Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Introduction to L2 attrition

As the introduction to the section on second language (L2) attrition, this chapter provides a broad presentation to research on attrition of L2 and foreign languages (FL). We will first discuss the terminology used in the field, focusing on some important differences in the terminology used in first language (L1) attrition studies. It provides a short overview of the development of the field, outlining major challenges and obstacles that research on the topic has to deal with. Next, it briefly describes the major findings and knowledge amassed on the subject before reviewing in more detail the findings of some of the most significant and large-scale projects carried out on L2/FL attrition. A final presentation of several theoretical frameworks of interest for L2/FL attrition research will allow us to show how L2/FL attrition is commonly explained but also to provide some ideas for future research directions.
An Analysis of the Effects of Explicit Teaching on the Acquisition of Structural Discourse Markers in EFL Speaking Classes in Saudi Arabia

The study investigates the most appropriate way to teach structural discourse markers (SDMs) and the effect of different treatments on their learning and acquisition. Discourse markers (DMs) play a vital role in spoken language (Carter & McCarthy, 2006). Schiffrin (1987) defined them as “sequentially dependent elements which bracket units of talk” (p. 31) and their main function is to “add to discourse coherence” (p. 326). This research focuses on exploring Saudi EFL learners’ use of the target SDMs in oral production (presentations) after explicit instruction, either through a task-based language teaching approach (TBLT) or an inductive/deductive presentation-practice-production (PPP) approach. One of the key justifications of carrying out this research is to contribute to classroom research and to literature on teaching and learning DMs in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) education. Most of the studies in the Saudi EFL context investigate the use and the frequency of DMs, this study attempts to fill in the gap by providing empirical research on the most effective approach to teach SDMs to EFL learners. In addition, this research contributes to the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) by examining and providing a description of the effectiveness of different teaching approaches regarding students’ learning and acquisition of the target SDMs in the EFL context, and specifically in Saudi Arabia, where there is currently a gap in research. For this purpose, 49 female learners on their foundation year at Taibah University in Saudi Arabia participated in this study. Furthermore, for the intention of teaching SDMs, learners were divided into three experimental groups, one group was taught using a TBLT approach, the other was introduced to the deductive PPP approach and the last group was taught by using an inductive PPP approach. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis (mixed methods) were used. The findings demonstrated that teaching SDMs explicitly by using the three different teaching approaches, helped learners to learn and use the target SDMs in oral presentation (short-term learning). However, deductive and inductive PPP led to greater use of SDMs and these two groups outperformed the TBLT group. All treatment groups improved and gained DMs from the pre-test to the first delayed test. However, inductive PPP outperformed both TBLT and deductive PPP, consequently it can be said that the inductive PPP approach had more effect on learners’ learning and acquisition of SDMs in this specific context.
Distributed Attack Detection in a Water Treatment Plant: Method and Case Study

The rise in attempted and successful attacks on critical infrastructure, such as power grid and water treatment plants, has led to an urgent need for the creation and adoption of methods for detecting such attacks often launched either by insiders or state actors. This paper focuses on one such method that aims at the detection of attacks that compromise one or more actuators and sensors in a plant either through successful intrusion in the plant's communication network or directly through the plant computers. The method, labelled as Distributed Attack Detection (DAD), detects attacks in real-time by identifying anomalies in the behavior of the physical process in the plant. Anomalies are identified by using monitors that are implementations of invariants derived from the plant design. Each invariant must hold either throughout the plant operation, or when the plant is in a given state. The effectiveness of DAD was assessed experimentally on an operational water treatment plant named SWaT that is a near-replica of commercially available large treatment plants. The method used in DAD was found to be effective in detecting stealthy and coordinated attacks.
Do Powerful Politicians Really Cause Corporate Downsizing?

Cohen, Coval, and Malloy (2011) suggest that increased government spending crowded out private corporate investment by publicly-traded corporations, as identified by changes in Congressional chairmanships. Yet, the same inference would obtain in a placebo that begins years earlier, the capital-expenditure decline was primarily a 1987-92 Texas effect (following a 1980-86 oil price decline), and the standard errors were not clustered by state.
Privacy Protection for Internet of Drones: A Network Coding Approach

This paper proposes an enhanced secure pseudonym scheme to protect the privacy of cloud data in Internet of Drones (IoD). Nowadays, drones equipped with cameras can provide surveillance and aerial photography applications. Unlike the video devices, personal drones with high mobility can track and follow an individual, causing both the identity and location privacy issues. However, IoD devices cannot implement complex cryptographic schemes because of limited computing power. To this end, we develop a secure light-weight network coding pseudonym scheme. Our designed two-tier network coding can decouple the stored IoD cloud data from the owner’s pseudonyms. Therefore, our proposed network coding-based pseudonym scheme can simultaneously defend against both outside and inside attackers. We implement our proposed two-tier light-weight network coding mechanism when facing untrusted cloud database. Compared to the computationally secure hash-based pseudonym scheme, our proposed scheme achieves the highest unconditional security level, but also can reduce more than 90% of processing time as well as 10% of energy consumption.
Modeling creativity performance and the psychological contract in technology industry

