Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Computer and Noncomputer Environments on Students' Conceptualizations of Geometric Motions

This study investigated the effects of computer and noncomputer environments on learning of geometric motions. Two treatment groups, one of which used specially designed Logo computer environments, and one of which used manipulatives and paper and pencil, received eight lessons on geometric motions. Interviews revealed that both treatment groups, especially the Logo group, performed at a higher level of geometric thinking than did a control group. Both treatment groups outperformed the control group on immediate and delayed posttests; though the two treatment groups did not significantly differ on the immediate posttest, the Logo group outperformed the nonLogo group on the delayed posttest. Thus, there was support for the effectiveness of the curriculum and for the notion that the Logo-based version enhanced the construction of higher-level conceptualizations of motion geometry.
A 160 Mpixel/sec IDCT Processor For HDTV

An IDCT chip has been designed, fabricated, tested and is fully functional at 40 MHz. The device performs the 8x8 IDCT for digital HDTV decoders. It converts four 14-bit DCT coefficients into four 11-bit pixel values each cycle. The inner products are computed with fixed-coefficient multiplier Wallace trees in which the partial products have been rounded before summation. The 31K gate device was implemented in a 10.5 mm die using a 1 micron CMOS array based process.
INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING APPROACHES:THE BEST PRACTICE FOR BASIC SCIENCE TEACHERS -

This paper provides information obtained from Junior Secondary School teachers on their orientation towards the use of inquiry-based approach for teaching Basic Science in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The population of the study comprises all the Basic Science teachers in the State. A sample of one hundred and eighty (180) teachers was selected from the three (3) senatorial districts of the State using multi-stage sampling technique. A fifteen-item scaled response questionnaire was used as an instrument. The items addressed teachers’ related beliefs, orientation and difficulties in implementing IBL in Basic Science classrooms. The four-scale, adopted likert-scale questionnaire was distributed by the researchers to the participants in their schools. The instrument was validated by experts in the fields of language, science education and evaluation while the reliability coefficient of 0.74 was obtained for the questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using the mean score and standard deviation of each statement while the only hypothesis formulated was tested using t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that many teachers had no knowledge of IBL as reflected in their responses, but they have a strong belief that IBL has the potential to overcome learning problems of students in Basic Science. The study also revealed that teachers suffer from lack of resources, unequipped laboratory, too large class size and lack of time allocation in the school time-table for implementing IBL. The study also revealed that the opinion of male and female teachers in the use of IBL did not differ significantly. It was recommended that practicing science teachers should endeavor to employ IBL in their teaching because of its great benefits to students as it allows them to reflect on their own ideas in an effort to build their knowledge, understanding and interpretation of ideas.
Cluster and TC1 five point observations of an FTE on Jan.4,2005: a preliminary study

Observations of an FTE signature at the dayside magnetopause are reported, which is consecutively observed on Jan.4, 2005 by each of five spacecraft comprising the Double Star TC1 spacecraft and the Cluster quartet, while the spacecraft were traversing through the northern-dusk magnetopause. The GSE locations of Cluster and TC1 were ~ (3.91, 12.03, 5.01) RE and (4.33, 12.50, 1.93) RE (GSE), respectively. The event occurred as a magnetosheath FTE at the first Cluster spacecraft at about 07:13 UT on 04 01 2004 and crossed each of the others within 2 minutes. The spatial separations between the Cluster spacecraft were of the order of 200 km and the relative TC1 location was at ΔX~ 0.42RE, ΔY~ 0.47RE, and ΔZ~ 3.08RE. The TC1 signature occurred about 110s after Cluster. deHoffmannTeller (H-T) analysis of the signatures implies that the associated flux ropes observed by Cluster and TC1 were moving with similar velocities eastward and northward, consistent with the polarity for the observed FTEs and the spacecraft locations. The orientation of the flux rope can also be computed and is found to be similar at each spacecraft. Reconstruction of the flux rope signature suggests that they contained approximately equal amounts of magnetic flux. The 3-D distributions of thermal ions in the two FTEs were also similar. The distance of TC1 perpendicular to the plane containing the axis of flux rope observed by Cluster and its H-T velocity is much smaller than the cross-section dimension of the flux ropes observed by both Cluster and TC1. These findings strongly suggest that Cluster and TC1 encountered the magnetosheath branch of the same flux tube at two different positions along its length and this is borne out by computation of the expected time delay between the spacecraft based on the estimated orientation of the tube. Four-spacecraft timing is used to confirm the H-T velocity calculation. Several approaches are used to estimate the axis orientation of the flux rope, so that the large-scale configuration of the flux rope is well postulated based on the five-point measurements.
Decomposition Techniques in Mathematical Programming: Engineering and Science Applications

