts of toxins and/or clays, was applied to a polyvinylidene difluoride membrane in a dot blot vacuum system. The toxins were still detectable on the clay-particle-size fraction of nonsterile soil after 40 days. This agreed with preliminary results of other studies in this laboratory that when these toxins bind on clay minerals, they become resistant to utilization by microorganisms.
Fatigue in mothers of infants and young children: factor structure of the fatigue assessment scale

Background: Fatigue is a common experience among mothers of young children, yet there are few well validated tools to assess fatigue in mothers. Purpose: The aim of this paper was to examine the suitability, construct validity, and reliability of the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS). Method: Participants were 779 mothers of young children (aged 0–5 years) living in Australia who participated in an online survey about parent health and wellbeing. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that both one- and two-factor models representing physical and cognitive aspects of fatigue, with modifications, were an adequate fit to the data. Modified versions demonstrated high internal consistency. Measurement invariance was also established across mothers in the postnatal period and mothers of older children. Conclusions: The utility of the FAS in assessing maternal fatigue is discussed, along with implications for clinical use and future research.
Comparing the effects of instructional and transformational leadership on student achievement

The purpose of this study was to compare transformational and instructional leadership theories, examine the unique impact that school leaders have on student achievement, and determine which specific leadership practices are associated with increased student achievement. The sample for this study consisted of 590 teachers in 37 elementary schools in the Intermountain West of the United States. Teachers rated their principals’ leadership style according to the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Transformational Leadership) and the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (Instructional leadership). Student achievement was measured by a criterion referenced test. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis. Results indicated that instructional leadership explained more of the variance in student achievement than did transformational leadership. Principals’ leadership style tended to have a meaningful impact on student achievement beyond the impact of school context and principal demographics. Specific leadership functions associated with student achievement were also identified and reported. Conclusion, implications and limitations are also discussed.
Differentiating antecedents of organizational commitment: a test of March and Simon's model

Recent theory regarding the nature of organizational commitment suggests that viewing it as comprised of two dimensions, value commitment and continuance commitment, is of theoretical and practical value. This field study found the differential antecedents of these two commitment dimensions to be consistent with the March and Simon (1958) framework using the two-dimensional organizational commitment questionnaire from Mayer and Schoorman (1992). Organizational tenure, retirement benefits, education, and age were more highly correlated with continuance commitment, while felt participation, perceived prestige, job involvement, and role ambiguity were more highly correlated with value commitment. Analysis using LISREL 7 supported the pattern of relationships between the antecedents and the two commitment dimensions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A CMOS Imager With Column-Level ADC Using Dynamic Column Fixed-Pattern Noise Reduction

This paper presents a CMOS imager with column-level ADC that uses a dynamic column fixed-pattern noise (FPN) reduction technique. This technique, called dynamic column switching (DCS), strongly reduces the perceptual effects of nonuniformities introduced by the column-level ADC or any other column-wise circuit element. This relaxes the uniformity requirements on the column-level ADC circuitry, which can significantly decrease power consumption and chip area. The proposed DCS technique requires only five transistors per column and minimal digital overhead at the chip level. A prototype was realized in a 0.18 mum CMOS process. The implemented column-level ADC uses a single-slope architecture and features a low-power column circuit design. In the measured images, the application of dynamic column switching make a column FPN of plusmn0.67% of full scale nearly invisible to the human eye
Volitional enhancement of firing synchrony and oscillation by neuronal operant conditioning: interaction with neurorehabilitation and brain-machine interface

In this review, we focus on neuronal operant conditioning in which increments in neuronal activities are directly rewarded without behaviors. We discuss the potential of this approach to elucidate neuronal plasticity for enhancing specific brain functions and its interaction with the progress in neurorehabilitation and brain-machine interfaces. The key to-be-conditioned activities that this paper emphasizes are synchronous and oscillatory firings of multiple neurons that reflect activities of cell assemblies. First, we introduce certain well-known studies on neuronal operant conditioning in which conditioned enhancements of neuronal firing were reported in animals and humans. These studies demonstrated the feasibility of volitional control over neuronal activity. Second, we refer to the recent studies on operant conditioning of synchrony and oscillation of neuronal activities. In particular, we introduce a recent study showing volitional enhancement of oscillatory activity in monkey motor cortex and our study showing selective enhancement of firing synchrony of neighboring neurons in rat hippocampus. Third, we discuss the reasons for emphasizing firing synchrony and oscillation in neuronal operant conditioning, the main reason being that they reflect the activities of cell assemblies, which have been suggested to be basic neuronal codes representing information in the brain. Finally, we discuss the interaction of neuronal operant conditioning with neurorehabilitation and brain-machine interface (BMI). We argue that synchrony and oscillation of neuronal firing are the key activities required for developing both reliable neurorehabilitation and high-performance BMI. Further, we conclude that research of neuronal operant conditioning, neurorehabilitation, BMI, and system neuroscience will produce findings applicable to these interrelated fields, and neuronal synchrony and oscillation can be a common important bridge among all of them.
Rocking the Youth Vote Through Debate: examining the effects of a citizen versus journalist controlled debate on civic engagement

