Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Address and Impoliteness in Online Polylogues / Indelicadeza e tratamento linguístico em polílogos online

Abstract: This paper examines instances of address in European Portuguese and how these may connect to impoliteness in computer-mediated communication (CMC), namely online polylogues comprised of publicly-available commentaries left on Portuguese online newspapers in response to articles pertaining to the European Union. The paper posits an inclusive notion of address which takes into account the particular features of the medium and finds it to be heavily relational and complex, and resorting to both negotiated and conventional forms. Drawing from previous research on online impoliteness in polylogues, the paper examines impoliteness online and its intersections with address. Its main findings are that impoliteness does not seem to be a paramount communicative goal of participants and that, despite some coherent fit with address, the interaction between both is residual. It is the complexity of online address which conveys the heavily interpersonal, relational character of Portuguese CMC. Keywords: address; impoliteness; CMC; European Portuguese; polylogues. Resumo: O presente artigo visa examinar o tratamento linguistico em polilogos produzidos em portugues europeu e as suas possiveis conexoes com a indelicadeza linguistica no âmbito da comunicacao mediada por computador (CMC), em particular comentarios a artigos relativos a Uniao Europeia publicados nas versoes online de jornais portugueses. O artigo propoe uma nocao inclusiva de tratamento linguistico que inclua as especificidades do medium, descreve o tratamento linguistico verificado no corpus e conclui que o mesmo e complexo e relacional, e que recorre a formas negociadas na interacao, mas igualmente a formas convencionais. Tendo como substrato investigacao previa sobre indelicadeza em polilogos online, procura tambem examinar-se e descrever o fenomeno da indelicadeza e as suas intersecoes com o tratamento. Verifica-se que a indelicadeza nao e um objetivo comunicativo fundamental dos participantes e que, apesar de alguma coerencia com o tratamento linguistico, a interacao entre os dois e residual. E a complexidade do tratamento online que demonstra, assim, a indole fortemente interpessoal e relacional da CMC em portugues europeu. Palavras-chave: tratamento linguistico; indelicadeza; CMC; portugues europeu; polilogos.
Researching pronunciation learning strategies: An overview and a critical look

Disparate goals that learners might have in learning second or foreign language pronunciation and the scant classroom time that can be dedicated to teaching this target language subsystem dictate that learner autonomy is of vital importance in this case and adept use of pronunciation learning strategies (PLS) can be viewed as key to the development of this attribute. Surprisingly, research on these strategies is scarce, mainly focusing on the identification and classification of PLS, diverse instruments are used for data collection and the findings are inconclusive. The paper provides an overview of the available research on PLS with respect to their identification, learners’ preferences concerning their use, factors mediating the application of PLS, and the effects of strategies-based instruction in this area. An attempt is also made to assess research of this kind and to suggest how it could be taken forward to provide insights that would be of value to practitioners.
The Influence of Performance Measurement on the Processual Dynamics of Strategic Change

We draw on a five-year longitudinal data set to investigate the influence of performance measurement in the processual dynamics of strategic change, particularly in enacting effective strategic change. Our model examines the role of performance measurement in driving strategy-consistent operational changes and in ensuring that the desired objectives of the strategic change process are achieved. We investigate these roles for performance measurement over time and empirically document lags between changes in strategic priorities, changes in operational processes, and subsequent changes in firm performance. We find that performance measurement supports the implementation of strategic change by influencing the extent to which changes to operational tasks and activities are made in response to new strategic priorities, as well as influencing the quality and impact of these operational changes, as reflected in improved contemporaneous and future firm performance. This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting.
Intellectual Property Rights and the Margins of Firm Imports in China

ABSTRACT We have analyzed the channels through which intellectual property rights (IPRs) affect firms’ imports, combined Chinese Customs Database with the Annual Survey of Industrial Firms, and then empirically analyzed the effects of IPRs protection on firms’ total imports and margins of imports. We have found that strengthening IPRs protection by raising the product extensive margin significantly increases the import value of Chinese industrial firms. IPRs protection has a larger promoting effect on the import value in areas with a stronger threat of imitation; when a firm’s innovation activity becomes more active, IPRs will have a lower promoting effect on the import value.
Fiscal sustainability in India: evidence from Markov switching and threshold regression models