Motivation and Introduction. - Motivating Examples: Models with Decomposable Structure. - Decomposition Techniques. - Decomposition in Linear Programming: Complicating Constraints. - Decomposition in Linear Programming: Complicating Variables. - Duality. - Decomposition in Nonlinear Programming. - Decomposition in Mixed-Integer Programming. - Other Decomposition Techniques. - Local Sensitivity Analysis. - Local Sensitivity Analysis. - Applications. - Applications. - Computer Codes. - Some GAMS Implementations. - Solution to Selected Exercises. - Exercise Solutions.
Are first-circulation patterns for monographs in the humanities different from the sciences?

Abstract How many monographs acquired in a particular year circulate in that year? What percentage have their first circulation each successive year? Does the pattern differ for different broad subject areas, i.e., humanities, the sciences, and the social sciences? This article tests the assumption that the first-circulation pattern differs by subject. We conclude that the pattern does not differ. The finding is important for decisions about off-site storage, assessing collection development, maintaining departmental libraries, etc. Regardless of subject, if a book has not circulated at least once within a few years after acquisition, it is unlikely to find its reader.
Utilization of BEAM and NEST open source toolboxes in education and research

European Space Agency (ESA) provides several open source toolboxes for visualization, processing and analyzing satellite images acquired both in optical and microwave domains. Basic ERS & Envisat (A)ATSR and MERIS Toolbox (BEAM) was originally developed for easier handling ENVISAT optical data. Today this toolbox supports several raster data formats and datasets collected with other EO instruments such as MODIS, AVHRR, CHRIS/Proba. The NEXT ESA SAR Toolbox (NEST) has been created for processing radar data acquired from different satellites such as ERS 1&2, ENVISAT, RADARSAT or TerraSAR X. Both toolboxes are suitable for the education of the basic principles of data processing (geometric and radiometric corrections, classification, filtering of radar data) but also for research. Possibilities for utilization of these toolboxes in remote sensing courses based on two examples of practical exercises are described. Use of the NEST toolbox is demonstrated on a research project dealing with snow cover detection from SAR imagery.
PELAYANAN AKSESIBILITAS JALAN UMUM (JALUR PEDESTRIAN) BAGI PENYANDANG DISABILITAS (STUDI KASUS DI KOTA SERANG)

