Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Strategic Planning and Topic Familiarity on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Written Performance in TBLT

Task-based language teaching is recently the most frequently used method in second language instructions. The current study has focused on two main factors that have been proposed in TBLT, i.e. strategic planning and topic familiarity. It aims to investigate the effect of manipulation of strategic planning and topic familiarity on EFL written task performance. The participants were 80 intermediate female learners of English as a foreign language from a private language institute in Urmia, Iran. All of the written productions were coded using three measures covering accuracy, fluency and complexity. Using SPSS software, ANOVA have been used to analyze the collected data. The findings of this study carry significant pedagogical implications for task and syllabus designers, second language teachers and testers and also SLA researchers.
User authentication using keystroke dynamics for cellular phones

A new approach for keystroke-based authentication when using a cellular phone keypad as input device is presented. In the proposed method, users are authenticated using keystroke dynamics acquired when typing fixed alphabetic strings on a mobile phone keypad. The employed statistical classifier is able to perform user verification with an average equal error rate of about 13%. The obtained experimental results suggest that, when using mobile devices, a strong secure authentication scheme cannot rely on the sole keystroke dynamics, which however can be a module of a more complex system including, as basic security, a password-based protocol eventually hardened by keystroke analysis.
Moderating Effects of Personal Innovativeness in Mobile Banking Service

With the widening diffusion of the mobile Internet, mobile banking is rapidly becoming an alternative channel for accessing banking services. Mobile banking (banking through a mobile phone) refers to the convergence of mobile technology and financial services that has emerged following the advent of the wireless Internet and smart-chip-embedded handsets. Mobile banking is used by people who place a premium on time, who are regularly on the move, and who want to access their bank accounts and transfer funds at any time and any place through their phones without visiting a bank. For example, banking customers in Korea have little time to spend on activities such as banking and demand a higher degree of convenience and accessibility [Lee et al., 2008]. Consequently, Korean banks currently offer many 24-hour-a-day mobile banking services, such as bill payments and financial management services [KIEC, 2004].
Parallelization of JStar Programs on a Distributed Computer

In the past, the performance of sequential programs grew exponentially as the performance of CPUs increased with Moore’s Law. Since 2005 however, performance improvements have come in the form of more parallel CPU cores. Writing parallel programs using existing programming languages can be difficult and error-prone. JStar is a new programming language that allows programs to be written in a naturally parallel way. The JStar project aims to produce compilers that can produce executables for a variety of architectures (such as many-core, GPUs and distributed computers). This thesis proposes a process for compiling these programs into distributed executables, and investigates various trade-offs and techniques for implementing JStar programs on a distributed computer. In this process, first a parallel design is created, then this design is expressed by a separate set of distribute statements that are combined with the original program to create a distributed program. The expressiveness and effectiveness of this approach is investigated for two case study JStar programs: (1) a prime number counting program (2) a version of Conway’s Game of Life. Various designs were hand-translated into a distributed Java programs and benchmarks were run to assess the performance of different designs. For each of these case studies, parallel designs were found that achieved high levels of speedup.
Ambiguity in context

Abstract We discuss theories of sentence parsing, paying particular attention to claims about how context may affect the resolution of syntactic ambiguities. We defend the garden-path theory, arguing that it accounts for a wide range of data that other theories do not account for. The theory proposed by Crain, Altmann, and Steedman is taken as the most attractive alternative, but we argue that its underlying semantic claims are questionable, and we suggest that the data that have been presented in its support are not inconsistent with the garden-path theory.
Hysteretic recurrent neural networks: a tool for modeling hysteretic materials and systems

This paper introduces a novel recurrent neural network, the hysteretic recurrent neural network (HRNN), that is ideally suited to modeling hysteretic materials and systems. This network incorporates a hysteretic neuron consisting of conjoined sigmoid activation functions. Although similar hysteretic neurons have been explored previously, the HRNN is unique in its utilization of simple recurrence to ‘self-select’ relevant activation functions. Furthermore, training is facilitated by placing the network weights on the output side, allowing standard backpropagation of error training algorithms to be used. We present two- and three-phase versions of the HRNN for modeling hysteretic materials with distinct phases. These models are experimentally validated using data collected from shape memory alloys and ferromagnetic materials. The results demonstrate the HRNN’s ability to accurately generalize hysteretic behavior with a relatively small number of neurons. Additional benefits lie in the network’s ability to identify statistical information concerning the macroscopic material by analyzing the weights of the individual neurons.
A fuzzy expert system for usage parameter control in ATM networks

