Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overestimation of Action-Game Training Effects: Publication Bias and Salami Slicing

Does playing action video games improve performance on tests of cognitive ability? A recent meta-analysis (Bediou et al., 2018a) summarized the available evidence and concluded that it can. Their analysis, however, did not adequately correct for publication bias. We re-analyzed the same set of studies with more appropriate adjustments for publication bias and found minimal evidence for transfer of training to cognitive ability measures. Instead, it is possible that there are little or no benefits, just publication bias — the exclusion of non-significant results from the published literature. That bias may be the cause of a lab effect reported in the original meta-analysis. The meta-analysis showed that studies from the Bavelier lab (the senior author of the meta-analysis) reported larger effects than other labs. We show that many of these original studies distributed different outcomes from the same or highly overlapping sets of participants across publications without noting the overlap. This salami-slicing might contribute to the extent of publication bias in the literature. More compelling, independent, and transparent evidence is needed before concluding that action video game training transfers to performance on other cognitive tasks.
The effects of procedural justice and work overload on job performance

This thesis explored the relationship between work overload and procedural justice on job performance. Previous literature on the subject suggested a linear relationship between stress levels and performance, or an interaction between job stressors and other variables, such as work overload, on job performance. This thesis used planned comparisons to test three hypotheses. The first was that participants treated unfairly would show a greater decrease in performance when performing a task than participants treated fairly. The second hypothesis was that participants in an unfair procedural justice and a work overload group would show a greater decrease in performance on a task than participants in an unfair procedural justice and no work overload group. The third hypothesis was that participants in the fair procedural justice and work overload group would show a greater decrease in performance on a task than the participants in the fair procedural justice and no work overload group. The theories were tested by having the participants randomly assigned to groups, and performing a proofreading task at two time intervals. Both intervals were timed, but the manipulation was introduced only in the second interval. The results did not support hypotheses one and three, but there was support for hypothesis two. Suggestions for future research include more control for confounds, such as reading skills and levels, in order to have more uniformity on the proofreading task, having simpler proofreading documents, and finding a better method of manipulating fairness.
Machine learning techniques for data mining: A survey

Data mining (DM) is a most popular knowledge acquisition method for knowledge discovery. Classification is one of the data mining (machining learning) technique that maps the data into the predefined class and group's. It is used to predict group membership for data instance. There are many areas that adapt Data Mining techniques such as medical, marketing, telecommunications, and stock, health care and so on. This paper presents the various classification techniques including decision tree, Support vector Machine, Nearest Neighbor etc. This survey provides a comparative Analysis of various classification algorithms.
Multi-faceted Professional Development Designs for Science Teachers' Self-efficacy for Inquiry-based Teaching: A Critical Review

This review's overarching goal is to synthesize what the research tells us about the impact of teacher professional development programs for both pre-service and in-service science teachers' self-efficacy for the enactment of inquiry-based instruction (IBI) in the classroom. This in-depth critical review attempts to illuminate insights and direction of multi-faceted Professional Development Designs (PDDs) in relation to two eminent research fields in science education; self-efficacy and inquiry-based teaching(IBT). It involves a computerized, web-based search of relevant studies mainly consisting of academic and peer-reviewed journals and well-known book chapters. 43 empirical studies that met specific search criteria were selected for the review based on indications of the reputation of the research and recent impacts factors. Additionally, the methodological aspect is considered to draw a more complete and holistic view of the related studies regarding self-efficacy and inquiry-based science teaching. The prominent implications of the review were the mediator or moderator effect of self-efficacy in the relationship of professional development interventions and the enactment of inquiry-based science teaching, particularly, for pre-service teachers and the broader understanding of the nature of PDDs either form of science content courses or science methods courses. Out of which, deep understanding of scientific inquiry, strong practical experience with designing, developing, implementing and assessing IBT, and skills for guiding and organizing students to conduct inquiry activities were found to be key features of PDDs. Other functional and methodological implications are also pointed out for further research related to the effects of different innovative professional learning communities promoting the self-efficacy beliefs for inquiry-based teaching in science.
Mitigating the Deadly Embrace in Financial Cycles; Countercyclical Buffers and Loan-to-Value Limits