Pelayanan publik merupakan bentuk pelayanan yang diberikan oleh penyelenggara pelayanan dalam hal ini adalah pemerintah Kota Serang Provinsi Banten. Pemerintah harus dapat mendistribusikan pelayanan tersebut secara adildalam upaya pemenuhan kebutuhan kepada semua lapisan masyarakat tanpa terkecuali. Salah satu jenis pelayanan publik yang berhak masyarakat peroleh adalah pelayanan aksesibilitas. Penyediaan aksesibilitas salah satunya akses dalam bentuk fisik yaitu aksesibilitas jalan umum dengan cara menyediakan jalur pedestrian (trotoar) bagi penyandang disabilitas.Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan dan melakukan analisis bagaimana pelayanan aksesibilitas jalan umum (jalur pendestrian) bagi penyandang disabilitas. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian studi kasus deskriptif dengan menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif. dengan menggunakan teknis survei literatur akademis di bidang keilmuan pelayanan publik untuk memperoleh konsep-konsep yang relevan dengan kajian pelayanan aksesibilitas jalan umum (jalur pedestrian) bagi penyandang disabilitas. Teknik pengumpulan data ini melalui penelusuran berbagai sumber dan literatur, baik berasal dari dokumen pemerintah serta pemberitaan media massa elektronik, jurnal dan berbagai buku yang terkait dengan penelitian ini. selain itu peneliti juga menggunakan teknik dokumentasi yang ada di lapangan dalam bentuk foto-foto serta dilakukannya pengamatan di lapangan untuk memperkuat data yang ada.Hasil penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa pelayanan aksesi jalan umum (jalur pedestrian) bagi difabel studi kasus di Kota Serang belum baik. Artinya, aksesibilitas jalur pedestrian tidak ramah terhadap difabel sehingga menyulitkan kaum difabel untuk dapat melakukan mobilitas dengan baik dan mandiri serta kesulitan untuk berpartisipasi secara penuh dan efektif dengan warga negara lainnya berdasarkan kesamaan hak.
The Use of Aiding Techniques and Continuous Cursor Controllers to Designate Targets in 3-D Space

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of three variables on target designation tasks using three-dimensional (3-D) maps. Variable 1: two continuous control techniques, Variable 2: two aiding techniques, and Variable 3: two target densities. The two continuous controllers used were an ultrasonic hand tracker and a joystick. The two aiding techniques were referred to as simple and enhanced aiding. Simple aiding consisted of a color change to the target when the cursor penetrated the target volume. Enhanced aiding consisted of an algorithm (Osga, 1991) that “pulled” the cursor to the closest target and then changed its color. The two target densities were high (16 targets) and low (8 targets). Results showed that the hand tracker provided the best performance with respect to total target designation time. Enhanced aiding provided the best performance in terms of both total target designation time and percent errors. For the density variable, the common speed-accuracy trade-off was present — the low density condition had faster total target designation times, but the high density had less percent errors.
Country of Authorship and Collaboration Affect Citations of Articles by South and East Asian Authors in Agronomy Journals: A Case Study of China, Japan, and India

A total of 7,707 agronomy papers (2006 to 2011) by Chinese, Indian, and Japanese authors were identified in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The impact factors (IFs) of papers and the uncited paper rate (UPR) in a particular journal with a given country's authorship was calculated as IFs calculated in Journal Citation Reports. For India, the impact factors of articles authored within one country (within-country impact factor) were significantly lower than the overall IF. The impact factors of collaborative articles (collaborative impact factor) and within-country impact factors for the three countries differed significantly. The uncited rates of collaborative papers (uncited collaborative paper rate) and uncited rates of papers authored within one country (uncited within-country paper rate) of China and Japan were significantly different. However, for India, the uncited collaborative paper rate was significantly lower than the uncited within-country paper rate; collaboration (mostly with developed countries) exerted a negative effect.
Pronouns, agreement and classifiers: What sign languages can tell us about linguistic diversity and linguistic universals

The search for linguistic universals (and understanding universals in the face of diversity) is one of the key issues in linguistics today. Yet the vast majority of the linguistic research has focused only on spoken languages. Sign languages constitute an important test case for theories on universals and diversity, since a language “universal” only deserves this name if it holds both for signed and spoken languages, and languages in a different modality surely have much to teach us about the full range of diversity within human language. In this paper I consider three morphosyntactic phenomena found in sign languages that have traditionally been assumed to be the same as spoken languages but which, on closer inspection, reveal some fundamental differences relating to particular affordances of the visual-spatial modality. In order to understand these differences in more detail, linguists must consider the multimodal nature of human language (including gesture) rather than just the classic linguistic characteristics which are the exclusive focus of much work in mainstream approaches to the study of language.
PENGARUH KUALITAS LAYANAN TERHADAP KEPUASAN DALAM MENINGKATKAN LOYALITAS DI MODERASI HARGA

