Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
6. EDUCATION AS A SITE OF LANGUAGE CONTACT

This chapter reviews the multidimensional research on bilingual education, covering contexts where bilingual children are in transitional classrooms as well as schools where curriculum content is experienced in two (or more) languages. Bilingual education has become a major tool in language reversal planning, since language transmission within families within minority languages typically provides a considerable shortfall in language reproduction. To play its part in language reversal, bilingual education needs to show its relative effectiveness, both as an educational approach and for language maintenance planning. Immersion and dual language approaches have increasingly demonstrated such success. However, bilingual education is neither a universal panacea for language planners, nor is it effective purely due to dual language classroom approaches, as recent research reveals. Such research locates the political nature of bilingual education, not only at the level of policy making, but also in qualitative research in classrooms. It illuminates how language and literacy practices can latently legitimate and reproduce unequal relations between language majorities and minorities. Emerging directions in bilingual education research include trilingual education, the bilingual education of deaf students, the consequences of information technologies for bilingual classrooms, and the effect of the internationalization of English on language contact in schools. This reflects an international interest for research at the varying levels of philosophy, policy, provision, practice, and not least the politics of education as a site of language contact.
Low-Power and Optimized VLSI Implementation of Compact Recursive Discrete Fourier Transform (RDFT) Processor for the Computations of DFT and Inverse Modified Cosine Transform (IMDCT) in a Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) and DRM+ Receiver

This paper presents a compact structure of recursive discrete Fourier transform (RDFT) with prime factor (PF) and common factor (CF) algorithms to calculate variable-length DFT coefficients. Low-power optimizations in VLSI implementation are applied to the proposed RDFT design. In the algorithm, for 256-point DFT computation, the results show that the proposed method greatly reduces the number of multiplications/additions/computational cycles by 97.40/94.31/46.50% compared to a recent approach. In chip realization, the core size and chip size are, respectively, 0.84 × 0.84 and 1.38 × 1.38 mm2. The power consumption for the 288- and 256-point DFT computations are, respectively, 10.2 (or 0.1051) and 11.5 (or 0.1176) mW at 25 (or 0.273) MHz simulated by NanoSim. It would be more efficient and more suitable than previous works for DRM and DRM+ applications.
A Model for Studying Display Methods of Statistical Graphics

Abstract A method of statistical graphics consists of two parts: a selection of statistical information to be displayed and a selection of a visual display method to encode the information. Some display methods lead to efficient, accurate visual decoding of encoded information, and others lead to inefficient, inaccurate decoding. It is only through rigorous studies of visual decoding that informed judgments can be made about how to choose display methods. A model has been developed to provide a framework for the study of visual decoding. The model consists of three parts: (1) a two-way classification of information on displays—quantitative-scale, quantitative-physical, categorical-scale, and categorical-physical; (2) a division of the visual processing of graphical displays into pattern perception and table look-up; (3) a specification of visual operations that are employed to carry out pattern perception and table look-up. Display methods are assessed by studying the visual operations to which they lead.
South Korean Elementary Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Numbers and Operations

We examined South Korean elementary teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching numbers and operations and the factors that contribute to this knowledge. We used a translated and adapted version of the Learning Mathematics for Teaching Project measures and the Quadric Survey to collect information on the teachers’ knowledge of teaching the subject and their background information. Based on the statistical analysis (ANOVA and multiple regression mode), we found that the teachers’ knowledge for teaching mathematics might differ based on teaching experience, academic degree related to elementary mathematics education, certification level, and educational districts in which they work. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n15p336
Relational diversity affects ease of processing even for opaque English compounds

Recent research has indicated that understanding compound words involves an attempt at semantic composition of the constituent words, and that this meaning construction process involves an attempt to identify a relation linking the constituents. Research with novel compounds, where a meaning construction process is necessary, has shown that relational interpretations compete to be selected during comprehension, and that increased competition leads to increased processing difficulty. The current project investigates relational competition during the processing of transparent and opaque English compounds. The results show that the diversity of possible relational interpretations affects the ease with which participants can make a lexical decision for a compound. This is true even for opaque compounds, where the identification of the meaning of the compound cannot, by definition, be the result of the meaning construction process. This suggests that initiation of the meaning construction process is obligatory during compound processing.
Blended Learning in an ESL Class: A Case Study

