Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The long term impact of an english language teacher training program on teachers’ practices in Madrasah Tsanawiyah in Indonesia

In recent years, Indonesia looks toward the challenge of elevating the quality of education in the most disadvantaged schools, especially in the Islamic school sector. This study investigates the successful implementation of a teacher training program called English Language Training for Islamic Schools (ELTIS). ELTIS was an AusAid funded program run between 2007 and 2010 to improve the quality of the teaching of English in marginalised schools based on the introduction of a more learner centred communicative language teaching methods. This inquiry seeks to contribute to an understanding of how English language training and ELT professional development benefitted teachers of English at Islamic secondary school (Madrasah Tsanawiyah) with regard to their sustained language pedagogy. This qualitative research employs a narrative approach as a tool for researching and exploring teachers’ lived experience especially to examine their perception toward the training and their professional development. Eight teachers from three districts in East Java province were purposely selected based on recommendations from the ELTIS-related authority to be participants in this research. The other participants in this research were two master trainers, one district trainer, one regional coordinator, one team leader, two school principals, and 17 teachers from two teacher support groups in two different districts. There were 34 participants altogether. The research findings showed teachers’ paradigm shift in teaching English after following the ELTIS cascade training model. Their improvement on teaching capabilities was evident in their teaching performances. Their success in implementing the ELTIS approach is influenced by their understanding of the characteristics of effective classroom pedagogic practice. The research findings also indicated that the teachers were aware of maintaining students’ motivation in learning English in their socio-cultural condition by building students’ self-esteem and self-confidence, giving rewards and positive feedback. This study suggests deeper insights into the sustainable practice which involves a lot of stake holders in the rural society. The grassroots support is an important factor in sustaining language pedagogy in the rural areas of Indonesia. This study recommends future research to consider the key elements of a sustained impact through program dissemination in teacher support groups called Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran (MGMP).
The Impact of Additional Educational Qualifications for Early School Leavers

The study examined the impact of acquiring post-school vocational and technical education (VTE) qualifications on young people’s labour market outcomes by around their mid twenties. Separate analyses were undertaken of the impact for young people in general and for those who experienced a substantial period of unemployment before completing the VTE qualification. The study found that VTE qualifications significantly improved the employment outcomes of both Year 12 completers and early school leavers, as well as for those who experienced lengthy periods of unemployment. The increase in the likelihood of being in full time employment by age 22 years in the case of the longer term unemployed school leavers was of the order of 10-13 percentage points. The most beneficial VTE qualification was an apprenticeship or traineeship. The multivariate statistical analyses used Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) data.
Insertable cardiac monitors in the diagnosis of syncope and the detection of atrial fibrillation: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Insertable or implantable cardiac monitors (ICMs) continuously monitor the heart rhythm and record irregularities over 3 years, enabling the diagnosis of infrequent rhythm abnormalities associated with syncope and stroke. The enhanced recognition capabilities of recent ICM models are able to accurately detect atrial fibrillation (AF) and have led to new applications of ICMs for the detection and monitoring of AF. Methods and results Based on a systematic literature search, two indications were identified for ICMs for which considerable evidence, including randomized studies, exists: diagnosing the underlying cardiac cause of unexplained recurrent syncope and detecting AF in patients after cryptogenic stroke (CS). Three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified that compared the effectiveness of ICMs in diagnosing patients with unexplained syncope (n = 556) to standard of care. A meta-analysis was conducted in order to generate an overall effect size and confidence interval of the diagnostic yield of ICMs versus conventional monitoring. In the indication CS, one RCT and five observational studies were included in order to assess the performance of ICMs in diagnosing patients with AF (n = 1129). Based on these studies, there is strong evidence that ICMs provide a higher diagnostic yield for detecting arrhythmias in patients with unexplained syncope and for detection of AF in patients after CS compared to conventional monitoring. Conclusions Prolonged monitoring with ICMs is an effective tool for diagnosing the underlying cardiac cause of unexplained syncope and for detecting AF in patients with CS. In all RCTs, ICMs have a superior diagnostic yield compared to conventional monitoring.
The restoration of motor function following hemiplegia in man.

