Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE ROLE OF WEB-BASED GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION IN TERTIARY LEVEL EFL STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Recent technological advances have raised the issue of how to integrate the technology into language classrooms. With the emphasis on student-centred learning, the applications of the computer have enhanced not only the input but also the output in language teaching and learning. This study is an attempt to find out the role of a web-based grammar instruction system in students’ grammar achievement and students’ perceptions about the system. This web-based grammar instruction which was provided via an online grammar lab serves as a blend of the coursebook, online, and mobile sources. It has three level series; however, for the present study its intermediate level was used. The study was conducted at the Department of English Language and Literature at a major university in north-eastern Turkey throughout the academic year 2012-2013. English-majoring students with access to the online grammar lab were assigned as the experimental group (n=73), and the students who take grammar instruction in traditional whole-class environment as control group (n=57). While four achievement exams served as the quantitative data gathering instrument of this one-year quasi-experimental study, an open-ended questionnaire was conducted with 53 voluntary students so as to gain more insights into the use of web-based grammar instruction.
Tactile Haptics: A Study of Roughness Perception in Virtual Environments

This thesis presents the design of a tactile device that can be used to display varying magnitudes of roughness. The device is designed to be attached to an existing force feedback device in order to create a package that is able to display both macro-level (force feedback) and micro-level (tactile feedback) information to the users. This device allows the users to feel a simulated texture by placing an index finger on an aperture. The stimulus is created with a spiral brush made of nylon bristles. The brush is attached to a DC motor and the speed and direction of rotation of the brush are used to generate textures at the fingertip through the aperture. Three psychophysical experiments are conducted to study the effects of speed and direction on the roughness perception. The first experiment is designed to investigate the sensitivity to a change in the speed of the brush. This experiment is conducted for two levels of base speed and it is found that as the base speed increases, the just noticeable difference (JND) with respect to speed decreases. In the second experiment, it is found that this tactile device is able to represent textures of rough nature, such as sandpaper. It is also found that the human roughness perception cannot be described in a unique manner. Two opposite definitions of rough textures are identified in this experiment. While some users relate an increase in the speed of the brush to increasing roughness, others relate it to decreasing roughness. Further, the results show that the effects of direction are insignificant on the roughness perception for both groups of users. In the third experiment, the effects of direction are studied more closely by presenting the two directions successively with a time gap of 0.5s. It is found that with this small time gap, the users are able to discriminate between directions, unlike in the previous experiment. The roughness perception is affected by the change in direction when the time gap is small. These findings open further areas that need to be investigated before a robust tactile device can be designed.
Nurse education program on meaninglessness in terminally ill cancer patients: a randomized controlled study of a novel two-day workshop.

BACKGROUND Fostering patients' sense of meaning is an essential task for palliative care clinicians. Few studies have reported the effects on nurses of a short-term training program aimed at improving skills to relieve feelings of meaninglessness in terminally ill cancer patients. OBJECTIVE The primary aim of this study was to determine the impact on nurses of a novel two-day education program focusing on care that addresses patients' feelings of meaninglessness. Measured were impacts on nurses' confidence, self-reported practice, attitudes toward caring for such patients, burnout, meaning of life, and knowledge. METHODS This study was a randomized controlled trial using the waiting list control. Intervention consisted of a two-day interactive education program. A total of 76 nurses randomly allocated to two groups completed the study. Outcome measures included confidence scale; self-reported practice scale; scales of nursing attitudes toward caring for patients who experience feelings of meaningless (willingness to help, positive appraisal, helplessness, nurse-perceived value of being, and nurse-perceived value of patients' inner power); Maslach burnout scale, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual, and knowledge scale. RESULTS There were significant intervention effects in nurse-reported confidence and nurse-perceived value of patients' inner power. Nurse-reported helplessness showed marginally significant improvement after intervention (p=0.067). No significant intervention effects were observed in the self-reported practice scale; attitudes toward caring for patients (willingness to help, positive appraisal, and nurse-perceived value of being); burnout scale, meaning of life; and knowledge score. The percentages of nurses who evaluated this program as useful or very useful were 95% (understanding the conceptual framework) and 85% (helping to learn how to provide care for patients feeling meaninglessness in clinical practice). CONCLUSION This short-term educational intervention had a significant beneficial effect on nurses' confidence and modest effects on attitudes.
User Satisfaction and Trust in Virtual Teams: A Preliminary Investigation