Blended learning, a combination of face-to-face and online instruction, is seen as one of the most important recent advances in education (Thorne, 2003). While previous CALL studies have looked at various aspects of blended learning in foreign and second language classes, they have not allowed for a sufficient description of what actually happens in an environment of a blended learning class. In order to further advance the research in this area, a framework proposed by Neumeier (2005) was used to describe a technology-enhanced blended-learning model. The case study described here examined an intermediate ESL listening and speaking class in an intensive English program. The class used a commercially available learning management system (LMS), to combine face-to-face classroom learning (face-to-face mode) and online learning in the computer lab and for homework (CALL mode). The main findings of the study indicate that all language skills can be successfully integrated into both modes. These results can inform the design and implementation of new blended learning models as well as the comparison with the existing models.
A model-driven fuzzy natural stroke extractor for off-line loosely-constrained handwritten Chinese characters

A new stroke extraction approach for handwritten Chinese characters is proposed. It uses fuzzy techniques in a "hit-all" matching strategy to reduce the noise in the final output. A number of ambiguities commonly encountered in loosely-constrained handwriting are treated. A maximum of 20 distinct natural stroke classes can be extracted from each input character, together with a close estimate of the actual count of strokes which compose the character. Our system is found to have an extraction performance which is very comparable to other existing approaches. Our system offers a number of performance tuning capabilities, such as the computation of the fuzzy scores of each extracted stroke, the adjustment of the fuzzy stroke model parameters and the potential of incorporating personal writing styles into our methodology.
Scope of validity of PSNR in image/video quality assessment

Experimental data are presented that clearly demonstrate the scope of application of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) as a video quality metric. It is shown that as long as the video content and the codec type are not changed, PSNR is a valid quality measure. However, when the content is changed, correlation between subjective quality and PSNR is highly reduced. Hence PSNR cannot be a reliable method for assessing the video quality across different video contents.
The effects of three types of attention drawing techniques on the acquisition of English collocations

The current study examined the effectiveness of three types of awareness raising techniques on learning of a number of English collocations by Persian EFL learners. These techniques viz. textual enhancement, input enrichment, and form comparison required learners to pay different levels of attention to collocations in the input. The results indicated that while form comparison and textual enhancement led to the acquisition of collocations, input enrichment didn’t. The findings also revealed that paying attention to collocations in the input have some unfavorable effects on processing content. The findings and their implications for teaching collocations are discussed in the study.
Visual analysis of trash bin processing on garbage trucks in low resolution video

We present a system for trash can detection and counting from a camera which is mounted on a garbage collection truck. A working prototype has been successfully implemented and tested with several hours of real-world video. The detection pipeline consists of HOG detectors for two trash can sizes, and meanshift tracking and low level image processing for the analysis of the garbage disposal process. Considering the harsh environment and unfavorable imaging conditions, the process works already good enough so that very useful measurements from video data can be extracted. The false positive/false negative rate of the full processing pipeline is about 5-6% at fully automatic operation. Video data of a full day (about 8 hrs) can be processed in about 30 minutes on a standard PC.
WORMHOLE ATTACK MITIGATION IN MANET: A CLUSTER BASED AVOIDANCE TECHNIQUE

A Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) is a self configuring, infrastructure less network of mobile devices connected by wireless links. Loopholes like wireless medium, lack of a fixed infrastructure, dynamic topology, rapid deployment practices, and the hostile environments in which they may be deployed, make MANET vulnerable to a wide range of security attacks and Wormhole attack is one of them. During this attack a malicious node captures packets from one location in the network, and tunnels them to another colluding malicious node at a distant point, which replays them locally. This paper presents a cluster based Wormhole attack avoidance technique. The concept of hierarchical clustering with a novel hierarchical 32bit node addressing scheme is used for avoiding the attacking path during the route discovery phase of the DSR protocol, which is considered as the under lying routing protocol. Pinpointing the location of the wormhole nodes in the case of exposed attack is also given by using this method.
An improvement on blocking probability for SDMA

Space division multiple access (SDMA) is a technique that can be superimposed on traditional multiple access schemes such as frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA) or code division multiple access (CDMA) to increase the system capacity. Several different studies have shown the effectiveness of SDMA in a mobile communication environment. This paper derives a modified formulation for SDMA blocking probability from Galvan-Tejada and Gardiner's (1999) derivation and the cellular traffic theory (Lee and Miller, 1998). A simulation is also presented to verify our derivation.
Intonational structure in Japanese and English

