Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determination of parameters affecting the calculation time of the image average colour

Results of pilot studies of determination of average color when using the automated program systems provided. Experimental and analytical means revealed the critical parameters influencing the speed of process of determination of average color. As research showed, the most significant parameters are geometrical image sizes. Also the limit of change of image sizes for the TIF, JPG, PNG, BMP formats at which average color began is irreversible to change was set. The BMP format showed the highest resistance among all studied graphic formats to loss of average color depending on change of image sizes. Research of models of RGB and HSL color showed that the HSL model is not suitable for determination of average color of the image, because of the unpredictable sensitivity. The software capable automated computation of the image average color developed.
The Role of Concordancing and Output in Developing the Collocational Competence

The present study explored the role of concordancing in learning lexical and grammatical collocations under two conditions, with and without output. It also set out to rank lexical and grammatical collocations in terms of the degree of the challenge they might impose on L2 learners. A total of 45 Iranian intermediate learners of English were randomly divided into an output, a non-output, and a control group. Learners received a six-session treatment in three different conditions; the output group was required to perform a story-writing task by searching for the collocations in concordancing. The non-output group only searched for collocations in concordancing without performing the tasks. The control group performed the tasks without having access to concordancing. The results of the pretest, as well as immediate and delayed posttests, analyzed by separate one-way ANOVAs indicated that the experimental groups outperformed the control group in learning collocations under the influence of concordancing. However, the achievement of the output group was superior to and more lasting than the non-output group. Findings also demonstrated that lexical collocations posed more challenge on all learners.
Acculturation Experiences of Asian Indian Immigrant Math and Science Teachers in a K-12 Urban School District in Ohio

The study examined the acculturation experiences of Asian Indian immigrant math and science teachers in a K-12 urban school district. The study was preceded by a pilot study in 2008 to develop a protocol for dissertation, which examined the acculturation experiences of professional Asian Indian females and cultural values conflict in the United States. The current research investigated if being a math or science teacher in an urban school district has influenced the participants’ acculturation process in the United States. Framed in social constructivism theory, the researcher used the phenomenological approach to investigate the meaning-making process of immigrant professional teachers in their new social environment. The study explored factors, such as gender roles, work environment, and cultural values to extrapolate if participants’ perceptions changed regarding these after interacting with the mainstream culture. The results indicated successful acculturation of the participants by clearly adopting the values of the host culture, and retaining their own-hence, finding a balanced approach between the two. The research will benefit the new immigrants, teaching professionals in K-12, counselors, and school administrators to assist the immigrant populations in schools and professional environment.
USAGE-BASED AND FORM-FOCUSED LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: The associative learning of constructions, learned attention, and the limited L2 endstate

Cognitive Linguistics proposes that First Language Acquisition (L1A) involves the acquisition from language usage of constructions that map linguistic form and function. In this view, competence and performance both emerge from the dynamic system that is the frequency-tuned conspiracy of memorized exemplars of use of these constructions, with competence being the rationally integrated sum of prior usage and performance being its dynamic contextualized activation. L1A tunes the ways in which learners attend to language. This chapter gives a psychological slant on the associative learning of linguistic constructions. The first part describes the aspects of associative learning that affect usage-based L1A and L2A both: frequency, contingency, competition between multiple cues, and salience. Each of these is taken in turn, its processes are explained from within associative learning theory, and its effects are illustrated with examples from language learning. This section concludes by illustrating the combined operation of these factors in first and second language acquisition of English grammatical morphemes, a particular illustration of a broader claim that they control the acquisition of all linguistic constructions. However, usage-based Second Language Acquisition (L2A) is typically much less successful that L1A, with naturalistic or communicatively-based L2A stabilizing at end-states far short of nativelike ability. Why? What is it that limits construction learning in L2A in comparison to L1A? The second half of the chapter considers the apparent irrationalities of L2A, the
Are parents and children aware of child sexual prevention education?