The study was undertaken to explore the level of trust and satisfaction in the context of this new electronic environment in both amalgamated team (combination of face-to-face and computer- mediated communication systems) and non-amalgamated teams (purely virtual). Data analysis suggests that trust levels differ according to stages of group formation. In the Forming Stage, trust was positively influenced by member personalities and institutional norms, whereas in the Norming Stage, trust was positively determined by cognitive factors and in the Performing Stage, trust was positively determined by personality factors. The analysis of these measurements indicates that amalgamated teams and non-amalgamated teams exhibit similar levels of trust and satisfaction.
QUALIFICATION OF THE GUIDED PARAFOIL AIR DELIVERY SYSTEM - LIGHT (GPADS-Light)

The Guided Parafoil Air Delivery System Light (GPADS-Light) is a fully autonomous parafoil guidance system utilizing the military Global Positioning System (GPS) and a high performance 750 ft parafoil for precise delivery of payloads to a predetermined target. GPADS-Light is the first Advanced Precision Air Delivery System (APADS) to be fielded to the U.S. Department of Defense. These systems were purchased by the U.S. Soldier Systems Command, Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center (Natick) from SSE Incorporated as part of the Warfighting Rapid Acquisition Program. This paper presents the results of the recent formal qualification by Natick of GPADS-Light, and describes Pioneer Aerospace Corporation's GS-7SO parafoil, which employs a high-performance NASA LS(1)-0417 airfoil. This parafoil generates total system glide ratios in excess of 4:1 in straight flight with 'real' payloads, providing total mission offsetialtitude ratios of 3:1. GPADS-Light has a qualified delivery accuracy of 100 m circular error probable (CEP). GPADS-Light, and its commercial GPS equivalent, ORIONTM, have logged over 500 flights. The military system is qualified to deliver payloads in the range 700 to l,1001b, and has further demonstrated the ability to successfully deliver payloads up to 1,500 Ib. * Project Officer, Member AIAA •f Director of Programs, Member AIAA j Program Manager, Associate Fellow AIAA Copyright © by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. All rights reserved. GPADS OVERVIEW The Guided Parafoil Air Delivery System (GPADS) is the Natick's designation for a precision guided delivery system consisting of an autonomous Airborne Guidance Unit (AGU) and a family of high-glide ram-air parafoils. The AGU includes the Flight Management System (FMS). An on-board computer processes data received from a military GPS receiver as well as other sensors, and inputs the merged data to a guidance algorithm that generates commands to control the parafoil. The FMS flies the parafoil system to a soft, upwind landing at a pre-selected site. GPADS-Light is the smallest of the three weight classes of GPADS. GPADS-Medium and GPADS-Heavy have been designed by Pioneer and SSE to deliver payloads over the range of 7,000 to 40,000 Ib, on parafoils with wing areas of 3,600 to 7,350 ft. Payload weights ranging from 7,200 to 36,750 Ib have been successfully demonstrated over the last three years. GPADS-Heavy is currently being adapted by NASA as the recovery system for the International Space Station X-38 Experimental Crew Return Vehicle. GPADS-LIGHT RAPID ACQUISITION The U.S. Army Battle Labs have long been major proponents of the Advanced Precision Airborne Delivery Systems (APADS) concept. GPADS-Light is the first of these systems to be fielded to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Natick's Mission Need Statement calls for GPADS-Light to rapidly and safely deliver warfighting essentials to support forced entry in order to sustain operations in non-permissive environments. GPADS-Light supports the need to
Fast approximate dimensioning and performance analysis of mesh optical networks

This paper presents a collection of approximation formulas that allow a network planner to quickly estimate the size of a mesh optical network with limited inputs. In particular, it provides a set of equations that relate number of sites, average fiber connectivity, demand load and capacity for various mesh protection architectures. These results can be used to easily and quickly estimate the amount of traffic that can be carried over a given network, or, conversely, given the traffic to be supported, to assess the characteristics of the topology required (in terms of number of nodes, connectivity). Finally, this analysis can be used to estimate the restoration performance that can be expected without requiring any extensive simulation studies.
Testing for selectivity in panel data models

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Criteria for the success of automated library systems: Iranian experience (application and test of the related scale)

Refers to a 1999 Australian survey which examined a 26 item scale developed regarding three major automated library systems issues, which approved 23 items that represented criteria for the success of automated library systems, and rejection of the remaining three items. The same scale was translated into Farsi in the year 2000 and distributed among 240 library managers and systems librarians in 120 Iranian institutions of higher education. Results of the Iranian survey were acceptance of 24 out of the 26 scale items by university librarians and systems managers, and rejection of two items. The rejected items were not identical in the two studies, and the discrepancies mainly raised by “boundary” issues. However, Australian and Iranian colleagues seem to be identical in their attitudes towards management, technicalities and usage of automated library systems. The scale, so far, has proved to be reliable and valid, at least with 21 of its items.
Scaffolding through Questions in Upper Elementary ELL Learning.