Comparisons between Japanese and English prosodics have usually either focused on the strikingly apparent phonetic differences between the stress patterns of English and the tonal accent patterns of Japanese or concentrated upon formal similarities between the abstract arrangements of the stresses and tones. A recent investigation of tone structure in Japanese (Pierrehumbert & Beckman forthcoming), however, has convinced us that if the proper prosodic phenomena are compared, far more pervasive similarities can be discovered and of a much more concrete sort than hitherto suspected. In particular, there is now extensive evidence that Japanese tonal patterns are very sparsely specified, which suggests that they are much more similar to English intonational structures than earlier descriptions would have allowed.
Retinal recognition using compression-based joint transform correlator

Retinal recognition by using compression-based joint transform correlator (JTC) is proposed. Recognition performance is quantitatively measured by taking into account effect of imbalanced illuminations and noise presence. The simulation results show that the compression-based JTC has reliable recognition performance for high-contrast retina target. Besides acceleration of image transfer time, the compression of the noise-corrupted retina target images can improve the correlator robustness to noise.
A prosodic theory of laryngeal contrasts

Current models of laryngeal licensing allow as many laryngeal contrasts within a syllable as there are segments, at least in principle. We show here that natural languages are much more economical in their use of laryngeal contrasts than segmental models would lead us to expect. Specifically, we show that voicing, aspiration and glottalisation occur at most once per onset, nucleus or coda in a given language, and that the order in which they are produced within onset, nucleus and coda is never contrastive. To account for these restrictions, we propose that laryngeal features are properties not of segments, but of the onsets, nuclei and codas that dominate them.
Cyberslacking and the Procrastination Superhighway

This study was designed to explore the extent to which time spent online was related to self reports of procrastination. A sample of 308 participants (Mean age = 29.4 years, SD = 12.0, 198 females) from various regions of North America completed a survey posted to the World Wide Web. Data collected included demographic information, attitudes toward the Internet, amount of time spent online (at home, work, and school), trait procrastination, and measures of positive and negative emotion. Results demonstrated that 50.7% of the respondents reported frequent Internet procrastination, and respondents spent 47% of online time procrastinating. Internet procrastination was positively correlated with perceiving the Internet as entertaining, a relief from stress, and paradoxically, as an important tool. Internet procrastination was also positively correlated with trait procrastination and negative emotions. Implications regarding Internet procrastination are discussed in relation to procrastination theory and research as well as Neil Postman’s critique of technology.
Depressed Mood, Body Dissatisfaction, and Exercise among Native Hawaiian, Japanese and Filipino American College Students

Background: Although ethnic minority groups are at greater risk for depression, findings among Asian Pacific Island (API) groups are inconclusive. Aim: The present study examined the risk of depression among three API groups residing in Hawaii and factors associated with depression. Method: A total of 289 Filipino, Japanese and Native Hawaiian college students completed a survey that examined symptoms of depression, exercise performance dissatisfaction, physical exercise, body dissatisfaction, health status, and BMI. Results: Filipinos reported higher depression scores than Japanese students and no gender differences in depression were found. As predicted exercise performance dissatisfaction was positively associated with depression, and physical exercise was negatively associated with depression. No relationship was observed between depression and BMI which suggests that API groups residing in Hawaii may be more tolerant of larger body types. Conclusion: The results support the need to further examine risk of depression among API sub-groups and also the need to address negative exercise attitudes in the use of exercise in depression treatment.
A COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF EXACT AND HEURISTIC METHODS FOR TRANSFER LINE BALANCING PROBLEM

Ten best exact and heuristic methods for Transfer Line Balancing Problem (TLBP) are compared in a computational experiment. The TLBP deals with the optimization of design solutions for serial machining lines. Such lines consist of a sequence of unit head machines. The operations are grouped into blocks at every station. These blocks are executed sequentially and the operations within each block are performed simultaneously by the same multi-spindle head. The objective is to assign the operations to blocks and the blocks to stations minimizing the total number of station and spindle heads. The challenge is to minimize the line cost and time for line design. Experimental results are presented. They help to choose the best optimization method for each situation.
Simplified three-dimensional discrete cosine transform-based video codec