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the fiscal sustainability issue by dividing the fiscal deficit into high and low regimes using the quarterly data from 1997: Q1 to 2013: Q3. Further, we obtain the optimum level of public debt at which fiscal sustainability can be achieved. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the Markov Switching-Vector Error Correction Model (MS-VECM) for examining fiscal sustainability and threshold regression model to obtain the optimum level of debt. Findings The results derived from MS-VECM reveal the evidence in favor of fiscal sustainability during low fiscal deficit periods. Similarly, using a threshold regression model, the optimum public debt as a percentage to GDP seems to be around 21 per cent on a quarterly basis, beyond this level, public debt hurts economic growth. Practical implications From the policy front, the government of India should cut down the fiscal deficit only if debt reaches beyond a threshold level. Originality/value Noting that the vast literature has focused on examining the fiscal sustainability in India, the novelty of this study is to examine the fiscal sustainability by considering high and low deficits regimes using a non-linear approach.
Miscellany of Students’ Satisfaction in an Asynchronous Learning Environment

This study investigates the determinants of students’ satisfaction in an asynchronous learning environment using seven key considerations: the e-learning environment, student–content interaction, student and student interaction, student–teacher interaction, group cohesion and timely participation, knowledge of Internet usage, and satisfaction. The empirical data were gathered through structured questionnaires from 500 students who took courses in an asynchronous learning environment and the analysis was done using structural equation modeling. Framed along the positivist paradigm, deductive epistemology, exploratory research design, the study showed that all the seven variables served as robust antecedents of students’ satisfaction in an asynchronous learning environment.
Basic Education in Brazil, Performance and Indicators about Resources, Management and Projects

This article proposes an analysis for solving problems in a system of continuous change to improve the results, in a typical Brazilian school. As a result of public policies for basic and high school education in Brazil, public schools are increasingly absorbed by the logic of efficiency. Following this guideline managers must work with goals, build partnerships, identify political alignments, seek data, establish a compensation plan and select performance measures for their units. In this way, educational management must implement successful strategies in the medium and long term. This article intends to suggest a promising approach for public education that compose in a process of continuous improvement.
Adaptive Rate Voice over IP Quality Management Algorithm

—The quality of voice-over-IP communication relies significantly on the network that transports voice packets because this network does not usually guarantee available bandwidth, delay, and loss that are critical for real-time voice traffic. The solution proposed here is to manage a voice-over-IP stream dynamically, changing encoding parameters as needed to assure quality. The paper proposes an adaptive-rate control algorithm that establishes interaction between a VoIP sender and a receiver, and manages voice quality in real-time. Simulations demonstrate that the system provides better average communications quality than traditional fixed-rate VoIP.
Aggregate earnings and gross domestic product: International evidence

ABSTRACT Recent studies in macro accounting suggest that changes in aggregate accounting earnings can predict quarterly GDP growth in the USA. Our objective in this study is to test the robustness of the association between aggregate earnings and real GDP growth across multiple countries and for different definitions of aggregate earnings. We test whether aggregate earnings changes predict future economic growth in eight countries – Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and the USA. We find positive evidence regarding the generalisability of the aggregate earnings – real GDP relation in an international context. In additional tests, we find that economic forecasters appear to underreact to aggregate earnings information. Our results show that aggregate earnings lead economic growth and forecasts of real GDP growth can be improved by incorporating aggregate earnings information. Further, we also test if negative earnings changes contain more information than positive earnings changes and find only modest evidence in favour of this hypothesis. The results are robust to alternative statistical methodology and the removal of the USA data from the sample.
Accelerators and intra-ecosystem variety: how entrepreneurial agency influences venture development in a time-compressed support program

Accelerator programs constitute an important new element in entrepreneurial ecosystems, comprising focused support to advance the development of entrepreneurial ventures. Yet, we lack understanding of the processes through which accelerators contribute to enhancing entrepreneurial activity and especially the role of entrepreneurship agency in this process. By systematically tracking a cohort of ventures in a leading accelerator, our study draws out intra ecosystem heterogeneity and reveals that the accelerator program elements can impose a distinctive direct effect on participating ventures but the effect varies as entrepreneurs adopt different approaches to engage other players in the ecosystem. We find that in order to fit in the temporal structure of the accelerator program, entrepreneurs adopt two different strategies to achieve accelerated venture development—acceleration with focus and acceleration with foresight. The effectiveness of these two acceleration strategies are moderated by the approaches to engaging the accelerator offerings for resource acquisition. By developing a theoretical framework of entrepreneurial acceleration in the accelerator setting, we contribute to the specific literatures on entrepreneurial process and accelerators and more generally to the emerging literature on the functioning of entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Why Some Democracy Protests Do Diffuse