This paper presents a new version of MAPMOD (Mark II) to study the effectiveness of macroprudential regulations. We extend the original model by explicitly modeling the housing market. We show how household demand for housing, house prices, and bank mortgages are intertwined in what we call a deadly embrace. Without macroprudential policies, this deadly embrace naturally leads to housing boom and bust cycles, which can be very costly for the economy, as shown by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09.
Naturalist intelligence and personality: An understanding students’ responsible enviromental behavior

Notwithstanding that many efforts to overcome environmental problems have been carried out by several parties, yet the issues still occur. Improving students’ responsible environmental behavior (REB) can be an alternative to solve environmental problems. This study aimed to analyze the relation between the both variables (i.e. naturalist intelligence and personality) and students’ REB at SJHS 51 of Bandung. The research was carried out using quantitative descriptive method through a correlational approach. Naturalist intelligence, personality, and REB data were collected using questionnaires. The research data were analyzed using multiple linear regression at α = 0.05. The research results showed that there was a relation between: (1) naturalist intelligence and REB;. (2) personality and REB; and (3) the both predictor variables and REB. Therefore, empowering the both competencies (naturalist intelligence and personality) is the essential step to improve students’ REB.
Indonesian Parents' Involvement in Their Children's Education: A Study in Elementary Schools in Urban and Rural Java, Indonesia

Despite a growing body of research on parental involvement and its effects on students' academic achievement, our knowledge about the mechanism of parental involvement in non-Western contexts remains scarce. Our study addresses this gap by exploring the factors that motivate parents from different socioeconomic status and educational levels to be involved in their children's education in Java, Indonesia. We further explored how parents were involved and what challenges they faced in their involvement. The analysis is embedded in Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's parental involvement motivation model. Sixteen parents in eight elementary schools in urban and rural areas in Java participated in this interview study. We found differences in parents' expectations and aspirations for their children's education and in their perceptions of their obligations and responsibilities regarding their children's education. These differences were related to parents' socioeconomic background and also to the urban and rural community contexts. Although all parents felt welcome at school, some highly educated parents reported lack of power and lack of opportunity for active parental involvement at the school. As is typical for a collectivist culture such as the Indonesian society, this study points to the shared responsibility of some Indonesian parents for the education of children other than their own in the local community.
Experienced Quantity Surveyor’s Perception of Employability Skills Required by Malaysian Fresh Graduate Quantity Surveyor

The purpose of this research is to investigate the experienced quantity surveyor’s perception towards the employability skills of fresh graduate quantity surveyor. The objectives of this research are (i) to examine the experienced quantity surveyor’s perception of the important employability skills required by fresh graduate quantity surveyor, (ii) to examine their satisfaction of employability skills possessed by fresh graduate quantity surveyor, (iii) to investigate the fresh graduate’s personal characteristics that will influence their employment and (iv) to identify the ways to enhance their employability skills. This research employed quantitative method. 280 questionnaires were distributed with only 20.7% of response rate. It was found that the experienced quantity surveyor ranked the top three important employability skills were management skills, computer and information literacy and communication skill while the top three satisfied employability skills were computer and information literacy, followed by teamwork and communication skills. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test showed that 26 out of 28 employability skills were found significant difference between importance and satisfaction level. There were four characteristics of fresh graduate quantity surveyor that rated by experienced quantity surveyor that will look into which were working related experience, academic result, level of qualification and university reputation. Moreover, the solutions to enhance their employability skills were encouraged them to get work placement and internship, extend the duration of internship and the higher education institution shall revise the course structure to be more relevant to the current construction industry’s needs.
Promoting Learner Autonomy Through Cooperative Learning

Learner autonomy has become a hot topic and goal in the research of foreign language education. However, it is the most difficult question to define language learner autonomy and any answer to it is likely to be subjective. On the basis of expounding upon the different definitions concerning the research on learner autonomy in language teaching and learning, this study was to explore how cooperative group learning helps to improve learner autonomy. The survey’s findings indicate that the group work helps to improve students’ learning attitude, interest and motivation. It also reveals that students’ language competence and awareness of using learning resources are improved. This article discusses plausible explanations for the survey findings and makes recommendations on the roles and knowledge that language teachers should play and have to facilitate the development of learner autonomy.
Moderating Effect of Employee Participation on Factors that Determine Effective Performance Appraisal (EPA): Data Screening and Preliminary Analysis