Pelayanan merupakan salah satu faktor yang sangat penting bagi perusahaan yang bergerak di bidang produk maupun jasa, secara teori kualitas layanan yang baik serta harga yang masuk akal dapat meningkatkan kepuasan serta meningkatkan loyalitas. Hal tersebut berbeda dengan kenyataan di Lembaga kursus yang telah melakukan layanan yang baik, akan tetapi masih terdapat murid yang berhenti les pada setiap bulan. Penelitian terdahulu mengenai kualitas layanan, kepuasan, loyalitas dan harga dilakukan di lingkungan asuransi, perbankan, toko, hotel, dan lain-lain. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui kualitas layanan, kepuasan serta harga dalam peningkatan loyalitas murid. Penelitian ini dilakukan pada sebuah lembaga kursus Mandarin yang berlokasi di Jakarta Barat. Responden yang digunakan sebanyak 200 murid. Analisa data menggunakan metode Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa kualitas layanan yang baik akan meningkatkan kepuasan murid, kualitas layanan yang baik akan meningkatkan loyalitas murid, kepuasan murid yang semakin tinggi maka loyalitas murid akan semakin rendah, harga yang semakin murah akan meningkatkan kepuasan dan loyalitas murid. Kata kunci: kualitas layanan, kepuasan, loyalitas dan harga
Practical Method for The Estimation of Trip Generation And Trip Chaining

A model system of trip generation and trip chaining was developed by integrating concepts from activity-based analysis. The structure of the model system is recursive, depicting a sequential decision-making mechanism. The results were based on a data set from the Detroit metropolitan area. They were compared with those of a previous study that used a data set from the Netherlands. Differences were observed not only in the values of the regression parameters estimated but also in the decision mechanism inferred.
Creating Very Large Scale Neighborhoods out of Smaller Ones by Compounding Moves: A Study on the Vehicle Routing Problem

Neighborhood search algorithms are a wide class of improvement algorithms where at each iteration an improving solution is found by searching the "neighborhood" of the current solution. This paper discusses neighborhood search algorithms where the size of the neighborhood is "very large" with respect to the size of the input data. For large problem instances, it is impractical to search these neighborhoods explicitly, and one must either search a small portion of the neighborhood or else develop efficient algorithms for searching the neighborhood implicitly. We concentrate on a very large scale neighborhood (VLSN) search technique based on compounding independent moves (CIM) such as 2-opts, swaps, and insertions. We demonstrate that the search for an improving neighbor can be done by finding a negative cost path on an auxiliary graph. In this paper we study CIM algorithms for the vehicle routing problem with capacity and distance constraints. We present results of the computational study which indicates that the CIM algorithms for the capacitated vehicle routing problem are competitive with the current state of the art heuristics.
Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage

Introduction: Words for a Conversation 1. Cons and Pros The Lady Eve 2. Knowledge as Transgression It Happened One Night 3. Leopards in Connecticut Bringing up Baby 4. The Importance of Importance The Philadelphia Story 5. Counterfeiting Happiness His Girl Friday 6. The Courting of Marriage Adam's Rib 7. The Same and Different The Awful Truth Appendix: Film in the University Acknowledgments Index
Retriever: a self-training agent for intelligent information discovery

With the exponential growth of the Internet and the volume of information published on it, searching for information of interest has become a very difficult and time-consuming task. In this paper, we present 'Retriever', an autonomous agent that executes user queries and returns high-quality results to the user. Retriever utilizes existing search engines to obtain the starting points for its subsequent autonomous exploration of the Web. Then it conducts a self-training process in order to learn the query domain and to increase its efficiency. When the query domain is learned, the agent expands the original query, reforms its search strategy and goes out looking for the documents to be presented to the user. It also incorporates relevance feedback in order to perform subsequent searches on the same query.
Advantages of five phase motors in microstepping drive