In ATM networks usage parameter control is required in order to ensure that each source conforms to its negotiated parameters. However, traditional methods, such as leaky bucket and window mechanisms, revealed themselves to be inefficient in coping with the conflicting requirements of the ideal policing. We propose a fuzzy expert system for usage parameter control. The control strategy is described through a set of fuzzy inferences which emulate the knowledge base that is typical of human expertize. The simulation results shown in the paper demonstrate that our fuzzy policer outperforms conventional policing mechanisms.
Preterm low birthweight and the role of oral bacteria

Abstract Preterm and low birthweight (PTLBW) continues to be a major cause of mortality and morbidity across the world. In recent years, maternal periodontal disease has been implicated as a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes. There is conflicting evidence to support such an outcome as illustrated by descriptive, case control and randomised controlled trials involving pregnant women from across the world, using different measurement tools to determine the level of periodontal disease. Whilst considering the literature, there is evidence for both arguments, based on the effect of periodontal inflammatory by products. Bacteria associated with periodontal disease are not dissimilar to those known to be associated with genito-urinary bacterial infections and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Several groups have demonstrated the apparent translocation of Fusobacterium nucleatum, Prevotella nigrescens, Prevotella intermedia, Porphyromonus gingivalis, Treponema denticola to the foetal placental unit whereby a maternal or foetal response has been detected resulting in premature birth or low birthweight. The normal process of parturition involves a cascade of events including a build-up of inflammatory mediators as linked to inflammation, whereby the maternal environment becomes hostile and threatens the well-being of the infant, and the foetus expelled. The question remains therefore, is there a greater risk of delivering a PTLBW infant when the mother has detectable periodontal disease, or is the release of inflammatory mediators and their translocation via the haematogenous route sufficient to induce a poor pregnancy outcome? The data investigated would suggest that there is a positive outcome when certain oral gram-negative bacteria create a cumulative effect sufficient to trigger early delivery, which represents the final straw to result in preterm or low birthweight delivery. There is equally sufficient epidemiological evidence that does not support this outcome, but it is agreed that maintaining oral health during pregnancy is beneficial to the mother and her infant.
A Modified Nearest Neighbors Approach for Estimating Missing Wind Data

Wind data is important for hydrodynamics and sediment transport modeling in a lake system because wind is the major driving force for most lakes. However, there is missing data caused by instrumental failure due to birds, thunderstorms, or other unexpected events. An estimation of these missing values becomes an important issue, since missing data affect the accuracy of the modeling results. Wind data collected in Lake Okeechobee is used as a test database for this study. This paper introduces an estimation model that includes statistical approaches coupled with multi-variable time lag analysis and a modified nearest neighbors approach to solve the missing data problems. The synthesized wind speeds for incomplete data are smoothed by a moving average and then compared to the actual measured values. The developed model demonstrates its ability to reproduce accurate wind speed for the years 1996 to 1999.
A research method to investigate information seeking using the concept of information horizons: an example from a study of lower socio-economic students' information seeking behaviour

As research questions and topics in information studies evolve, there is a continual need to seek out innovative research methods to help us investigate and address these questions. This paper presents an emerging research method, the creation and analysis of information horizon maps, and discusses the use of such maps in an ongoing research study. Sonnenwald's (1999) framework for human information behavior provides a theoretical foundation for this method. This theoretical framework suggests that within a context and situation is an 'information horizon' in which we can act. Study participants are asked to describe several recent information seeking situations for a particular context, and to draw a map of their information horizon, graphically representing the information resources (including people) they typically access in this context and their preferences for the resources accessed. The resulting graphical representation of their information horizons are analyzed in conjunction with the interview data using a variety of techniques derived from social network analysis and content analysis. In this paper these techniques are described and illustrated using examples from an ongoing study of the information seeking behavior of lower socio-economic students. They are then compared to other techniques that could be used to gather data about people's information seeking behavior.
Use of e‐services by faculty members of business schools in a state of India: a study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess and evaluate quantitative and qualitative use of electronic resources in the academic ambience of business schools in Orissa (India) with a view to examining the level of electronic information services (EIS) offered to the faculty members of the state with an opinion pool of the faculty members of the respective business schools. Moreover, the study aims to highlight some of the problems and constraints faced by the target users with some constructive suggestions and recommendations for the improvement of the status of electronic information services in the business schools of the state in days to come.Design/methodology/approach – The paper investigates the use of e‐resources by the faculty members of business schools of the state through a survey based on responses of the target users from structured questionnaires. The SPSS package is used for data analysis.Findings – Faculty members pay high preference to the use of e‐articles while the least preferenc.
Adaptive Delta Modulation with Delayed Decision