Dawn Brancati and Adrián Lucardi offer a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom in democratization research, which since Samuel Huntington’s seminal analysis of The Third Wave (1991) has highlighted diffusion processes as important contributors to (attempts at) political regime change. By contrast to a wealth of research that has demonstrated contagion and demonstration effects (Beissinger 2007; Brinks and Coppedge 2006; Gleditsch and Ward 2006; Torfason and Ingram 2010; Wejnert 2014), the authors provocatively argue that democracy protests—contention guided primarily by the quest for democratization—do not significantly spread among neighboring countries. A battery of statistical investigations that tests for a broad set of model specifications finds weak and highly inconsistent results, casting serious doubts on diffusion arguments. With their spirited criticism, Brancati and Lucardi usefully point to several problems in diffusion research. Almost by definition, this literature tends to have a skewed focus on instances in which diffusion occurs; nondiffusion, by contrast, tends to be off the agenda. Moreover, these writings tend to highlight contagion and demonstration effects but pay less attention to deterrent effects, which can be equally if not more powerful—and forestall a wave of replication efforts. By pointing to these issues, Brancati and Lucardi sound an important note of caution and remind scholars not to overestimate the power and significance of diffusion impulses. But the authors “throw out the baby with the bathwater” by suggesting that democracy protests do not diffuse at all. Here, however, the validity, significance, and theoretical relevance of the quantitative results seem questionable. Are the statistical methods employed by Brancati and Lucardi well suited for the analysis
Development of single row automatic transplanting device for potted vegetable seedlings

In China, low degree of automation seriously affects the working efficiency and quality in vegetable transplanting. As one of the most important vegetables in China even in the world, tomato was taken as the research object in this study. An automatic single-row transplanting device was designed, based on the statistical analysis of the physical and mechanical properties of tomato seedlings of a typical variety. Based on the technology of mechatronics, the device integrated the functions of transporting seedling tray, automatic seedling extraction and mechanical planting. The kinematics orthogonality solution combined with the dynamic sequence solution method was used to optimize and analyze the kinematic parameters of the automatic seeding mechanism, and the “sickle” trajectory was obtained. According to the position and movement requirement for taking and dropping seedling, the mechanical conditions and the working parameters of key execution parts were obtained by using analytic drawing method to analyze the mechanical condition of seedling collecting mechanism. The transplanting experiment was conducted at room temperature of 25°C, and the age and moisture content of the seedlings were 40 d and 55%, respectively. The results showed that the highest success rate was 92.59%, and the lowest rate of leakage was 23.13%, when the transplanting frequency was 60 plants/min. The lowest success rate was 77.78%, and the highest rate of leakage was 38.75%, when transplanting frequency was 120 plants/min. When the transplanting frequency is between 60-90 plants/min, the device can meet the requirement of high speed transplanting for potted vegetable seedling. Keywords: potted vegetable seedling, seedling mechanism, automatic transplanting, tomato seedling, transplanting experiment DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe. 20181103.3969 Citation: Jin X, Li D Y, Ma H, Ji J T, Zhao K X, Pang J. Development of single row automatic transplanting device for potted vegetable seedlings. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(3): 67–75.
Response to Selection for Grain Filling Capacity in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under Heat Stress

Improving tolerance to heat stress of bread wheat has been achieved through enhancing grain filling capacity by two cycles of selection imposed on five F2 populations derived from crosses among long spike–equally tall inbred lines quite variable in 1000 kernel weight (1000 KW). The first cycle was a divergent selection for 1000 KW conducted under the high temperature of a late rowing date at an intensity of 5% and the responses were measured in favorable and heat stress environments. Significant positive responses were obtained in the five populations in the two contrasting environments. Selection for higher 1000 KW resulted in greater response under heat stress (averaged 6.9% of population mean) than under favorable conditions (averaged 4.92%). The F3 families selected for higher 1000 KW were less sensitive to high temperature as they displayed less reductions due to heat stress (averaged 5.55%) than the unselected bulks (7.14% average reduction) relative to the performance under favorable conditions. The responses to selection for lower 1000 KW were greater under the favorable conditions (averaged 5.6%) than under heat stress (averaged 4.12%). Significant concurrent positive responses were obtained in stem diameter with selection for higher 1000 KW which was greater under heat stress (averaged 8.82%) than under favorable conditions (averaged 4.51%). Directional selection for stem diameter imposed on the plants of the F3 families in the second cycle resulted in significant positive responses in the five populations which averaged 16.24% of population mean as well as concurrent responses in 1000 KW (averaged 16.01%) and in grain yield /spike (averaged 19.5%). Selection for 1000 KW under heat stress produced concurrent response in stem diameter and vice versa which implies that the two characters are closely related. Increasing stem diameter by selection was more efficient than selection for 1000 KW in enhancing grain filling capacity through providing greater storage of stem reserves of water soluble carbohydrates to be remobilized into the developing grains under high temperature.
How to Predict Financial Distress in the Wholesale Sector: Lesson from Indonesian Stock Exchange