Background: India contains largest populations of child victim of sexual abuse. Current study aimed to find out awareness, orientation, execution of parents for child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention education and study the awareness of CSA prevention education among children attending pre-primary and primary school.Method: It was cross-sectional study carried out during 2016-2017 at government and private school of Gwalior. Total 500 parents and 500 children were selected Proforma based assessment was done among parents and diagrammatic (picture) based assessment among children, Children are explained about diagrammatic proforma and give to color area of good touch and bad touch.Results: The study revealed that 34% of parents are unaware of various facts of child sexual abuse (p <0.005). Post graduate parents have more CSA awareness (90.3%) (p<0.001). Total36% parents have shown negative orientation towards child sexual abuse prevention education. CSA prevention awareness more in upper class parents (88.3%) as compared to lower class (43.8%) (p < 0. 001). post graduate parents have more CSA awareness as compared to illiterate and higher secondary. On assessing the knowledge of good touch and bad touch among children. It was found that only 6% of children have good knowledge, 36%children have some knowledge and 58 % no knowledge regarding good touch and bad touch . Conclusion: Majority of parents and kid are unaware of various fact of child sexual abuse. Parents education level has direct correlation, highly qualified mother father has positive attitude toward child sexual abuse prevention education. Lack of knowledge found in lower socioeconomic class.
Characterisation of novel electrode materials for renewable energy storage application

Increasing requirements for renewable energy supply have pushed forward the development of low-cost, high-performance energy storage systems. Supercapacitors are a promising alternative to traditional electrochemical battery power storage devices as they have high power and energy densities and long cycle lives. Binary transition metal oxides (BTMOs) have been investigated as promising materials to improve supercapacitors as they can harness both faradaic and non-faradaic mechanism for energy storage and may exhibit improved conductance compared to simple metal oxides. The combination of these parameters leads to materials that can deliver superior capacitance, long cycling life, and good rate performance. Energy storage mechanisms in electrochemical devices are primarily surface reactions and maximising the available surface area for electrode/electrolyte interaction should improve storage capacity. As such, being able to create a porous electrode material with a suitable pore size distribution should improve the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors. The main aim of this work was to use polymeric templates to synthesise porous binary transition metal oxides (BTMOs) as a way of improving the specific capacitance of materials that could be used to construct supercapacitor electrodes. Novel, porous BTMO materials (NiMoO4, NiCo2O4, CoMoO4 and NaNiVO4) were synthesised using Egg-Shell Membrane (ESM) and poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) using simple, one-pot hydrothermal combustion techniques. The synthesised materials were physically and electrochemically characterized. Addition of a template to the synthesis procedure resulted in improved performance compared to non-templated material for NiMoO4, NiCo2O4, and CoMoO4. In particular, use of the ESM template resulted in significant improvements in performance of the molybdates. The ESM templated NiMoO4 had the best performance with a measured specific capacitance 259 F.g-1 (2-electrode system) with an energy density of 252.2 Whkg-1. The ESM template seemed to promote the formation of β-NiMoO4, a crystal structure that has superior electrochemical storage properties compared to other isomorphs. This was achieved with relatively mild synthesis conditions and resulted in a material that had a porous structure consisting of nanowire like particles. This open, fibrous structure increased available surface area and accessibility to the interior of the bulk material. Optimal choice of polymeric template may need to be tuned to the final product as the best specific capacitances for CoMoO4 (74.45 F.g-1) and NiCo2O4 (38.03 F.g-1) were achieved using different templates; ESM for the former and PMMA for the latter. Synthesis of a novel material, NaNiVO4, was attempted but the resulting material was not fully characterised due to poor performance during initial electrochemical testing.
Using Evidence-Centered Design to Create a Special Educator Observation System.

The Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) framework was used to create a special education teacher observation system, Recognizing Effective Special Education Teachers (RESET). Extensive reviews of research informed the domain analysis and modeling stages, and led to the conceptual framework in which effective special education teaching is operationalized as the ability to effectively implement evidence-based practices for students with disabilities. In the assessment implementation stage, four raters evaluated 40 videos and provided evidence to support the scores assigned to teacher performances. An inductive approach was used to analyze the data and to create empirically derived, item level performance descriptors. In the assessment delivery stage, four different raters evaluated the same videos using the fully developed rubric. Manyfacet Rasch measurement (MFRM) analyses showed that the item, teacher, lesson and rater facets achieved high psychometric quality. This process can be applied to other content areas to develop teacher observation systems that provide accurate evaluations and feedback to improve instructional practice.
The Evaluation of Using Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) Facilities in Developing EFL Among Islamic Azad University Practitioners: The Case of Computer Literacy

The present study investigated the university practitioners’ attitudes towards using computer assisted language learning (CALL) in teaching English language at Islamic Azad universities of Khuzestan Province. This study was also to examine the English as foreign language (EFL) MA and PhD teachers’ computer literacy and its effects on using CALL facilities in English classrooms. The participants of this study were 135 university teachers at the Islamic Azad Universities (i.e., 12 Branches). The research instrument was a questionnaire extracted from Shin and Son (2007) in 5-point Likert scale. Findings showed that that there was lack of technological equipment for using CALL.
REAL OUTPUT AND OIL PRICE UNCERTAINTY IN AN OIL PRODUCING COUNTRY