This paper reports the collected data concerning the moderating effect of employee participation on factors that determine effective performance appraisal (EPA). A survey technique was used to administer 518 surveys to academics in public Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (COEs) in NorthEast and North-West Nigeria. Preliminary screening and cleaning of data were performed in an effort to observe the expectations of multivariate analysis. Thus, Statistical analyses of missing data as well as an evaluation of univariate and multivariate outliers was done using SSPSS version 23. Result indicates that further analysis can be carried out as the data fulfill the basic requirements for that purpose.
An Optimization Approach to Indoor Location Problem Based on Received Signal Strength

Zheng, Lei. Ph.D., Department of Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering, Engineering Ph. D. Program, Wright State University, 2012. An Optimization Approach to Indoor Location Problem Based on Received Signal Strength. This research was motivated by the desire of a Fortune 100 retail company to track its customers’ behaviors through the implementation of a low-cost indoor location system using received signal devices. Indoor location through received signal strength (RSS) is of low costs, yet it suffers from poor accuracy due to lack of direct line-of-sight, multi-path ratio propagation, and various interferences. To improve its location estimation accuracy, therefore, we propose a mathematical programming based propagation approach for RSS based location systems. The core of our approach is an optimization model that minimizes the sum of squared errors of signal strength. In particular, the model integrates the two steps in a traditional optimization model: (a) regression analysis to find the relationship between the signal strength and distance, and (b) minimization of sum of squared error of the distance into one holistic model. By doing so, it provides a more direct and effective model for solving the RSS based indoor location problem. In addition, the optimization model is preceded by a Kalman filter model to smooth noise in the original data, and the model is expanded to link multiple time intervals into a multi-step optimization model that constrains the distance between successive steps to satisfy a feasible walking speed limit at a grocery store. To reduce computational time, an enhanced simulated annealing algorithm with dynamic neighborhood is developed to quickly find near optimal solutions. Our computational results showed that compared to traditional approaches, our approach is able to provide more robust and accurate solutions, reducing location estimation errors by 20% to 30%, and is computationally more efficient. Our approach will enable the RSS based indoor location system to be expandable to other stores without significant costs.
Impact of quality of working life on the psychological well-being and marital adjustment among female nurses

Background Nurses are one of the most diverse and largest workforces in the health-care system. Their work usually affects different concerns of their life. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of quality of working life (QoWL) on the psychological well-being (PWB) and marital adjustment among female nurses. Research design A descriptive-analytical study design was used to carry out this study. Setting This study was conducted at all maternal and child health centers in Zagazig City. Patients and methods A purposive sample composed of 208 female nurses who were working in the previously mentioned settings were recruited. Tools of data collection: four tools were used for data collection. They were the sociodemographic data sheet, the QoWL scale, Ryff’s PWB scales, and ENRICH marital satisfaction scale. Results The study results revealed that more than two-thirds of female nurses had a low QoWL and all of them had stress at their work. Majority of the studied nurses showed low level of PWB and marital adjustment. Also, there was positive correlation between QoWL, psychosocial well-being, and marital adjustment among female nurses with high statistical significance. Conclusion It was concluded that most of the studied samples had a low level of QoWL, PWB, and marital adjustment and there was statistically significant positive correlation between these variables. Recommendations This study recommended that further researches are needed to identify the predicted factors of low QoWL and factors that affect PWB and marital adjustment.
Finite point method for the simulation of solidification and heat transfer in continuous casting mold

A 2-D finite point meshless model was used to simulate the heat transfer and solidification of steel in continuous casting molds to illustrate its use in metallurgy. The latent heat of the pure metal was treated using the temperature recovery method and the latent heat of the alloy was treated using an appar- ent heat capacity method. The model was validated by calculating the classical Stefan moving boundary problem. Analysis of the solid shell growth and temperature distribution of a billet in a mold shows that the solution by the finite point meshless model is quite reasonable, which indicates that the model has potential in metallurgical engineering applications.
Ambientes residenciais controlados por dispositivos móveis: estudo, concepção e desenvolvimento de um aplicativo considerando a diversidade

With technological advancement in recent decades, home environment incorporates several household electronic appliances in order to facilitate activities and improve dwellers-users' quality of life. Controlling this environment in modern society requires interaction with different interfaces and controls, which becomes a nontrivial task. It is therefore necessary to provide more appropriate user interfaces to control such equipment. Mobile devices emerge as a viable platform to enable this control, providing convenience, flexibility and several interaction possibilities. However, it is fundamental to consider users and situations diversity regarding this environment in new solutions design. The study in this research aims providing a better understanding of interaction aspects in this specific context considering the relation between users, technology and environment. As results, we present a wide survey in applications, as well as the identification of challenges under the perspective of diversity and requirements elicitation for applications in this domain based on Organizational Semiotics theory and usage of applications. Concept phases of a software which supports controlling home environment resources via mobile devices along with results from an experiment with potential users of this computational solution are also presented in this research.
Considering Heutagogy as an Innovative Approach for Skill Development