A class of adaptive schemes for delta modulation is considered whereby the decision about step size is a function of the present and the last k symbols. Such schemes are studied by computer simulations using speech-like signals through evaluation of SNR. Occasional large overshoots appear in the reconstructed signal after the integrater, and to avoid such events it is proposed to store a few signal samples and decide on the proper bit stream taking into account the adaptive logic. Two quadratic criteria have been tried, and improvements of a few decibels have been established with six stored signal samples and a sampling rate of 48 and 24 kHz. Results indicate that other criteria functions may achieve still higher values of SNR.
PAH! The Acquisition of Adverbials in ASL

Un aspect caracteristique du langage signe americain est le changement constant de l'expression faciale. Certains mouvements de la tete, des yeux, de la face et du corps (hormis les mains) constituent un ensemble de marques grammaticales representant des structures telles que les propositions conditionnelles, la negation, les propositions relatives et les questions. Certains de ces mouvements fonctionnent comme des adverbes et modifient les predicats signes a l'aide des mains qu'ils accompagnent. L'A. examine l'acquisition de ces signaux adverbiaux par des enfants sourds acquerant le langage signe americain comme premiere langue
Slot—coupled directional couplers on a both—sided substrate MIC and their applications

A slot-coupled directional coupler is proposed and analyzed. In the slot-coupled directional coupler, microstrip lines set on both sides of a common ground plane are coupled through a slot in the common ground plane. This coupler can easily realize a tight coupling such as 3 dB with a small physical size. This paper shows that it is possible to form a planar multiport directional coupler with 2n (n: integer) input or output ports without line crossings by combining slot-coupled directional couplers. Using such a planar multiport slot-coupled directional coupler, a multiport power amplifier and a BMN (Butler matrix network) can easily be formed in a small physical size. The 3-dB slot-coupled directional coupler fabricated for trial has a coupling of 3.2 ± 0.2 dB, a return loss of more than 25 dB, and an isolation of more than 28 dB in the frequency range of fO ±20 percent (fO = 1.5 GHz). These measured values agreed well with computed data.
Differences in the Visual Design Language of Paper-and-Pencil Surveys Versus Web Surveys

Respondents in self-administered, paper-based surveys answer open-ended frequency questions differently depending on the size of the response field provided. Longer fields increase the proportion of alphanumeric elaborations or answers explicitly designated as an estimate (``about 20,'' ``60-70''). By contrast, shorter fields yield higher proportions of pure digit responses. It is assumed that respondents interpret the size of the response field as an instruction regarding the format of the expected answer. In this article, the authors assess the effect of the length of the response field in a web survey compared to a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Results indicate that the effect of the length of the response field is more pronounced in the paper-and-pencil condition compared to the web survey condition. This raises the question as to what extent the underlying visual design language differs across self-administered survey modes.
Comparing hidden Markov models with artificial neural network architectures for condition monitoring applications

The use of hidden Markov models (HMM's), multilayer perceptrons (MLP's) and Kohonen self-organising maps (SOM's) has been proposed previously as efficient analysis and detection tools for condition monitoring of industrial plants and processes (Yin, 1993). Work on such applications with these techniques, has identified a need for a reassessment of these alternative recognition systems with a view to establishing their relative merits. In this paper the three systems are compared for two test data sets, one identifying the response of the systems to varying fault severity, the other showing recognition of faults which are independent of load. It is shown that for the MLP and SOM, implementing multiple networks improved the recognition of faults of varying severity. Possibly of more importance, this technique provided a means of diagnosing combinations of faults. For faults produced under differing load conditions, it is shown that the data cannot be classified by the SOM, and the supervised training regimes of the HMM and MLP provide the only means of classifying the data. Improved recognition is obtained with the HMM, although it is believed that the spectral pre-emphasis which was carried out on the input data could have contributed to this fact, suggesting that implementation of such pre-processing for the artificial neural network architectures, may be beneficial.
Exploration of open educational resources in non-English speaking communities