Sudden changes in oil prices have been a major concern for countries – oil producing and non-oil producing countries alike. Due to this, we assessed the effects of such an uncertainty on the real output of Nigeria, an oil producing country, during the period 1980:1 to 2014:4. We achieved this objective by using a vector autoregressive model that permits us to decompose oil price uncertainty into positive and negative uncertainties. We then quantified the responses of real output to these uncertainties. Using the conditional variance of the returns in the composite refiners’ acquisition cost of crude oil deflated by US GDP deflator as our measure of oil price uncertainty, we found that a positive uncertainty leads to a decline in real output, while a negative uncertainty leads to a rise in real output. The response of real output to these uncertainties is asymmetric.
Interprosthetic femoral fractures: management challenges

Abstract Interprosthetic femur fractures are a rare but serious complication following total hip and knee arthroplasty. Classification systems have focused not only on diagnosis but also on treatment algorithm. Critical to the evaluation of patients with these fractures are an assessment of fracture location, bone quality, and the presence of stemmed implants. The gold standard for fracture fixation is locked plating with bicortical and unicortical screws, supplemented with wires or cables as needed. For patients with compromised bone stock or insufficient bony area for fixation, allograft augmentation with struts or interprosthetic sleeves may be used. For fractures with severe bone loss, conversion to a megaprosthesis or total femur replacement may be warranted.
Prediction model and sensitivity analysis of shielding effectiveness of woven fabrics containing stainless steel fibers based on extreme learning machine

Metal fiber blended fabrics, especially woven fabrics containing stainless steel (SS) fibers, are widely used in the field of electromagnetic shielding due to their advantages in shielding performance, wearability and cost. However, how to establish a simple, quick and high-precision model for predicting the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE) of fabrics needs to be solved urgently. In this paper, different fabric structure parameters were combined to form thirteen combinations of input variables, and the EMSE values at six frequency points were taken as the output variables. Corresponding to each combination of input variables, a total of thirteen prediction models were established using extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm. Furthermore, the optimal models were selected. The results show that the prediction model established by ELM algorithm has good predictive ability, and the two optimal prediction models show that the prediction accuracy of the model is lower at a relatively high frequency. In addition, the sensitivity analysis was carried out by using the improved Garson equation to obtain the relative contribution value of each fabric structural parameters. The result shows that the relative contribution of SS fiber content is the largest at all frequencies except 3000 MHz, but both the differences of relative contribution values between different variables and that between the same variable at different frequency points are not very significant. Therefore, the same prediction model can be used to predict EMSE at different frequency points, while the prediction model based on frequency range has higher accuracy.
Experimental application of classification learning to generate simplified model predictive controls for a shared office heating system

The application of model-based predictive control (MPC) to commercial buildings has been a topic of increasing interest in the literature. Despite significant energy saving potential, commercial adoption has been limited. The literature suggests that the limited proliferation of MPC in buildings is due to a mismatch between the mathematical complexity of MPC and the expertise of practitioners. Accordingly, simplified MPC (sMPC) approaches may improve uptake. This paper applies an approach to MPC where rules are extracted from a detailed MPC algorithm to produce an algebraic model of fewer than 50 lines of code. The goal is to produce an sMPC that will be more accepted by practitioners. Testing in a shared office was executed over a 5-week period of the heating season from March 11 to April 14. The detailed MPC algorithm presented in this paper reduced heating energy consumption by 23% compared with conventional reactive control when tested under similar weather conditions. The sMPC algorithm achieved 95% of the heating energy savings of the detailed MPC algorithm with significantly less complexity. Based on this favorable result for a single case, further work should be conducted with larger sample sizes to conclusively determine if rule extraction can produce an effective sMPC.
Aggregate Earnings and Market Returns: International Evidence

Abstract Kothari, Lewellen, and Warner (2006) document that aggregate earnings changes in the United States are negatively related to contemporaneous market returns. In this study we show that this negative aggregate earnings-returns relation is unique to the United States. In 28 non-U.S. markets, aggregate earnings changes are positively associated with contemporaneous market returns. Further evidence shows that the aggregate earnings-returns relation becomes less positive in countries with more transparent financial disclosure that helps investors forecast earnings more precisely. Our result supports Sadka and Sadka’s (2009) argument that predictability of aggregate earnings leads to the negative relation between aggregate earnings and market returns in the United States.
Los mercados de agua en la agricultura y el riesgo económico: una aplicación en el valle del Guadalquivir

