Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING TOOLS BASED ON REALISTIC MATHEMATICS EDUCATION OF ETHNOMATEMATICS NUANCES TO IMPROVE MATHEMATICAL COMMUNICATION SKILL STUDENTS IN JUNIOR HIGH SHCOOL 2 PERCUT SEI TUAN

Realistic mathematics education of ethnomatematics nuances is an activity which emphasizes students' activity to seek, find, and build their own knowledge from various problems that nuanced local culture. Development of learning tools based on realistic mathematics education of ethnomatematics nuances aims to know: 1) Validity, practicality and effectiveness of learning devices developed, 2) Knowing the improvement of students' mathematical communication skill using learning tools developed. This research was a research development (research and development), using 4-D model developed by Thiagarajan, Semmel and Semmel. The result was the implementation plan of learning, students’ book, students’ activity sheet and students' mathematical communication skill test. Subjects of this study were students of class VII-4 and VII-5 SMP Negeri 2 Percut Sei Tuan. The result of experiment I and experiment II were: 1) instructional device fulfilling valid, practical and effective criteria, 2) the improvement of mathematical communication skill of students obtained from improvement of average indicator of mathematical communication skill from experiment I to experiment II
Maternal factors have stronger effect on family sex ratio than nuclear factors in a trans-Atlantic cross of Silene vulgaris

ABSTRACT Background: Sex determination in cyto-nuclear gynodioecious plants (those with females and hermaphrodites) is complex, with maternally inherited mitochondrial genes (CMS factors) causing male sterility and female phenotypes, and bi-parentally inherited nuclear genes (Rf) restoring male fertility, resulting in hermaphrodite phenotypes. Many gynodioecious species harbour multiple CMS and restoration factors. Aims: We tested the hypothesis that these sex determination factors were matched between geographically proximal populations and mismatched between distant populations, with the prediction that crosses from populations from the same continents would produce relatively more hermaphrodites, and crosses across continents would produce relatively more females. Methods: We measured the progeny sex ratios from reciprocal crosses among 10 families of Silene vulgaris from North America and Europe and sequenced the mitochondrial atp1 gene for each family. Results: Our results were inconsistent with the prediction of a mismatch between geographically distant populations. Progeny sex ratios suggested that frequencies of male fertility restorer alleles had low variability worldwide. Conclusions: Progeny sex ratios suggested at least four different matching CMS and restorer loci segregating within the cross and alluded to a cost of restoration. Our results support previous research indicating that both CMS and restorer types are maintained over long time periods.
Remittances and GDP in Jamaica: An ARDL Bounds Testing Approach to Cointegration

ABSTRACT Similar to other developing nations, Jamaica’s remittances, specifically inflows, are an important source of income support and foreign exchange earnings. Anecdotally, much has been said about the relationship between remittances and GDP in this country. Yet, less has been established using rigorous statistical inference. We test for unit roots with structural breaks and use the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration to help fill this lacuna in the literature on Jamaica. Using annual data for the 1976–2014 period, we examine the relationship between GDP and remittances, both measured in constant 2010 US dollar terms, as we control for the common determinants of economic growth. The main finding is that GDP and remittances are cointegrated relationship wherein they both reinforce each other positively. This finding is statistically robust as the ARDL models have well-behaved errors and parameters that are generally stable over the period. We discuss policy implications of this finding.
Enhanced Potential Toxic Metal Removal Using a Novel Hierarchical SiO2–Mg(OH)2 Nanocomposite Derived from Sepiolite

Clays are widely used as sorbents for heavy metals due to their high specific surface areas, low cost, and ubiquitous occurrence in most soil and sediment environments. However, the low loading capacity for heavy metals is one of their inherent limitations. In this work, a novel SiO2–Mg(OH)2 nanocomposite was successfully prepared via sequential acid–base modification of raw sepiolite. The structural characteristics of the resulting modified samples were characterized by a wide range of techniques including field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and nitrogen physisorption analysis. The results show that a hierarchical nanocomposite constructed by loading the Mg(OH)2 nanosheets onto amorphous SiO2 nanotubes can be successfully prepared, and the nanocomposite has a high surface area (377.3 m2/g) and pore volume (0.96 cm3/g). Batch removal experiments indicate that the nanocomposite exhibits high removal efficiency toward Gd(III), Pb(II), and Cd(II), and their removal capacities were greatly enhanced in comparison with raw sepiolite, due to the synergistic effect of the different components in the hierarchical nanocomposite. This work can provide a novel route toward a hierarchical nanocomposite by using clay minerals as raw material. Taking into account the simplicity of the fabrication route and the high loading capacities for heavy metals, the developed nanocomposite also has great potential applications in water treatment.
The Unintended Impact of Academic Research on Asset Returns: The CAPM Alpha

