Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semi-automatic generation of learning domain modules for technology supported learning systems

In a time when Technology Supported Learning Systems are being widely used, there is a lack of tools that allows their development in an automatic or semi-automatic way. Technology Supported Learning Systems require an appropriate Domain Module, ie. the pedagogical representation of the domain to be mastered, in order to be effective. However, content authoring is a time and effort consuming task, therefore, efforts in automatising the Domain Module acquisition are necessary.Traditionally, textbooks have been used as the main mechanism to maintain and transmit the knowledge of a certain subject or domain. Textbooks have been authored by domain experts who have organised the contents in a means that facilitate understanding and learning, considering pedagogical issues.Given that textbooks are appropriate sources of information, they can be used to facilitate the development of the Domain Module allowing the identification of the topics to be mastered and the pedagogical relationships among them, as well as the extraction of Learning Objects, ie. meaningful fragments of the textbook with educational purpose.Consequently, in this work DOM-Sortze, a framework for the semi-automatic construction of Domain Modules from electronic textbooks, has been developed. DOM-Sortze uses NLP techniques, heuristic reasoning and ontologies to fulfill its work. DOM-Sortze has been designed and developed with the aim of automatising the development of the Domain Module, regardless of the subject, promoting the knowledge reuse and facilitating the collaboration of the users during the process.
Inside the Black Box of Mentoring: African-American Adolescents, Youth Mentoring, and Stereotype Threat Conditions

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Evaluating the influence of international norms and shaming on state respect for rights: an audit experiment with foreign embassies

ABSTRACT How do international norms affect respect for human rights? We report the results of an audit experiment with foreign missions that investigates the extent to which state agents observe international norms and react to the potential of international shaming. Our experiment involved emailing 669 foreign diplomatic missions in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom with requests to contact domestic prisoners. According to the United Nations, prisoners have the right for individuals to contact them. We randomly varied (1) whether we reminded embassies about the existence of an international norm permitting prisoner contact and (2) whether the putative email sender is associated with a fictitious human rights organization and, thereby, has the capacity to shame missions through naming and shaming for violating this norm. We find strong evidence for the positive effect of international norms on state respect for human rights. Contra to our expectations, though, we find that the potential of international shaming does not increase the probability of state compliance. The positive effect of the norms cue disappears when it is coupled with the shaming cue, suggesting that shaming might have a ‘backfire’ effect.
Ethics as a solution to Corruption : a case study of the construction industry in Kenya

The construction industry endures a poor reputation and continues to experience ethical problems manifested in collapsed buildings, corrupt deals and a general lack of honesty. In this paper, the authors present results of an investigation into the prevalent ethical problems in the construction industry in Kenya and their impact on projects. A review of literature on corruption shows that emphasis is placed upon putting in place systems and policies for fighting corruption, yet this has not achieved much results. Literature in construction ethics shows that professional codes and ethics are only effective as far as the people are personally ethical. The method of conducting this study was through in-depth interviews of stakeholders to establish prevalent unethical practices in the industry. The authors present the results from a thematic analysis of perceptions of information-rich subjects from different sectors of the industry. The results show that unethical practices such as collusion, kickbacks and supplanting are mostly due to lack of honesty, greed and the desire to get rich quickly. The study concludes that most unethical practices are due to corrupt individual practices and recommends ways of incorporating ethics both at individual and institutional level.
How party‒issue linkages vary between election manifestos and media debates

Abstract Existing research on party behaviour has largely focused on the drivers of issue salience in direct party communication. However, less is known about party‒issue linkages in election campaigns covered by the mass media, from which most voters get their information about party positions. Against this background, this article explores how two important drivers of issue salience in direct party communication – issue ownership and systemic salience – play out in the media. Based on considerations about the news value of specific party‒issue associations, one would expect both relationships to be particularly important in the media. Despite substantial similarities in party‒issue linkages across platforms, a comparison of manifestos and newspaper content reveals evidence for this claim. In particular, smaller parties are hardly covered in the news on issues they do not own, while large parties are especially covered on salient topics. These findings contribute to our understanding of issue competition in mediated environments.
Comprehensive modeling for simultaneous position and force control of deformable manipulators