During the opening days of the independence Gandhiji predicted that it was “only through imparting education through crafts can India stand before the world'’. Successive governments in India tried to take the Gandhian dictum ahead, and concentrated on education as a tool to develop human resource of the country. While the initial focus was on literacy and enrolment, the target gradually shifted to quality education and imparting skills. The Honhaar Bharat programme (2010) and Skill India (2014) may be seen as part of the continued education and human resource policies being followed by the successive governments since independence. Also under focus are the moves in organisational learning from courses to resources, and a proliferation of new ways to access learning in the workplace. Increasingly, it’s not about ‘the course’, taken through a single medium (classroom or desktop PC), but about a learner--journey encompassing multiple modes and channels. With the downgrading of the course as the default unit of instruction, we also see less prominence for the role of instructors. The recent approaching method of the self determining learning--heutagogy can be used as an innovative approach for learning, especially for skill based learning. It can be exercised even through social media. Researches also indicate that the use of social media can support self-determined learning. Heutagogy applies a holistic approach to developing learner capabilities, with learning as an active and proactive process, and learners serving as the major agent in their own learning, which occurs as a result of personal experiences.
Investigating the relationship of EFL learners’ willingness to communicate and learner Identity : a case study

Interaction and communication have received remarkable attention within SLA research in recent years. The sociocultural learning approach implemented in Finnish comprehensive schools through the national curriculum also emphasises interaction and communication as key concepts in all learning. Thus, this qualitative, empirical case study investigates what role van Lier’s Interaction Types (1988) have in EFL learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in the language of the lesson, as well as EFL learners’ WTC in relation to the learners’ identities. The latter will be studied applying Zimmerman’s identity categories (1998). The participants of this study were two groups of 9 th -graders in a Finnish comprehensive school, and the data was collected during two, 75-minute English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lessons using non-participatory observation. The analysis showed that WTC varies depending on the interaction type, but also that a variety of situational aspects within these categories, such as access to vocabulary in the second language and problematic situations, influence learners’ WTC. In addition, the analysis showed that when learners identify themselves as pupils, they show WTC in the language of the lesson, whereas if the learners communicate as themselves, they show WTC in their first language. It appears that the pupils’ selves are thus separate from their pupil and language learner identities. Possible practical implications stemming from this are encouraging the pupils to use English as themselves, with the language skills they have, but also providing them with appropriate tools to practice the language, such as providing access to appropriate vocabulary and giving enough time to prepare for tasks to come.
Deconstructing the lost in the mall study

Abstract In their frequently-cited “lost in the mall” study from two decades ago, Loftus and Pickrell claimed their findings “reveal that people can be led to believe that entire events happened to them after suggestions to that effect. ” The study continues to be cited by the media and by academics to support claims that adults who recover memories of childhood sexual abuse have been led to believe such claims by therapists. The study parallels claims that parents coach children to falsely accuse and thus alienate the other parent in child custody cases. We describe how laws passed by state legislatures led to the need for a new defense for abuse accusations and how a foundation was established to promote that defense. We report that Loftus, who designed the study to support the new defense, testified over 20 years later that the study results apply only to the 24 subjects and cannot be applied to other populations.
Sample-based abstraction for hybrid relational MDPs

We study planning in relational Markov Decision Processes involving discrete and continuous states and actions. This combination of hybrid relational domains has so far not received a lot of attention. While several symbolic approaches have been proposed for hybrid and relational domains separately, they generally do not provide an integrated approach and they often make restrictive assumptions to make exact inference possible. Removing those restrictions requires approximations such as Monte-Carlo methods. We propose HyBrel: a sample-based planner for hybrid relational domains that combines model-based approaches with state abstraction. HyBrel samples episodes and uses the previous episodes as well as the model to approximate the Q-function. Abstraction is performed for each sampled episode, this removes typical restrictions of symbolic approaches. In our empirical evaluations, HyBrel is shown to have a wide applicability, confirming the advantage of sampled-based abstraction.