La disponibilidad de agua en zonas semiaridas suele presentar patrones de extrema variabilidad. Incluso en cuencas con una elevada capacidad de regulacion hay usuarios agricolas sometidos a un bajo nivel de garantia en el suministro, lo que los hace muy vulnerables a situaciones coyunturales de escasez. Para reducir estos niveles de riesgo son necesarios mecanismos mas flexibles que las politicas de gestion tradicionales, como son los intercambios voluntarios de agua entre usuarios. La legislacion espanola se ha modificado recientemente para permitirlos mediante contratos de cesion. Bien disenados y correctamente supervisados, estos instrumentos aportan una gran flexibilidad a la gestion del agua, incrementando la eficiencia en su uso y mitigando los efectos economicos adversos de los periodos de escasez. La presente tesis investiga la dimension de riesgo e incertidumbre de los mercados de agua, algo poco abordado en la literatura. El objetivo es doble. En primer lugar, analizar el papel que la incertidumbre juega en las decisiones de los participantes en el mercado y su efecto sobre los beneficios alcanzables a traves de el. En segundo lugar, estudiar el efecto que un mercado de agua tiene sobre el riesgo economico derivado de la variabilidad en la disponibilidad de agua. Ambas cuestiones se han abordado tando desde un punto de vista teorico como empirico. En la aplicacion empirica se han utilizado conjuntamente un modelo de programacion estocastica discreta con dos etapas y un modelo de equilibrio espacial para la simulacion del comportamiento de los agricultores y de los intercambios de agua respectivamente. Para resolver el problema de la endogeneidad de los precios de equilibrio del agua se ha propuesto un procedimiento iterativo. Asimismo se han combinado dichos modelos de programacion matematica con tecnicas de simulacion Montecarlo y remuestreo estadistico. La caracterizacion del riesgo de natur
Effect of self-etching ceramic primer on bond strength of zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate ceramics

Abstract This study evaluated the effect of self-etching ceramic primer (SECP) on shear bond strength (SBS) of zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate (ZLS) ceramics. Two hundred and seventy block-specimens of two types of ZLS ceramics and one type of lithium disilicate (LS) ceramics were prepared. Ninety blocks of each material were divided into three groups (n = 30), namely group 1: no surface treatment (control), group 2: hydrofluoric acid (HF), silane-based primer (S), and group 3: SECP. Resin cement was applied, and light-cured for build-up. Shear bond strength (SBS) test was used. Half of the bonded specimens (n = 15) were tested after storage in distilled water for 24 h, whereas the other half were tested after 5000 thermo-cycles. The failure modes were evaluated using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SBS values for samples treated with SECP and HF + S within the respective materials were statistically comparable (p > 0.05). Thermocycling significantly reduced the SBS (p < 0.05) for all ceramic materials in groups 2 and 3. Mixed failure followed by adhesive failure were the most common failure modes in groups 2 and 3, whereas pretest failure was only detected in group 1. Considering the limitations of the study, with respect to in vitro bond strength, the SECP is an alternative for the conditioning of internal surface of glass ceramics.
The Influence of Online Shopping Determinants on Customer Satisfaction in the Serbian Market

Consumer satisfaction with online shopping is directly dependent on a number of factors. There is a constant dilemma in the market related to the question which online shopping determinants affect the customer satisfaction. This issue is particularly important for underdeveloped markets, where online commerce is not sufficiently present. In order to increase the online commerce participation, it is necessary to explore and analyze the connection between customer satisfaction and diverse determinants. Accordingly, this paper develops the research model to determine the impact of certain online purchase determinants on the consumer satisfaction in the market of Serbia. A conceptual model is defined, consisting of 26 items categorized into seven variables: security, information availability, shipping, quality, pricing, time, and customer satisfaction. Input model parameters were collected through surveys, with the aid of appropriate Internet tools. The validity of the developed model was verified through the Confirmatory Factor Analysis and the Partial Least Squares. The obtained result analysis confirmed the basic research hypotheses that customer satisfaction in online shopping, on the Serbian market, directly depends on the following determinants: security, information availability, shipping, quality, pricing and time.