During the 2003–4 US presidential primary campaign, the national youth vote organization Rock the Vote partnered with CNN to sponsor a nationally-televised debate where eight Democratic presidential candidates participated in a town hall forum responding to questions posed by young citizens. In fact, this was the first-ever televised presidential debate (primary or general election) devoted exclusively to the concerns of young voters. The current study examines the effects of viewing this debate, and particularly the debate's influence on young citizens’ “normative” democratic attitudes and values. To help us better understand how the Rock the Vote/CNN debate may have affected young voters, we compare reactions to the youth-targeted debate to young citizens’ responses when viewing a traditional candidate debate in which journalists questioned the candidates. Results suggest that the youth-targeted Rock the Vote/CNN debate dialogue was framed in ways that encouraged greater identification between young citizens and the candidates, contributing to a heighten level of political efficacy among young voters.
Personalizing Robot Tutors to Individuals’ Learning Differences

In education research, there is a widely-cited result called “Bloom’s two sigma” that characterizes the differences in learning outcomes between students who receive one-on-one tutoring and those who receive traditional classroom instruction [1]. Tutored students scored in the 95th percentile, or two sigmas above the mean, on average, compared to students who received traditional classroom instruction. In human-robot interaction research, however, there is relatively little work exploring the potential benefits of personalizing a robot’s actions to an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. In this study, participants solved grid-based logic puzzles with the help of a personalized or non-personalized robot tutor. Participants’ puzzle solving times were compared between two non-personalized control conditions and two personalized conditions (n=80). Although the robot’s personalizations were less sophisticated than what a human tutor can do, we still witnessed a “one-sigma” improvement (68th percentile) in post-tests between treatment and control groups. We present these results as evidence that even relatively simple personalizations can yield significant benefits in educational or assistive human-robot interactions. Categories and Subject Descriptors I.2. 9 [Artificial Intelligence]: Robotics; J.4 [Computer Applications]: Social And Behavioral Sciences—Psychology General Terms Experimentation
Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of auxin response factor gene family in Medicago truncatula

Auxin response factors (ARFs) bind specifically to auxin response elements (AuxREs) in the promoters of down-stream target genes and play roles in plant responses to diverse environmental factors. Using the latest updated Medicago truncatula reference genome sequence, a comprehensive characterization and analysis of 24 MtARF (M. truncatula ARF) genes were performed. To uncover the basic information and functions of MtARF genes during symbiosis, we analyzed the expression patterns of MtARF genes during the early phase of Sinorhizobium meliloti infection. The systematic analysis indicated that changes in MtARF gene expression occur during these early stages of infection, suggesting a functional role in symbiosis. Furthermore, the roles of MtARF-mediated auxin signaling in symbiosis were tested in the infection resistant mutant (dmi3). The expression responses of MtARFs to S. meliloti infection were attenuated in the mutant compared to wild-type A17. In summary, our results show that changes in MtARF gene expression occur during the response to S. meliloti infection, suggesting that members of this family may have important roles in the symbiotic interaction.
Macrophage Apoptosis in Tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is an intracellular pathogen that infects alveolar macrophages following aerosol transmission. Lung macrophages provide a critical intracellular niche that is required for Mtb to establish infection in the human host. This parasitic relationship is made possible by the capacity of Mtb to block phagosome maturation following entry into the host macrophage, creating an environment that supports bacillary replication. Apoptosis is increasingly understood to play a role in host defense against intracellular pathogens including viruses, fungi, protozoa and bacteria. In the last 15 years an understanding of the role that macrophage apoptosis plays in TB has begun to emerge. Here we review the history and current state of the art of this topic and we offer a model of the macrophage-pathogen interaction that takes into the account the complexities of programmed cell death and the relationship between various death signaling pathways and host defense in TB.
THE EFFECT OF JAPANESE KAIZEN ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION IN U.S. MANUFACTURING

The transition of U.S. manufacturing from traditional methods to Japanese kaizen has resulted in dramatic gains in productivity. While kaizen clearly employs scientific management techniques, this conversion also appears to result in enriched jobs and increased motivation. To determine any such effect, the Job Characteristics Model was utilized to study a sample of 236 production employees drawn from three manufacturing facilities. The results suggest that kaizen increases job enrichment and employee motivation, and may move employees to higher levels of growth need strength. Implications for manufacturing management are also discussed.
Effect of feedback delay and channel gain difference on distributed beamforming