The sequence of motor recovery of 121 patients with hemiplegia was Investigated at Boston City Hospital. These patients, with the exception of three, were diagnosed as cerebral vascular accidents caused by thrombosis or embolus of one of the cerebral vessels. At the time the report was written, no autopsy results were available, hence the exact location of the lesion could not be determined. Each patient was examined at regular intervals, and electromyographic records were obtained from some of the patients. The motor recovery of both upper and lower limbs were observed, but attention was focused on the upper limb, in particular on the course of restoration of the grasping function of the hand. Slight sensory defects were found present in 87 of the 121 patients. An analysis of the data collected in this study indicated that the recovery process followed a general pattern. There was a remarkable uniformity in the sequences of recovery of all patients. This was true regardless of whether sensory disturbances were present and whether the dominant or nondominant hemisphere was involved. The patients progressed from one recovery phase to the next in an orderly fashion without any of the phases being omitted. The same sequence was followed by patients who recovered completely as well as by those patients whose recovery was arrested at any one of the stages. Immediately following the cerebral vascular accident, the condition was essentially flaccid, with loss or hypoactivity of the tendon reflexes, Thereafter, the following recovery phases were observed:
Release of BDNF and GABA in the dorsal horn of neuropathic rats

Damage to peripheral nerves is associated with changes in excitability and/or phenotype of primary afferent neurons as well as increased neuronal excitability (central sensitization) and reduced inhibitory tone in the dorsal horn. For instance, in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is down‐regulated in small cells whilst de novo expressed in large diameter cells. In the dorsal horn, GABA content is decreased. In this study, in a dorsal horn, ‘with dorsal roots attached’ preparation obtained from spinal nerve lesioned Wistar rats, stimulation of ipsilateral dorsal roots at either A fibre or A + C fibre strength did not evoke release of BDNF. In separate experiments, activity‐induced release of GABA in the isolated dorsal horn of neuropathic rats was significantly reduced compared to release in sham operated rats. GABA release could be significantly restored following topical application of BDNF through the dorsal horn preparation. Finally, neuropathic rats developed thermal and mechanical hypersensitivity and thermal hyperalgesia was reduced by intrathecal injection of BDNF. We concluded that BDNF‐induced release of GABA could be a mechanism to explain the antinociceptive action of intrathecal BDNF in neuropathic animals. Furthermore, reduced availability of sensory neuron‐derived BDNF might contribute to the reduced GABAergic tone in the dorsal horn of neuropathic rats.
Brushing with Organized Crime and Democracy: The Art of Making Do in South Asia

This article explores the performances of a particular category of young men often derogatively referred to as “chamchas” (sycophants) who are using the art of making do (jugaad) by exploiting and bluffing links with powerful political networks and political parties, as well as friendships with strongmen and their criminal crews. Crucially, the comparative ethnography across India (western Uttar Pradesh) and Bangladesh (Sylhet) introduces readers to the “contact zone” where legality, semi-legality, and organized criminal systems meet. In so doing, the article unravels the working of the democratically elected “Mafia Raj. ”
Focused Deterrence Strategies and Crime Control

Research Summary Focused deterrence strategies are increasingly being applied to prevent and control gang and group-involved violence, overt drug markets, and individual repeat offenders. Our updated examination of the effects of focused deterrence strategies on crime followed the systematic review protocols and conventions of the Campbell Collaboration. Twentyfour quasi-experimental evaluations were identified in this systematic review. The results of our meta-analysis demonstrate that focused deterrence strategies are associated with an overall statistically significant, moderate crime reduction effect. Nevertheless, program effect sizes varied by program type and were smaller for evaluations with more rigorous research designs.
PhyloFlu, a DNA Microarray for Determining the Phylogenetic Origin of Influenza A Virus Gene Segments and the Genomic Fingerprint of Viral Strains

ABSTRACT Recent evidence suggests that most influenza A virus gene segments can contribute to the pathogenicity of the virus. In this regard, the hemagglutinin (HA) subtype of the circulating strains has been closely surveyed, but the reassortment of internal gene segments is usually not monitored as a potential source of an increased pathogenicity. In this work, an oligonucleotide DNA microarray (PhyloFlu) designed to determine the phylogenetic origins of the eight segments of the influenza virus genome was constructed and validated. Clades were defined for each segment and also for the 16 HA and 9 neuraminidase (NA) subtypes. Viral genetic material was amplified by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) with primers specific to the conserved 5′ and 3′ ends of the influenza A virus genes, followed by PCR amplification with random primers and Cy3 labeling. The microarray unambiguously determined the clades for all eight influenza virus genes in 74% (28/38) of the samples. The microarray was validated with reference strains from different animal origins, as well as from human, swine, and avian viruses from field or clinical samples. In most cases, the phylogenetic clade of each segment defined its animal host of origin. The genomic fingerprint deduced by the combined information of the individual clades allowed for the determination of the time and place that strains with the same genomic pattern were previously reported. PhyloFlu is useful for characterizing and surveying the genetic diversity and variation of animal viruses circulating in different environmental niches and for obtaining a more detailed surveillance and follow up of reassortant events that can potentially modify virus pathogenicity.
The Anexo in Northern California: An Alcoholics Anonymous-Based Recovery Residence in Latino Communities