Among teachers’ various classroom discourse strategies, teacher questions are a powerful tool for guiding the linguistic and cognitive development of English as a second language (ESL) students (Gerstein, 1996; Gibbons, 2003). Because we do not know much about effective questioning strategies that support the growth of ESL students’ thinking and language skills, the purpose of this article is to explain two successful ESL teachers’ instructional practice, with a focus on their questions, specifically (a) the types of questions teachers asked and their functions, and (b) changes in students’ participation and use of English oral language in classroom activities. Results show that the two teachers used different types of questions to scaffold their students’ learning across a school year, and teacher questions positively affected student participation in classroom activities and language learning.
Review Lecture The perception of music

A common but none the less remarkable human faculty is the ability to recognize and reproduce familiar pieces of music. No two performances of a given piece will ever be acoustically identical, but a listener can perceive, in both, the same rhythmic and tonal relationships, and can judge whether a particular note or phrase was played out of time or out of tune. The problem considered in this lecture is that of describing the conceptual structures by which we represent Western classical music, and the processes by which these structures are created. Some new hypotheses about the perception of rhythm and tonality have been cast in the form of a computer program which will transcribe a live keyboard performance of a classical melody into the equivalent of standard musical notation.
The Use of Computer Technology in EFL Classroom: Advantages and Implications

Technology has become inseparable part of today’s world and this is also true with the field of foreign language instruction. The use of technology in teaching and learning of foreign language like English has always dominated the pedagogical debates and discussions and made the luminaries and pedagogues in the field to investigate the possible advantages and implications of this technology for effective and dynamic teaching and learning of foreign language like English. Such debates and studies have often ended on recommending the use of computer technology in foreign language instructions due to several advantages this use can offer both for the EFL teachers and learners. It is believed that such use guarantees much recommended learner-centered learning and makes the whole process of foreign language teaching and learning interactive, interesting, and dynamic. Therefore this paper attempts to investigate these advantages of using computer technology in EFL classrooms and its implications in foreign language situations like Libya.
Design and Teaching: A Bibliographic Essay

Abstract Distance education, particularly online education, is becoming a standard experience in formal learning environments, particularly at the postsecondary level. As more faculty and students have expectations that distance education is a part of the learning experience, we need to build a deeper understanding of how to design effective environments to enhance and extend the learning process. Further, we need to explore how to best facilitate learning in these contexts. This bibliographic essay explores the literature related to design and teaching in distance education as presented in the third section of Moore's (2007a) Handbook of Distance Education (Table 1 provides an overview of all the chapters in the Design and Teaching section of the Handbook).
The modelling of wind farm layout optimization for the reduction of wake losses

The objective of the present research is to find out the optimized dimensions of the wind farm area and turbines layout to reduce the overall cost per unit power. The velocity deficits caused by the wakes of each turbine were calculated by using Jensen’s wake model. The optimal positions of wind turbine placement are evaluated by using genetic algorithm, while sustaining the obligatory space between adjacent turbines for operation safety. The research on the wind farm area dimensions and fully utilization of upstream wind velocity is currently lacking in literature. The logical application of area dimensions and genetic algorithm improved the overall efficiency of the wind farm. It is concluded that proposed duel level optimization method outperforms the existing ones. The total wind farm area (2km ¥ 2km) was divided into 100 identical cells, with each cell having dimensions 200m ¥ 200m . The performance of the proposed method is compared with the results from previous studies. The simulation results showed that power output of the wind farm was increased by using same area with different dimensions. It was observed that by using the same number of wind turbines, the total efficiency of wind farm was increased by 7 %.
A sigmoid-basis nonlinear power control algorithm for mobile radio systems

The convergence speed and distributiveness are important properties of a power control algorithm to determine its potential for practical usage in cellular radio systems. Most of the power control algorithms in the literature are derived from numerical linear algebra or linear control theory, and consequently are in linear form. This paper, on the other hand, proposes a (sigmoid-basis) nonlinear power control algorithm, which is fully distributed and first order. The algorithm is obtained by discretization of the differential equation form of the algorithm shown to be stable in the case of a feasible system. We carried out computational experiments on a CDMA system. The results indicate that our algorithm significantly enhances the convergence speed of power control in comparison with linear distributed power control algorithm of Foschini and Miljanic (1993) as a reference algorithm.
Toward accessible mobile application design: developing mobile application accessibility guidelines for people with visual impairment