The performances of distributed beamforming (BF) with feedback delay have been evaluated for the several scenarios of the distributed channel gain differences. The performance degradations by feedback delay and by using codebook-based BF are analyzed according to the channel gain difference. As the most complexity-reduced alternative, selective power allocation (PA) is also compared with the full feedback-based BF and the codebook-based BF. Based on the results, we note several distinguishable behavior of the distributed BF compared to the clustered BF. 1) Large differences among the channel gains (most typical scenario of distributed BF) suppress the feedback delay effect on performance degradation compared to the case of no differences among the channel gains (similar to the case of clustered BF). 2) However, performance degradation by codebook-based BF becomes more severe in the case of large differences among the channel gains compared to the case of small differences among the channel gains irrespective of feedback delay. With large differences among the channel gains, codebook-based BF gets even worse than the selective PA in distributed BF. 3) For the case of large differences among the channel gains, selective PA is a good alternative to the full feedback-based BF. However, this is only for the case of small feedback delay. The performance gap becomes non-negligible as the feedback delay increases. On the other hand, for the case of no or small channel gain differences, selective PA is a good alternative to the full feedback-based BF as the feedback delay increases.
The phonology of Armenian

Introduction 1. Survey of Armenian phonology 2. Theoretical background 3. Syllabification 4. Stress assignment and metrical structure 5. Vowel harmony 6. Consonant-vowel interactions 7. Laryngeal features and consonant shifts 8. Prosodic phenomena References
Wall-pressure-array measurements beneath a separating/reattaching flow region

A database of wall-pressure-array measurements was compiled for studying the space–time character of the surface-pressure field within a separating/reattaching flow region. The experimental setup consisted of a long splitter plate located within the wake of a fence and instrumented with an array of flush-mounted microphones. Data were acquired for a Reynolds number of 7900, based on the fence height above the splitter plate. Two distinctive regions, defined based on their location relative to the position of the mean reattachment point (xr) of the shear layer, emerged from this investigation. Upstream, from the fence to 0.25xr, the surface-pressure signature was dominated by large time scale disturbances and an upstream convection velocity of 0.21U∞. Beyond 0.25xr, turbulent structures with smaller time scales and a downstream convection velocity of 0.57U∞ generated most of the pressure fluctuations. Interestingly, the low-frequency wall-pressure signature typically associated with the flapping of the sep.
New phase-vocoder techniques for real-time pitch shifting

The phase-vocoder is a well-established tool for time-scaling and pitch shifting speech and audio signals. Its theory is now well understood and improvements have been proposed to reduce artifacts commonly encountered when time-expanding signals by large factors 1, 2, 3, 4]. In the literature, the phase-vocoder has been described primarily as a tool for time-scaling rather than pitch shifting, the latter usually being achieved by a combination of time-scaling and sampling rate conversion 5, 6]. This article focuses mainly on pitch-scale modiication of speech and audio signals , and discusses the drawbacks of the standard time-scale/resampling technique. Two alternative techniques are presented that signiicantly reduce the complexity and computational cost, while ooering dramatically extended capabilities. In particular, the new techniques , which operate solely in the frequency domain, enable chorusing, harmonizing and non-standard frequency modiications such as partial-stretching (non-linear frequency scaling), frequency inversions and so on. 0 Introduction timescale and pitch-scale modiications of speech and audio signals have now become a standard feature in many products ranging from sound-design software to telephone answering systems, musical eeect processors, professional CD players, hard-disk recorders and so on. As the computation power of DSP and general purpose processors keeps on increasing, more elaborate techniques such as the phase-vocoder, once connned to academic research or dedicated hardware, progressively make their way into inexpensive consumer products or PC-based software. Simultaneously, more research has been devoted to improving their performance and reducing their cost, see for example 1, 7, 3, 4] for improved phase-vocoder time-scaling techniques. The phase-vocoder has always been a highly praised technique for timescale modiications of speech and audio signals, being free of the artifacts usually encountered in time-domain techniques 6, 5], such as war-bling and tempo-modulation. The most standard way to carry out pitch-scale modiications in the phase-vocoder framework is to rst perform timescale modi-cation, then perform time-domain sampling rate conversion on the resulting signal. For example, in order to raise the pitch of a signal by 2 while keeping its duration unchanged, one would use the phase-vocoder to time-expand the signal by a factor 2, leaving the pitch unchanged, and then upsample the resulting signal by a factor 2, thereby restoring the original duration while raising the pitch by a factor 2. In this paper, the standard technique is shown to have several drawbacks: it only enables linear pitch-scaling mod-iications (whereby all frequencies are multiplied by the same ratio) and the …