The authors present comprehensive dynamic modeling of a deformable manipulator by using the Hamiltonian principle. The model is formulated by considering the deformable arm as a Timoshenko beam model. Hence, the shear, bending, and rotational inertia effect of the manipulator are all taken into account in the dynamic formulation. To obtain a comprehensive dynamic model, the gravitational effect, which is missing in most deformable manipulator dynamic models, is also included in the formulation. Then, an efficient motion and force controller design method utilizing root contour analysis is proposed. With the proposed method the multi-controller gains of the position/force controller for the deformable manipulator can be chosen analytically, as opposed to the method of trial and error used conventionally for selecting manipulator controller gains. The tuning process of these controllers' gains proves the simplicity of gain selection. The motion/force simulation results verify the effectiveness of the controllers. The simulation results also show that the derived control scheme, which is based on a linear control system analysis, can drive the highly nonlinear deformable arm to achieve the desired position and force satisfactorily. <<ETX>>
The Effect Of Transformatıve Power Of Sufferıng On Lıfe Satısfactıon On Hospıtal Workers

In this study, Isparta City Hospital and Suleyman Demirel University Research and Practice Hospital measure the level of belief in the presence of the transforming power of suffering and the level of life satisfaction; the purpose of this study is to determine the effects of the transformative power of suffering on the life satisfaction levels of hospital workers. The universe of the research is composed of employees of Isparta City Hospital and Suleyman Demirel University Research and Practice Hospital. Within the scope of the research, a questionnaire was applied to 287 hospital employees (physician, nurse / midwife, other health personnel, administrative personnel and other personnel). As a data collection tool, “Transformative Power of Suffering Scale” adapted from Turkish by Dincer et al (2015) prepared by Joshanloo (2014) which is composed of 5 expressions and "Life Satisfaction Scale" adapted from Turkish by Dagli and Baysal (2016) prepared by Diener et al., (1985) which is composed of 5 expressions, was used. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that hospital employees have a belief in the transformative power of suffering, which has a positive influence on the life satisfaction of hospital workers.
Model specification tests and the estimation of treatment effects: An application with random and non-random administrative records

In addition to existing model specification tests based on over identifying information from pre-program periods, this paper conducts a new nonparametric test based on the concept of unconditional bounding. This test has the advantage that it does not require pre-program information on participants. The nonparametric bounding test yields similar information about model misspecification to the standard test based on over identifying information. As an illustration, we apply the test to administrative records from the Jobs First experiment in Connecticut. Records on other welfare recipients are used to provide quasi-experimental panel regression estimates of the impact of time limiting benefits on labor market earnings.
PENGARUH LIKUIDITAS, LEVERAGE, DAN SALES GROWTH TERHADAPFINANCIAL DISTRESS

This study aims to determine the effect of liquidity, leverage, and salesgrowth on partial financial distress on property, real estate and buildingconstruction companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). The research period is 3 years in 2015-2017. The population of thisstudy covers all sectors of property, real estate and building constructioncompanies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) in 2015-2017.The sampling technique uses purposive sampling technique. Based onpredetermined criteria obtained 50 samples of the company. Type ofdata which is secondary data obtained from the site Burssa EfekIndonesia. Data analysis used is regression data panel. The resultsshowed that liquidity had a positive effect on financial distress andnegative leverage on financial distress while sales growth did not affectfinancial distress.
The role of spatiotemporal correlations in the encoding and retrieval of synaptic patterns by STDP in recurrent spiking networks

2 Spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) is considered to be an important synaptic mechanism 3 to encode information within and between cerebral cortical networks. It remains unclear, however, 4 how temporal and spatial correlations of signals and ongoing background spiking activity interact 5 with STDP mechanisms to give rise to long-term memory. Because cortical networks mostly 6 contain local recurrent connections, it is critical to explore STDP-based encoding and decoding 7 of synaptic patterns in such architectures. In order to investigate their dynamics, we applied 8 a phenomenological STDP model within recurrent networks, and between recurrent and feed9 forward networks. We find that emergence of transient spatiotemporal correlations of ongoing 10 activity lead to the storage of self-organized, simple synaptic patterns in the recurrent networks. 11 These networks can be probed at a later time to reconstruct the encoded patterns by projecting 12 them onto another network in a feed-forward, readout fashion with highly correlated spatiotemporal 13 structure. We hypothesize that transient spatiotemporal correlations among networks can serve 14 as a biologically plausible mechanism of memory storage and retrieval based on STDP. 15
Modelling Chinese EFL learners’ flow experiences in digital game-based vocabulary learning: the roles of learner and contextual factors