Financial distress is a stage of decline in financial conditions experienced by a company before going bankrupt. This phenomenon in Indonesia in recent years since 2016 shows more and more companies are experiencing bankruptcy. The purpose of this study is to know what are the factors causing it using discriminant analysis. The population of this study is issuers in sub-sector wholesale listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange 2010-2015 period. Results showed that all four variables those are leverage, activity, liquidity, and profitability have significance values and able to explain 72.42% of the variation distress and non-distress. The accuracy of the model is 96.8% on distinguishing companies that experience financial-distress with non-distress. Overall this research model is reliable and valid to be used for forecasting companies that will experience bankruptcy.
“Commenting on the Causal Factors ControllingFemale Decision Making”A study of Female Decision Making RegardingPaid Employment: Punjab, Pakistan

As societies grapple with incorporating the concepts of gender equality and gender sensitivity, female decision making is quickly losing its designation as a peripheral issue. Indeed the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women in support of the Commission on the Status of Women has been exploring the question of women and decision making for some time. In 1997 it called upon governments to take into consideration diverse decision making styles and to enhance the images of women in political and public spheres [UN, (2000)].
The Nexus between Sub-national Debt and Economic Development in Nigeria

The study examined the impact of sub- national debts on economic development. The study covered the period of 1996 to 2018 and data were sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria and Debt Management Office. The study adopted the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares and Granger Causality. The Fully Modified OLS was used to investigate the both long run and short run relationships while the Granger Causality was used for direction of causality. The result showed that state government has a statistically significant positive relationship with the growth rate of GDP while Local government debt (LDEBT) and exchange rate had a significant inverse relationship with the growth of GDP. The Interest rate (INT) has positive sign but not significant. The paper recommended that the Federal Government of Nigeria should ensure that fiscal discipline should be enshrined to curtail diversion of loans received to unproductive channels
Low-Cost Localization Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks.

Cette these propose de nouveaux algorithmes de localisation a faible cout pour les reseaux de capteurs sans fils (“wireless sensor networks (WSNs)”). Jusqu’ici, la nature heterogene des WSNs a ete ignoree lors de la conception de tels algorithmes. Ceci nous a motive a developpe un nouvel algorithme adapte aux WSNs heterogenes (HWSN)s. On a prouve que l’algorithme propose est capable de localiser les capteurs avec une grande precision. En plus, on a developpe dans le cadre de cette these, un nouvel algorithme de localisation qui exploite en plus du nombre minimal de sauts d’autres informations localement disponible au niveau de chaque capteur. Malgre leur precision, les performances de ces algorithmes se deteriorent rapidement dans les environnements anisotropes plus realiste ou plusieurs obstacles (murs, personnes, immeubles, machines, etc.) peuvent exister entre deux noeuds. Afin de resoudre ce probleme, on a developpe une strategie de selection d’anchors fiable a faible cout. Afin d’augmenter encore plus la robustesse de nos algorithmes, on a developpe un mecanisme de correction qui tient en compte le phenomene d”attenuation anisotrope du signal. En exploitant les reseaux de neurones artificiels (ANNs), ce mecanisme est capable de corriger les erreurs d’estimation de distance due a ce phenomene. Etant donne que la precision de localisation est etroitement liee aux positions des anchors, cette these propose aussi une strategie novatrice de placement optimal des anchors. En recourant a l’optimisation par essaim de particules bien connu (“Particle swarm optimization PSO”), il a ete demontre que cette nouvelle strategie offre des gains de precision significatifs.
Managerial Academic Experience, External Monitoring and Financial Reporting Quality

This study examines the effect of managerial academic experience on firms&#8217; financial reporting quality. Using data from China, we find that firms with top managers possessing academic experience exhibit lower levels of both accrual and real earnings management, along with a lower probability of future restatements. This effect is more pronounced for firms with inefficient external monitoring, suggesting that the higher financial reporting quality is mainly explained by the managers&#8217; intrinsic motivation to report truthfully. The results hold when we use firm fixed&#8208;effect regressions, instrumental variable two&#8208;stage regressions, and a propensity score matching (PSM) approach to mitigate the omitted variable and endogeneity concerns. Our study suggests that academic experience can serve as a source of valuable expertise for corporate executives.
IMPACT DAMAGE PREDICTION IN SHELL STRUCTURES

This paper describes a method for predicting how much impact kinetic energy is needed to deform, penetrate, and perforate a shell structures. This method based on strain rate effects, non linear materials, and cross section area reduction. An explicit finite element solver was developed to investigate the relationship between the impactor and target under different impact load cases. The study shows that the impactor can deform, penetrate, and perforate the structure depending on the shape, and the velocity of the impactor besides the material properties of both the impactor and the structure. This paper considers a shell structure response subjected to rigid spherical impactor with a fixed weight at different impact speeds ranging between 10 m/s to 150 m/s.