Over the last decade, open educational resources (OER) initiatives have created new possibilities for knowledge-sharing practices. This research examines how, where, and when OER are attracting attention in the higher education sector and explores to what extent the OER discussion has moved beyond the English-speaking world. This study analysed English, Spanish, and Portuguese OER queries over a long-term period (2007-2011). The data retrieval was conducted using four online platforms: two academic journal databases (Web of Knowledge and Scopus), one video-sharing Web site (YouTube), and one document-sharing Web site (Scribd). The number (more than 32,860) of search results collected indicate an increasing interest in online OER discussion across languages, particularly outside academic journal databases. Additionally, a widening ‘language gap’ between OER discussions in English and other languages was identified in several platforms. This research reports some of the cultural and language challenges caused by the expansion of the OER discussion and highlights relevant findings in this field.
The Programmer''s Apprentice Project: A Research Overview

The goal of the Programmer''s Apprentice project is to develop a theory of how expert programmers analyze, synthesize, modify, explain, specify, verify, and document programs. This research goal overlaps both artificial intelligence and software engineering. From the viewpoint of artificial intelligence, we have chosen programming as a domain in which to study fundamental issues of knowledge representation and reasoning. From the viewpoint of software engineering, we seek to automate the programming process by applying techniques from artificial intelligence.
Deterministic and fuzzy verification methods for a hierarchy of numerical models

Deterministic and fuzzy verification methods are compared to assess the Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts (QPF) performance of an hierarchy of models run at Météo‐France: two operational models (ARPEGE and ALADIN) and a prototype version of the high resolution model AROME. The reference data are 24‐h accumulated rainfall values measured by the French climatological network of rain gauges. The deterministic forecasts are converted to frequencies of threshold exceedence in a neighbourhood in order to apply a fuzzy verification method, able to determine the influence of the double penalty. Local and regional versions of the Brier skill score (BSS) are computed and persistence is the selected reference system. An optimal size of the neighbourhood can be determined from the local version of the BSS. The regional version of the BSS increases with the size of the neighbourhood and provides useful information on the reduction of the error for large scales. All the scores show that the ALADIN 3DVAR implementation improves the quality of the ALADIN QPF in comparison to the ARPEGE QPF. Deterministic verification methods show that AROME improves the QPF for weak precipitation but produces too many false alarms for heavy rain. Moreover, the fuzzy approach removes more substantially the double penalty for the heavy rain forecasts of AROME than for the light precipitation of ALADIN. After recalibration the ALADIN QPF have better deterministic scores than the AROME QPF. Nevertheless, fuzzy verification methods prove the contrary: for scales larger than 50 km, the AROME scores exceed the ALADIN scores, but not significantly. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society
End-User Training Management Systems

The management of end-user technology skills is critical for organizational success in the information technology era. The overwhelming demand for technological development has caused a shortage of workers with the necessary skills to cope with the rapid growth of this information-based economy. This shortage forces companies to hire and train new employees who lack adequate technology skills, and to accept the chore of constantly retraining their present employees. In addition to teaching technology skills, companies must train their end users to conform to new regulations and procedures, even learning the new social etiquette associated with information technology. In some cases, end-user training is mandated by external agencies to meet safety and quality standards. To meet these challenges, a system to manage end-user training is needed. This article reviews the process of end-user training and related research. It then describes a system that manages end-user training. Finally, potential opportunities for future development are proposed.
In-Home Observations of Commercial Zapping Behavior

Abstract Channel-switching during commercials, known as “zapping,” may greatly reduce the audiences for commercials. Little data is available on the extent of zapping, and some advertisers have tended to ignore it. Electronic zapping (using the remote control) was recorded in viewers' homes to determine the extent of, and motivations for, this behavior. Observations indicate that as much as a third of program audiences may be lost to electronic zapping. There was a high probability that a commercial would be zapped if the one before it was zapped, a phenomenon the author calls “block zapping. ” Most of the observed zapping is explained as habitual behavior to avoid all commercials; less than 20% of commercials were evaluated prior to being zapped. Forty percent of subjects did no zapping, but those who zapped avoided most or all commercials.