Abstract Although digital game-based vocabulary learning (DGBVL) has attracted considerable attention, factors attributing to the facilitative effects of DGBVL have not yet been satisfactorily understood. To this end, under the theoretical framework of flow theory, this study investigates the effects of flow experiences on Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ learning outcomes. Specifically, this study explores the influences of learner factors (balance of skill and challenge, and clear goal) and contextual factors (feedback and playability) on learners’ flow experiences, such as concentration, intrinsic motivation and enjoyment. It also examines the effects of flow experiences on learners’ perceived learning and satisfaction. Based on a survey of 291 Chinese EFL learners who used a DGBVL APP (application) named Baicizhan, the results demonstrated that balance of skill and challenge, clear goal and playability provided by the DGBVL have a positive effect on concentration. Feedback positively influences intrinsic motivation. Moreover, both concentration and intrinsic motivation positively affect perceived learning and satisfaction, but enjoyment only positively influences perceived learning rather than satisfaction. Lastly, satisfaction is positively affected by perceived learning. Implications of the findings are also discussed.
IRADABE: Adapting English Lexicons to the Italian Sentiment Polarity Classification task

Interest in the Sentiment Analysis task has been growing in recent years due to the importance of applications that may benefit from such kind of information. In this paper we addressed the polarity classification task of Italian tweets by using a supervised machine learning approach. We developed a set of features and used them in a machine learning system in order to decide if a tweet is subjective or objective. The polarity result itself was then used as an additional feature to determine whether a tweet contains ironical content or not. We faced the lack of resources in Italian by translating (mostly automatically) existing resources for the English language. Our model obtained good results in the SentiPolC 2014 task, being one of the best ranked systems.
“We Know We Are Doing Something Good, But What Is It?”: The Challenge of Negotiating Between Service Delivery and Research in a CBPR Project

Engaging communities throughout the research process and responding to community priorities results in constant negotiation between service and research. Community-based participatory research has well established principles intended to guide both the process and goals of research with community. The authors contribute to the body of literature that speaks to the challenge of achieving CBPR ideals amidst the complexity of community realities. When university-based research is aligned with community-based service delivery, at least three sets of expectations must be balanced - those of the community, the university, and the funding agency. The complexity of achieving balance between the ideal and the reality of CBPR, and balance between service delivery and research, were explored using a cyclical process of debriefs throughout the delivery of a youth life skills program with Métis Settlements in Alberta. The value of the process and lessons learned are presented.
DOES FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT MATTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL KUZNETS CURVE IN RUSSIA? EVIDENCE FROM THE AUTOREGRESSIVE DISTRIBUTED LAG BOUNDS TEST APPROACH

This study explores the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and their main determinants, which include real income and energy consumption in Russia, employing data for the period 1990-2016. The hypothesis of financial development being an important determinant of environmental quality in Russia is also tested. For estimating the short-run and long-run relationships the ARDL bounds test approach is employed in this study. The results are consistent with the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis and show that the real income and energy consumption have a statistically significant positive impact on the carbon emission and its square has a significant negative effect on the carbon emissions both in the short-run and long-run. Financial sector is found to be significant determinant of carbon emission in Russia as well. The pairwise Granger causality test also reveals unidirectional causality running from financial development to the carbon emissions.
A 3-V 230-MHz CMOS decimation subsampler

The use of subsampling for frequency downconversion and related tradeoffs in radio receivers are discussed. It is found that using the highest possible sampling frequency both relaxes anti-alias filtering requirements and reduces the effect of clock jitter. However, high-speed switched-capacitor circuits are difficult to design and they are typically power consuming. A switched-capacitor decimation sampler is proposed as a way to achieve more optimal sampling frequencies both at the input and the output of the sampler. The design and experimental results of a 3-V 230-MHz CMOS decimation subsampler are presented. The sampler achieves an input referred noise density of 44 nV//spl radic/Hz, an IIP/sub 3/ of +19.5 dBV, and a -52-dBc worst mixing product from clock skew with a 200-MHz input.
Partnership, power and policy: a case study of the Scottish Partnership on Domestic Abuse