ABSTRACT Our ethnographic study on help-seeking pathways of Latino immigrants in northern California reveals that they turn to anexos in their treatment and recovery quest. Anexos are linguistically- and culturally-specific recovery houses with origins in Mexico and Alcoholics Anonymous and a long history in Latino communities across the United States. Drawing on the findings of our study, we characterize the anexos and compare them to other recovery residences using National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) criteria. The description and comparison reveal that anexos cannot be placed into a single NARR residence category. We discuss why this is the case.
Market Openness and Market Quality in Gold Markets

This paper studies the impact of market openness on market quality in gold markets, by investigating the openness event that occurred when the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) launched an international board (SGEI) for foreign investors in China. Investors prefer to trade on the SGE than the SGEI, probably due to the SGE’s higher liquidity. In addition, using the New York Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) gold futures as the benchmark, we show the SGE experiences a significant increase in liquidity without a concomitant increase in volatility. Moreover, the SGE’s contribution to international gold price discovery increases after the openness event.
Robust license plate detection in the wild

License Plate Detection (LPD) is the pivotal step for License Plate Recognition. In this work, we explore and customize state-of-the-art detection approaches for exclusively handling the LPD in the wild. In-the-wild LPD considers license plates captured in challenging conditions caused by bad weathers, lighting, traffics, and other factors. As conventional methods failed to handle these inevitable conditions, we explore the latest deep learning based detectors, namely YOLO (You-Only-Look-Once) and its variant YOLO-9000 (referred here as YOLO-2), and customize them for effectively handling the LPD. The prime customizations include modification of the grid size and of the bounding box parameter estimation, and the composition of a more challenging AOLPE (Application-Oriented License Plate Extended) database for performance evaluation. The AOLPE database is an extended version of the AOLP database [1] with additional images taken under extreme but frequently-encountered conditions. As the original YOLO and YOLO-2 are not designed for the LPD, they failed to handle the LPD on the AOLPE without the customizations. This study can be one of the pioneering works that revise state-of-the-art real-time deep networks for handling the LPD. It also serves as a case study for those who wish to customize existing deep networks for detecting specific objects. In addition to a pioneering explorations of deep networks for handling the in-the-wild LPD, our contribution also includes the release of the AOLPE database and evaluation protocol for a novel benchmark for the LPD.
Asymmetric Information, A Causality Analysis of The Stiglitz - Weiss Model for The Credit Markets, Related to The Textile Sector in Turkey

In this study, the problem of asymmetric information and its effects on credit markets have been undertaken within the theoretical framework. It has been tried to test whether the theory of Stiglitz Weiss Model, one of the approaches of theoretical framework of asymmetric information, is convenient for the credit markets, related to textile sector in Turkey due to Granger and Toda Yamamoto Causality Analysis. It has been also determined the direction of causality is convenient with the theory or not. By analyzing Granger and Toda Tamamoto Causality between selected financial ratios, which was chosen from Central Bank of Rebuplic of Turkey, Company Accounts between 1991 – 2014 for the firms, operated in textile sector and credit risk of the sector, it has been tried to determine which financial ratios have causality with the risk of textile sector and the way of causality between these variables. As a result of Granger and Toda Yamamoto Causality Analysis, which have been carried out, it has been found that, for the textile industry in Turkey, the ratio of total credits in short run to total liabilities and the ratio of total credits in long run to total liabilities are affected by the sector’s proportion of liquidated loans to total loans. Due to the mentioned conclusion, some suggestions, belonging to textile sector specifically, have been made by evaluating the strategies, which banks have followed for commercial credit placement, to avoid the default risk of commercial credits.
Questioning paradigms: caste-specific ventilation in harvester ants, Messor pergandei and M. julianus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Do developmental constraints in ant colonies limit gas exchange strategies to those displayed by female alates (presumptive queens)? In the xeric harvester ant genus Messor, we found that M. pergandei and M. julianus female alates ventilated highly discontinuously, as predicted, but M. julianus workers ventilated less discontinuously and M. pergandei workers (which occur in more xeric habitats) ventilated continuously. We present the salient characteristics of the discontinuous ventilation cycles of the species and the manner in which they are modulated by CO2 emission rates at a single temperature (24 °C). We demonstrate that, in M. julianus workers, open-spiracle phase CO2 emission rate only slightly exceeds overall CO2 emission rate, making discontinuous ventilation marginal, a state extrapolated in M. pergandei to continuous ventilation. However, workers are plainly capable of far greater rates of CO2 emission than when inactive at 24 °C, so the lack of discontinuous ventilation in M. pergandei under normoxic conditions is not likely to be imposed by physiological constraints and may, in fact, be a response to its xeric environment. We hypothesize ­ aside from phylogenetic effects ­ that discontinuous ventilation occurs primarily in insects that may experience hypoxic and hypercapnic conditions, such as ant queens during claustral colony foundation and perhaps workers within the nest environment; that discontinuous ventilation is not necessarily essential to reduce respiratory water loss; and that it will not necessarily occur in castes or species routinely exposed to xeric but normoxic conditions.
Fine-Needle Thyroid Aspiration Biopsy: Clinical Experience at the Endocrinology Clinics of the University Hospital of Puerto Rico.