I sort stocks based on realized alphas estimated from the CAPM, Carhart (1997), and Fama-French Five Factor (FF5, 2015) models and find that realized alphas are negatively related with future stock returns, future alpha, and Sharpe Ratios. Thus, I construct a Betting Against Alpha (BAA) factor that buys a portfolio of low-alpha stocks and sells a portfolio of high-alpha stocks. Using rank estimation methods, I show that the BAA factor spans a dimension of stock returns different than Frazzini and Pedersen’s (2014) Betting Against Beta (BAB) factor. Additionally, the BAA factor captures information about the cross-section of stock returns missed by the CAPM, Carhart, and FF5 models. The performance of the BAA factor further improves if the low alpha portfolio is calculated from low beta stocks and the high alpha portfolio from high beta stocks. I call this factor Betting Against Alpha and Beta (BAAB). I discuss several reasons that support the existence of this counter-intuitive low-alpha anomaly.
A Semantics-Based Hybrid Approach on Binary Code Similarity Comparison

Binary code similarity comparison is a methodology for identifying similar or identical code fragments in binary programs. It is indispensable in fields of software engineering and security, which has many important applications (e.g., plagiarism detection, bug detection). With the widespread of smart and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, an increasing number of programs are ported to multiple architectures (e.g., ARM, MIPS). It becomes necessary to detect similar binary code across architectures as well. The main challenge of this topic lies in the semantics-equivalent code transformation resulting from different compilation settings, code obfuscation, and varied instruction set architectures. Another challenge is the trade-off between comparison accuracy and coverage. Unfortunately, existing methods still heavily rely on semantics-less code features which are susceptible to the code transformation. Additionally, they perform the comparison merely either in a static or in a dynamic manner, which cannot achieve high accuracy and coverage simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a semantics-based hybrid method to compare binary function similarity. We execute the reference function with test cases, then emulate the execution of every target function with the runtime information migrated from the reference function. Semantic signatures are extracted during the execution as well as the emulation. Lastly, similarity scores are calculated from the signatures to measure the likeness of functions. We have implemented the method in a prototype system designated as BinMatch which performs binary code similarity comparison across architectures of x86, ARM and MIPS on the Linux platform. We evaluate BinMatch with nine real-word projects compiled with different compilation settings, on variant architectures, and with commonly-used obfuscation methods, totally performing over 100 million pairs of function comparison. The experimental results show that BinMatch is resilient to the semantics-equivalent code transformation. Besides, it not only covers all target functions for similarity comparison, but also improves the accuracy comparing to the state-of-the-art solutions.
Vertical Modes and Effective Stability of Quasi-2-Day Waves

A quasi-2-day wave is known as a convectively coupled westward inertia–gravity (WIG) wave with a shallower equivalent depth (or slower phase speed) than the dry counterpart. This study investigates the relationship between the phase speed of quasi-2-day waves and effective static stability in terms of a vertical mode perspective. By using WIG filters with different equivalent depths, different phases of the 2-day wave are identified by filtering brightness temperature data obtained from geostationary satellites. The composite time series and the vertical modes in the tropical atmosphere are calculated from reanalysis data. The large-scale dynamical fields of the composite WIG waves are explained by the superposition of the first four baroclinic modes. Phase speed of the moist vertical mode is computed by applying the Radon transform to the mode transform coefficient. Different vertical modes share a common phase speed, which is slower than its dry counterpart, implying that the wave is not dispersive. To address the question of what slows the vertical modes, the effective static stability is evaluated by defining the degree of cancellation between diabatic heating and adiabatic cooling due to the ascent. This cancellation is confirmed to be almost complete for the first baroclinic mode as expected theoretically. The effective static stability is found to be higher for a higher vertical mode, but this change over different vertical modes is not as rapid as predicted from nondispersiveness. Possible reasons for this disagreement are discussed herein.
Is adaptation limited by mutation? A timescale-dependent effect of genetic diversity on the adaptive substitution rate in animals

Whether adaptation is limited by the beneficial mutation supply is a long-standing question of evolutionary genetics, which is more generally related to the determination of the adaptive substitution rate and its relationship with the effective population size Ne. Empirical evidence reported so far is equivocal, with some but not all studies supporting a higher adaptive substitution rate in large-Ne than in small-Ne species. We gathered coding sequence polymorphism data and estimated the adaptive amino-acid substitution rate ωa, in 50 species from ten distant groups of animals with markedly different population mutation rate θ. We reveal the existence of a complex, timescale dependent relationship between species adaptive substitution rate and genetic diversity. We find a positive relationship between ωa and θ among closely related species, indicating that adaptation is indeed limited by the mutation supply, but this was only true in relatively low-θ taxa. In contrast, we uncover a weak negative correlation between ωa and θ at a larger taxonomic scale. This result is consistent with Fisher’s geometrical model predictions and suggests that the proportion of beneficial mutations scales negatively with species’ long-term Ne.
Epidural Block in Postoperative Pain Relief