of Thesis Men's violence against women in Scotland has only recently emerged onto the national policy agenda, based to a large extent on three decades of work on the issue by feminist activists and organisations. The research presented here is a case study of the policy process that produced domestic violence as a policy priority in Scotland—the Scottish Partnership to Address Domestic Abuse, which operated from 1998 to 2000. The research describes the maturing of a social movement as it engaged with the State at a key moment in Scottish history, exploring the nature of that engagement in the context of power, influence, political opportunity, policy processes and partnerships. Key findings focus on feminist engagement with the Scottish State, on the structures of partnership working, and on prospects for intervention in political processes for those usually marginalised in policy making. Set up in 1998 to define a national strategy for addressing domestic violence, the Partnership officially ended its work in November 2000 with the presentation of the National Strategy on Domestic Abuse to the Scottish Parliament. Data were gathered from interviews and documentary analysis. Data gathering focused on feminist efforts to penetrate policy processes, on the establishment of the Partnership in the context of an increasingly minimalist, differentiated system of governance, and on the location of the Partnership at the intersection of devolution and 30 years of feminist activity on men's violence against women. How new voices came to the table, Partnership processes for agenda setting and decision making, and the naming and framing of policy problems throughout the life of the Partnership—all emerged as important themes. Analysis revealed substantial increases in access to decision makers and policy networks, and the
The Use of Trademarks in Empirical Research: Towards an Integrated Framework

This paper represents an early attempt to develop an integrated framework linking empirical studies that make use of trademark statistics. Despite its youth, this field of scholarly activity has already accumulated a critical mass of papers that allow us to draw first general conclusions about the trademark lifecycle and its impact on organisational functioning. Based on a systematic review of 64 articles with some elements of empirical trademark analysis, five broad research areas have been identified, namely: the determinants of trademark deposits; the relationship between trademarks and innovation processes; the role of trademarks in differentiating product offerings; the strategic use of trademarks; and the impact of trademarks on firm performance. Within each category, a more detailed aggregation of articles has also been proposed. Overall, the analysis has shown that the performance-based perspective currently dominates the research landscape, with studies on trademark deposits and the trademark-innovation link to follow. At the same time, there is still little known about micro-foundations of a company's trademarking behaviour; the use of trademarks and other intellectual property rights in a complementary way and its effect on value transference; as well as the performance implications of differentiation strategy. This paper considers these and other findings to outline directions for future research.
A Design Workflow for Software Defined Radios

Inefficient spectrum allocation and the burgeoning problem of spectrum scarcity have prompted an examination of how the radio frequency spectrum is utilized. The radio frequency spectrum is an important national resource that impacts the economy, national security and daily life. Various studies have taken up the task of rethinking spectrum licensing and allocation with the intent of encouraging the development of spectrally agile and efficient technologies. Thus, the ability to accurately measure spectrum usage directly effects the creation and modification of public policy. This thesis presents a framework designed to measure, characterize and model spectrum utilization. While individual organizations have performed spectrum measurements, a framework does not currently exist to coordinate spectrum data sharing or distributed measurement campaigns. This thesis discusses the development of a shared database schema that can accommodate large scale and long term spectrum measurement campaigns. The implementation of this schema also allows multiple researchers to share experiment configurations and data. The development of a software program that can automate spectrum measurements is covered, along with its ability to facilitate the sharing of those measurements with a central archive. The creation of a spectrum measurement repository is discussed as well. Research is presented regarding the use of a low cost, mobile software-defined radio platform as a spectrum data collection device. Finally, various case studies are presented demonstrating how the technologies and techniques produced during the creation of this thesis can be used to analyze spectrum measurement data.
Evaluation of influence of non-office hours diurnal variation of intraocular pressure in management of glaucoma

Aim and Objectives: This article attempts to elucidate the role of round the clock IOP control and its relevance to current glaucoma practice. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study was carried out on 50 patients of POAG or CACG on medical management whose intraocular pressures were found to be controlled by daytime office hours IOP estimation. The diurnal IOP readings obtained with Clarkes Hand held Perkins applanation tonometer and Reicherts Tonopen at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm, 1am and 4am. Comparison of office hours IOP, extended office hours DVT and 24 hours IOP was done. Results: Fifty patients were enrolled (mean age: 53.88 ± 8.42 years) in the study. The mean office hours IOP for both eyes was significantly less (16.31±2.46) than extended office hours (17.18±2.50) and 24 hours DVT (17.49 ±2.45). There was significant difference in IOP fluctuation in office (3.72±2.14) versus extended office hours (9.26±3.11) and 24 hours DVT (10.28±2.76). The mean office hours peak IOP was significantly lower than that of extended office hours and 24 hours DVT. Conclusion: 24-hour IOP monitoring can reveal higher peaks and wider fluctuation of IOP than those found during typical office hours, it suggests a greater role for IOP-related risk for glaucoma progression. Thus may justify a more aggressive IOP-lowering treatment strategy. Keywords: Chronic angle closure glaucoma (CACG), Clarkes hand held perkins applanation tonometer, Intraocular pressure (IOP), glaucoma, Primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), Reicherts tonopen.