While the use of Smartphones has improved the life of people with disabilities, several mobile content and applications remain inaccessible to people with visual impairment. Toward the overarching goal of accessible mobile application design, this two-phased study attempts to develop mobile application accessibility guidelines for people with visual impairment. First, we investigated how people with visual impairment use mobile phones. Four participants with visual impairment performed specified tasks. Their usage patterns and follow-up interviews were analyzed. Serious accessibility problems were found in both typing and VoiceOver functions. Second, we evaluated and developed systematic guidelines and standards of designing accessible mobile applications through a heuristic walkthrough method. Four experts with extensive experiences and knowledge about mobile application development/design used the VoiceOver function with iPhone for 5 days, and then walked through thought-provoking tasks. In conclusion, we propose a set of 10 heuristics for developing accessible mobile applications and suggest a critical need for internationally-agreed guidelines and standards to improve the current mobile environment for people with disabilities.
The Amount of Women’s Sports Coverage on International Sports News Websites’ Home Pages

A major topic of analysis in sport in Western media has been the gender gap between the amount of coverage dedicated to men’s sports compared to the amount of coverage women’s sports receive. Most of the existing research on the gender gap in sports coverage has been conducted in traditional media, but the creation and development of the internet gave new hopes to women’s sports representatives to bridge the gap. This study is a yearlong, quantitative content analysis of the home pages of eight sports news websites from four Western countries—the United States, Canada, France, and Great Britain. The goal is to determine whether the “symbolic annihilation” of women in sports found in traditional media coverage is perpetrated online, a platform on which journalists and editors are not limited by time or space.
Design of a low‐power way‐predicting cache using valid‐bit pre‐decision strategy

Abstract Way‐predicting cache is one of the set‐associative caches that can effectively reduce power consumption, which only speculatively selects an MRU (most recently used) way before starting a normal cache access. Focusing on the way‐predicting cache using sub‐block placement, we propose a new cache scheme that uses valid bits from data memory to decide the disabled tag‐subarrays and data‐subarrays. By using valid‐bit pre‐decision, the proposed scheme has a significant improvement in average energy saving over the conventional way‐predicting cache, especially for large associativity and small sub‐block size. Moreover, because those original second accessed ways are first accessed during the first cycle when the valid bit of the MRU way does not exist, the proposed cache also can reduce the average access time.
Landmark-based autonomous navigation in sewerage pipes

We describe a method for an autonomous mobile robot to navigate through a system of sewerage pipes. Landmarks signalling positions in the pipe system have to be detected and classified, where classification is allowed do be unreliable. Self localization is interpreted as a partially observable Markov decision problem and solved accordingly. The method is implemented and used on a prototype robot platform operating in a dry sewage pipe test network.
Admission control for ATM networks using rate monotonic traffic scheduling algorithm

Rate monotonic scheduling algorithm has been shown to be the optimum static priority assignment scheme for an environment where packets are of variable length and a higher priority packet can preempt a lower priority one without causing any loss. It is optimum in the sense that if a set of m constant bit rate connections are schedulable (i.e., every packet is served before its succeeding packet arrives) with any static priority assignment scheme, then they are schedulable with rate monotonic scheduling algorithm. In this paper, we study the schedulability issue of a rate monotonic scheduling algorithm for ATM networks where all packets are of the same length. We prove a necessary and sufficient condition for a set of m constant bit rate connections to be rate monotonic schedulable. Based on the necessary and sufficient condition, we design a simple admission control algorithm. We also present a sufficient condition which can be used for fast admission control if there are only a few possible periods for the connections.
A high-speed, low-power clock generator for a microprocessor application

This paper discusses the design of the clock generator for the Alpha 21264. As the speed performances are of primary concern in the whole design, the clock-generator jitter and phase misalignment must be as low as possible in a very noisy environment. A dedicated on-chip voltage regulator based on a bandgap reference has been designed to reduce the effect of supply noise on the clock generator. To avoid a large voltage drop across the power-supply bond wires during the startup sequence, the core frequency can be increased by steps in one period of the core clock, with a limited frequency overshoot and no missing pulses. The circuit has been implemented in a CMOS 0.35 /spl mu/m process. The voltage-controlled-oscillator frequency range is between 350 MHz and 2.8 GHz, with a peak-to-peak cycle-to-cycle jitter lower than 16 ps. While booting Unix on a system, the maximum phase misalignment is lower than /spl plusmn/100 ps.