In this paper, a simplified three-dimensional discrete cosine transform (3D DCT) based video codec is proposed. The computational complexity of the baseline 3D DCT based video codec is reduced by simplifying the transformation block. In video sequences with low motion activity, consecutive images are highly correlated in the temporal dimension, thus the DCT does not usually produce significant coefficient values to the higher temporal frequencies. Therefore, we have a possibility to use a simple averaging operation and the 2D DCT, instead of the full 3D DCT operation, for some of the cubes in processing. Furthermore, some of the resulting cubes could be combined together to achieve more efficient binary representation. Based on our results, simplifications improve considerably the compression efficiency of the 3D DCT based codec on video sequences with low motion activity. In addition, the compression efficiency on video sequences with high motion activity is maintained. At the same time, the coding speed of the simplified 3D DCT based video codec was increased. Although the compression efficiency of H.263 video codec was not reached, the encoding speed of the 3D DCT based video encoder is significantly faster than the encoding speed of the H.263.
Raising Students' Awareness of Cross-Cultural Contrastive Rhetoric in English Writing via an E-Learning Course.

This study investigated the potential impact of e-learning on raising overseas students' cultural awareness and explored the possibility of creating an interactive learning environment for them to improve their English academic writing. The study was based on a comparison of Chinese and English rhetoric in academic writing, including a comparison of Chinese students' writings in Chinese with native English speakers' writings in English and Chinese students' writings in English with the help of an e-course and Chinese students' writings in English without the help of an e-course. Five features of contrastive rhetoric were used as criteria for the comparison. The experimental results show that the group using the e-course was successful in learning about defined aspects of English rhetoric in academic writing, reaching a level of performance that equalled that of native English speakers. Data analysis also revealed that e-learning resources helped students to compare rhetorical styles across cultures and that the interactive learning environment was effective in improving overseas students' English academic writing.
An assessment of support strategies used to facilitate distance students' participation in a web‐based learning environment in the University of the West Indies

This paper reports on a study undertaken to analyse learner participation in an online teaching–learning environment in the distance education program of the University of the West Indies. In outlining the context of the study, special emphasis was placed on the role of the course coordinator and the site‐based technician in facilitating participation. The fact that the online teaching–learning component was being added to a mixed delivery mode was also noted. A key aspect of the study was the measurement of respondents' potential for interaction. This concept was defined as a set of communicative behaviours that students engaged in, or intended to engage in, on the discussion board. The behaviours were described as interactive since they were either inputs or intended inputs, into a two‐way exchange. Key issues emerging included the need to rationalize the functions of the various components of the delivery mix, to review the positioning of the course coordinator vis‐à‐vis the student, and to give more thought to generating instructional strategies that are more likely to facilitate learner participation.
Colonia 3D Communication of Virtual 3D Reconstructions in Public Spaces

The communication of cultural heritage in public spaces such as museums or exhibitions, gain more and more importance during the last years. The possibilities of interactive 3D applications open a new degree of freedom beyond the mere presentation of static visualizations, such as pre-produced video or image data. A user is now able to directly interact with 3D virtual environments that enable the depiction and exploration of digital cultural heritage artifacts in real-time. However, such technology requires concepts and strategies for guiding a user throughout these scenarios, since varying levels of experiences within interactive media can be assumed. This paper presents a concept as well as implementation for communication of digital cultural heritage in public spaces, by example of the project Roman Cologne. It describes the results achieved by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, designers, and computer graphics engineers with the aim to virtually reconstruct an interactive high-detail 3D cit.
A Comparison of Regression and Neural Network Based for Multiple Response Optimization in a Real Case Study of Gasoline Production Process

Most of existing researches for multi response optimization are based on regression analysis. However, the artificial neural network can be applied for the problem. In this paper, two approaches are proposed by consideration of both methods. In the first approach, regression model of the controllable factors and S/N ratio of each response has been achieved, then a fuzzy programming has been applied to find the optimal factors' levels. In the second approach, a tuned Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to relate controllable factors and overall exponential desirability function then Genetic Algorithm(GA) is used to find factors optimum value. Mentioned approaches have been discussed in a real case study of oil refining industry. Experimental results for the suggested levels confirm efficiency of the both proposed methods; however, the Neural Network based approach shows more suitability in our case study.