The following paper deals with the microstep operation of permanent magnet stepper motors driven in constant current mode. It describes the control and positioning characteristics of motors with different numbers of phases, 2/4, 3 and 5. Motors with higher number of phases show smaller positioning deviations. However in general the positioning errors are an order of magnitude larger than the theoretical step resolution. This fact alone makes the use of microstepping of questionable benefit in terms of simple increases in step resolution.
Improved signal analysis and time-synchronous reconstruction in waveform interpolation coding

This paper presents a waveform-matched waveform interpolation (WMWI) technique which enables improved speech analysis over existing WI coders. In WMWI, an accurate representation of speech evolution is produced by extracting critically-sampled pitch periods of a time-warped, constant pitch residual. The technique also offers waveform-matching capabilities by using an inverse warping process to near-perfectly reconstruct the residual. Here, a pitch track optimisation technique is described which ensures the speech residual can be effectively decomposed and quantised. Also, the pitch parameters required to efficiently quantise and recreate the pitch track, on a period-by-period basis, are identified. This allows time-synchrony between the original and decoded signals to be preserved.
Service quality and customer satisfaction in academic libraries: Perspectives from a Malaysian university

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a study to examine the perception of academic staff on the quality of academic library services. It also attempts to assess the impact of library services on their work and their perceived level of satisfaction towards university library services.Design/methodology/approach – The study was carried out using a survey methodology. The survey instrument was a questionnaire adopted from a quality impact survey based on SERVQUAL dimensions.Findings – Results reveal that academic staff perceive the quality of library services to be just above average. Library staff are considered quite helpful and able to instill confidence in library users. Academic staff also believe that the library has a positive impact on their teaching, learning and research. The overall satisfaction with the library services received a satisfactory rating.Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to the University of Malaya Library and its branch libraries, .
Rethinking the book

Electronic media have lagged behind their paper progenitors in the clear, usable display of large bodies of information. New visual languages have been created for information display which exploit the computer's unique ability to render dynamic and three-dimensional typography. These languages demonstrate that the use of three dimensional form, expressive movement, visual focus and layering, in harmony with human perceptual abilities, improve navigation and contextual understanding of complex written documents. This thesis shows that graphic displays can be combined with physical interfaces to create interactions with purely typographic information that are rich, tactile and humane. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
The Effect of Interface Consistency and Cognitive Load on User Performance in an Information Search Task

Although interface consistency is theorized to increase performance and user satisfaction, previous research has found mixed and often non-significant results. By controlling for the level of task difficulty, specifically the cognitive load, it is hoped that the study will explain the contradictory findings of past research. Eighty participants will be used in a 2×2×2 between-subjects factorial design. The study will manipulate the level of interface consistency, along with intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load imposed by the task. Objective performance measures of task completion time and error-rate along with the subjective measure of user satisfaction will be analyzed. It is expected that the high interface consistency condition will perform better than low interface consistency; in contrast, it is predicted that the low cognitive load condition will outperform the high cognitive load condition. Furthermore, it is predicted that the effect of consistency and cognitive load will interact causing the lack of interface consistency to be significantly more detrimental when paired with a high level of either form of cognitive load.
The use of Web‐based information systems for non‐work activities: An empirical study

Much of research has applied the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) model and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to organizational information systems (OIS) for work-related activities. The Web essentially is a large information system (IS) and is often used for non-work activities. Yet, few studies have related the TTF model and the TAM to the use of Web-based information systems for non-work activities. This paper synthesizes TTF and TAM models and tests whether they are applicable to the Web. The results show that the TAM applies very well to predict the Web user’s performance, but the TTF model just produces a weak relationship. The study suggests that the performance of the Web users can be improved through (1) improving the perceived usefulness, (2) improving the perceived ease of use, and (3) having a more aligned task-technology fit.