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to establish a profile of the ultrasound-guided thyroid fine-needle aspiration biopsies (FNABs) performed at the endocrinology clinics of the University Hospital of Puerto Rico. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted to assess all the thyroid FNABs performed from July 1, 2011, to December 31, 2013. Data on socio-demographic, FNAB cytology, surgery, and histopathology were collected from medical records. A chi-square test was used to assess associations between predictors and outcome. McNemar's test was used to compare FNAB cytology and histopathology results. RESULTS A total of 240 FNABs were performed on 192 patients; 91.2% were female. The distribution of the cytological diagnoses was as follows: 181 (75.4%) were benign; 39 (16.3%) were non-diagnostic; 15 (6.3%) were indeterminate; and 5 (2.1%) were malignant. A malignant cytology was more likely in patients younger than 45 y/o than in their older counterparts (p = 0.01); a similar result was found for patients who smoked vs. those who did not (p = 0.02). Benign nodules were more likely to be larger than 1 cm than were those that were malignant (88.2% vs. 25%). Histopathology results were available for 38 nodules; there were no statistically significant differences between the cytology and histopathology results (p>0.05). The sensitivity and specificity for FNAB cytology were 75% and 100%, respectively. Of the nodules with an initial indeterminate cytology (47%), 71% demonstrated, ultimately, benign histopathology. CONCLUSION In our study, most of the FNABs performed yielded a benign cytology. A high concordance was shown between cytology and histology. For those with indeterminate cytology, the majority of cases demonstrated benign histopathology. These data suggest the need to implement other approaches, such as the development and subsequent use of molecular markers, to improve our diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, this according to our population-based disease prevalence.
Effects of Fluoride on the Expression of Beclin1 and mTOR in Ameloblasts

Exposure to high levels of fluoride (F-) can result in dental fluorosis in different individuals, but the mechanism of dental fluorosis remains unclear. Autophagy is a highly conserved intracellular digestion process that degrades damaged organelles and protein aggregates. This study examined the effect of sodium fluoride (NaF) on the expression of Beclin1 and mTOR to elucidate the development mechanisms of dental fluorosis. HAT-7 cells were incubated with various concentrations of NaF, and autophagic vacuoles were studied by transmission electron microscopy. At both mRNA and protein level, expression of Beclin1, which is required for autophagosome formation and decreases the expression of mTOR, an autophagy-related complex, was increased at 1.2 mmol/l NaF compared to baseline (0 mmol/l NaF). Additionally, immunohistochemical analysis was performed on paraffin-embedded rat incisor sections to identify the expression of Beclin1 and mTOR proteins in vitro. Highly significant differences were detected compared to controls. In summary, our results demonstrate unequivocally that excessive amounts of fluoride cause autophagy of HAT-7 cells, indicating that autophagy is involved in dental fluorosis.
Negotiating the technological capacity in Chinese engagements: Is the Tanzanian government in the driving seat?

ABSTRACT Is the Tanzanian government in charge of development cooperation programmes with China? The literature has portrayed the Tanzanian and other state actors in Africa as passive and weakly coordinated players over the five decades of intensified cooperation with China. This paper will attempt to challenge this narrative by drawing on lessons from the negotiation efforts of individual and institutional actors in Tanzania, as they sought to improve the country's industrial and technological capacity, among other interests. Our findings revealed a gap between the capacity to attract Chinese investments and development assistance, and extraction of knowledge and technology from such engagements. President John Pombe Magufuli's anti-corruption measures signal a paradigm shift against the rent-seeking tendencies, elitism and limited utilisation of local content under the Chinese partnership projects. Nevertheless, the combination of a declining share of official Chinese engagements with the increased involvement of private actors necessitates further policy innovations in order to boost inter-firm technological spillovers.
Neutron- and Proton-Induced Single Event Upsets for D- and DICE-Flip/Flop Designs at a 40 nm Technology Node

Neutron- and proton-induced single-event upset cross sections of D- and DICE-Flip/Flops are analyzed for designs implemented in a 40 nm bulk technology node. Neutron and proton testing of the flip/flops show only a 30%-50% difference between D- and DICE-Flip/Flop error rates and cross sections. Simulations are used to show that charge sharing is the primary cause for the similar failures-in-time (FIT) rates. Such small improvement in the single-event performance of the DICE implementation over standard D-Flip/Flop designs may warrant careful consideration for the use of DICE designs in 40 nm bulk technologies and beyond.