The requirements for providing postoperative analgesia with epidural local anesthetic solutions are outlined. The epidural catheter position should correspond to the dermatome of the wound site. Bupivacaine is suggested as the best available local anesthetic solution for continuous analgesia. One of four regimens were used for each patient undergoing lower abdominal surgery in a gynecological unit. Continuous infusions of either 0.1% plain bupivacaine 20 ml/hr or 0.2% plain bupivacaine 10 ml/hr were given by an intravenous infusion pump into an indwelling epidural catheter. Analgesia was adequate in most patients, although more had poor analgesia overnight with the higher concentration of bupivacaine. Intermittent top-ups were given either by a specially designed pump, delivering 6-10 ml every 2 hours of 0.5% bupivacaine, or by nursing staff, 4-5 ml every 1-2 hours. The patients receiving top-ups by automatic pump had good analgesia which proved to be the most satisfactory and was maintained for 24 hours. Reasons for failure to provide adequate analgesia, side effects, and their management are discussed.
Genotype by environment interaction and grain yield stability of Ethiopian black seeded finger millet genotypes.

Finger millet ( Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) is an important cereal widely produced in Ethiopia across diverse agro-ecologies. It is valued by local farmers for its ability to grow in adverse agro-climatic conditions, where other cereals fail. The yield potential of this crop is in the range of 4-5 tonnes/ha, but the current national average grain yield is far below the potential (2.1 tonnes). Lack of improve varieties which are stable, high yielder and stress tolerant is a major limiting factor to production of this crop in Ethiopia. A field experiment was conducted using twelve black seeded finger millet ( Eleusine coracana subsp. coracana ) genotypes, including local and standard checks (Degu) at two locations (Bako and Gute) in Ethiopia for three years (2014 - 2016). The objective of this study was to identify stable and high yielding genotypes for grain yield and other agronomic traits among the black seeded finger millet genotypes of Ethiopia. The additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) model analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P<0.01) differences between environments, genotype, and Interaction Principal Component Analysis (IPCA-I), but significant variations (P<0.05) for G x E interactions. This indicates that the genotypes performed differently over environments and that the test environments are highly variable. Only the first IPCA-I showed high significance (P<0.01) and contributed 48.39% of the total genotype by environment interaction (G x E). Genotypes BKFM0020, BKFM0006 and BKFM0010, which had high grain yield, but with IPCA value close to zero, indicated the wide adaptability/stability. Similarly, analysis using Eberhart and Russell model revealed that these genotypes were within the relatively acceptable range of regression coefficients (bi), approaching to one (0.742, 0.8176 and 1.0578), and deviation from regression closer to zero (s2di) (0.0385, -0.0661 and -0.0248), respectively. This implied that pipeline genotypes were stable, widely adaptable and high yielders than the other genotypes. Genotype and genotype by environment (GGE bi-plot) analysis also revealed that these candidate genotypes were stable and high yielder. Besides, these genotypes showed resistance to blast disease, which is a threat to finger millet production in the study areas. Therefore, these genotypes were selected as potential candidates for possible release in western Oromia and similar agro-ecologies of the country. Key words: AMMI, blast, Eleusine coracana
The role of working memory in processing L2 input: Insights from eye-tracking

Our study investigated how attention paid to a target syntactic construction causative had is related to the storage capacity and attention regulation function of working memory (WM) and how these WM abilities moderate the change of knowledge of the target construction in different input conditions. 80 Sri Lankan learners of English were exposed to examples of the target construction in explicit and implicit learning conditions and their eye movements were tracked as they read the input. Correlational and multiple regression analyses indicated a very strong relationship between WM abilities and gains in the knowledge of the target construction. WM scores were closely associated with gains in receptive knowledge in all input conditions, but they had a weaker link to the improvement of productive knowledge in the implicit learning conditions. The amount of attention paid to input was also strongly related to WM abilities.
Green Synthesis of CuO Nanoparticles Using Leaf Extract of Catha edulis and Its Antibacterial Activity

Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) have attracted huge attention due to catalytic, electric, optical, photonic, and antibacterial activity. The use of plant leaf extracts in the biosynthesis of nanostructured materials is an eco-friendly, non-toxic and cost effective approach. Hence, this study aims to provide an updated survey of the main green synthesis method of CuO NPs using leaf extract of Khat, its characterization and studies on antibacterial activities. The synthesis of CuO NPs was done by reducing 1 mM CuSO4∙5H2O with 2% (m/v) aqueous leaf extract of Khat under optimum conditions (pH = 11). The formation of CuO NPs has been confirmed first by the color change from colorless to light green and then to greenish yellow. The kinetics of the reaction was studied using UV-Visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer that showed surface plasmon resonance at 333 nm. The CuO NPs exhibit antimicrobial activity against two human pathogens viz. Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli with an average zone of inhibition of 12.5 mm and 8 mm, respectively. Therefore, the current study reveals a convenient utilization of Catha edulis extract as a reducing agent for the successful synthesis of CuO NPs through a green synthesis method to obtain significantly active antibacterial material.
How to Say “I’m Sorry:” Ideal Apology Elements for Common Interpersonal Transgressions

Using expectancy violation theory (EVT) as a guide, this study investigated the components of an ideal apology based on recipients’ perceptions of the importance of receiving specific elements of an apology following a relational transgression. Results revealed that some elements of apologies (accept responsibility, articulate an apology, and identify the specific wrong-doing) were rated as important across interpersonal transgressions, including inconsiderate acts, inappropriate actions, and broken promises, whereas some expected elements varied based on the type and/or severity of the transgression. These findings are contextualized within prior research on apology elements and lend support for the use of EVT as a framework for understanding the components of an ideal apology.
Evaluation of auto-generated distractors in multiple choice questions from a semantic network

ABSTRACT Despite their drawback, multiple-choice questions are an enduring feature in instruction because they can be answered more rapidly than open response questions and they are easily scored. However, it can be difficult to generate good incorrect choices (called “distractors”). We designed an algorithm to generate distractors from a semantic network for four types of multiple choice questions in biology. By recruiting 200 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk, the machine-generated distractors were compared to human-generated distractors in terms of question difficulty, question discrimination and distractor usefulness. The machine-generated and human-generated distractors performed very closely on all the three measures, suggesting that generating distractors from a semantic network for simple multiple choice questions is a viable method.
The spatial, networked and embodied agency of social media: a critical discourse perspective on Banksy’s political expression

ABSTRACT This article asks how social media changes and challenges critical agency through spatial, networked and embodied discourses? It argues that CDS has the potential to explore relations and contexts that go beyond the deliberative participatory, affective and exploitative conditions of social media. Employing a critical discursive reading of street artist Banksy’s mural of a Les Misérables-poster on the public wall across from the French embassy in London in 2016, we argue that social media is neither purely deliberative, affective, nor exploitative. The illustrative case allows us to trace the intricate digital intertextual and interdiscursive relations between social media, public spaces and embodied politics offered in counter-discourse. Further, the case brings new light to the ability of CDS in combination with political discourse theory to underscore the political agency in social contexts. While critiques of the affective and exploitative conditions of social media have merit as critiques of hegemonic discourses, an affirmative response that emphasises the political agency in counter-discourses highlights the nuances of social media. This article argues that intersecting CDS with social media presents an opportunity to gain a complex understanding of how the political is played out in changing publics consisting of different mediated spaces, digital as well as non-digital.
Understanding compression testing of thick polymer matrix composites.

As engineers rely more heavily on finite element analysis for the design and evaluation of high performance structures manufactured from polymer composite, there are real concerns regarding the material property data used in these simulations. Particular concerns have been expressed with regard to the ability to generate representative, repeatable and reproducible measurements of compressive properties, especially for thick sections, where fracture is more likely than the previously encountered buckling failures This is further confused by the large number of different test rigs and specimen geometry/preparation methods.
What do teachers feel and think about when teaching in the inclusive classroom

The purpose of this project was to learn about teachers’ perceptions towards inclusive education in India. Understanding what conditions and factors contribute to human motivation, wellbeing, and satisfaction is essential to design inclusive classrooms and create approaches that will assist teachers as they work to reach their goal. The purpose of my project was to look at what problem’s teacher faced (personally or systemically) in their attempts to allow Indian classrooms to become truly inclusive. The main objective of my study was to find out what teachers felt and thought about when teaching in inclusive classrooms? Keywordsinclusion, self-esteem, self-concept, institutionalization, discrimination, post-independence TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN INDIA iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my Professor Dr. Jim Parsons at Vancouver Island University for his help, patience, and guidance and the way he supported me throughout my project work. Professor Nicole Day was always available to help and made sure to point me in the right direction on the initial stage of my journey. However, this work would not have been completed without the never-ending support and incitement of my family and specially my brother-in-law Suraj Walia, who helped me a lot in editing draft after draft. Finally, I thank my mother and my husband, Sidharth Ahluwalia, for their remarkable support to encourage me throughout this process. I could not have done it without them. TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN INDIA v