This study predicts the psychological contract as a major driver of flow experience and creativity performance. In the proposed model of this study, creativity performance relates to training contract, transactional contract, and relational contract directly and also indirectly via the mediation of flow experience. Empirical testing of this study, by surveying working professionals across quality control departments of high-tech firms, confirms the applicability of flow theory in understanding creativity performance. Last, this study provides managerial implications and limitations.
Perceptions and Sentiments About Electronic Cigarettes on Social Media Platforms: Systematic Review

Background Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been widely promoted on the internet, and subsequently, social media has been used as an important informative platform by e-cigarette users. Beliefs and knowledge expressed on social media platforms have largely influenced e-cigarette uptake, the decision to switch from conventional smoking to e-cigarette smoking, and positive and negative connotations associated with e-cigarettes. Despite this, there is a gap in our knowledge of people’s perceptions and sentiments on e-cigarettes as depicted on social media platforms. Objective This study aimed to (1) provide an overview of studies examining the perceptions and sentiments associated with e-cigarettes on social media platforms and online discussion forums, (2) explore people’s perceptions of e-cigarette therein, and (3) examine the methodological limitations and gaps of the included studies. Methods Searches in major electronic databases, including PubMed, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Communication and Mass Media Complete, were conducted using the following search terms: “electronic cigarette,” “electronic vaporizer,” “electronic nicotine,” and “electronic nicotine delivery systems” combined with “internet,” “social media,” and “internet use. ” The studies were selected if they examined participants’ perceptions and sentiments of e-cigarettes on online forums or social media platforms during the 2007-2017 period. Results A total of 21 articles were included. A total of 20 different social media platforms and online discussion forums were identified. A real-time snapshot and characteristics of sentiments, personal experience, and perceptions toward e-cigarettes on social media platforms and online forums were identified. Common topics regarding e-cigarettes included positive and negative health effects, testimony by current users, potential risks, benefits, regulations associated with e-cigarettes, and attitude toward them as smoking cessation aids. Conclusions Although perceptions among social media users were mixed, there were more positive sentiments expressed than negative ones. This study particularly adds to our understanding of current trends in the popularity of and attitude toward e-cigarettes among social media users. In addition, this study identified conflicting perceptions about e-cigarettes among social media users. This suggests that accurate and up-to-date information on the benefits and risks of e-cigarettes needs to be disseminated to current and potential e-cigarette users via social media platforms, which can serve as important educational channels. Future research can explore the efficacy of social media–based interventions that deliver appropriate information (eg, general facts, benefits, and risks) about e-cigarettes. Trial Registration PROSPERO CRD42019121611; https://tinyurl.com/yfr27uxs
Core Model on Improving Mathematical Communication and Connection, Analysis of Students’ Mathematical Disposition

This study aimed to improve of mathematical communication, mathematical connection and analyze mathematical dispositions of students by using the CORE (Connecting-Organizing-Reflecting-Extending) learning model. The study applied a mixed method with embedded design. The subject were 82 X grade students of high school in Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia. It divided into 42 students for the experimental group and 40 students for the control group. The research data were obtained through well-structured tests of mathematical communication and mathematical connection, mathematical disposition questionnaires, observation sheets, and interviews. Data analysis used t-test, correlation test, descriptive statistic and qualitative. The results indicated that; 1) the CORE learning model can improve students' mathematical communication and connection skills, 2) the mathematical communication for topic I=76.46; topic II=70.98; topic III=72.87; post-test=74.26; and the mathematical connection for topic I=80.07; topic II=79.98; topic III=75.78; post-test=80.27; 3) mathematical communication and connections of students who learned with the CORE model was better than those used expository learning, 4) mathematical dispositions of students who learned with the CORE model was higher than those used expository learning as well and 5) there were correlation among mathematical communication, mathematical connection and mathematical dispositions.
Coding as a Playground: Programming and Computational Thinking in the Early Childhood Classroom

What is a collaborative ScratchJr project? When starting out, children often use one tablet to convey a story on ScratchJr. With a multitablet collaborative project, the images and movements can span across multiple screens to tell a story. The images on each tablet can be set to play at the same time or even staggered to make images appear to move between tablets. Each project typically has one overall theme (e.g. cultural holiday or dance) or a story (e.g. cars racing to a finish line).
Role of Supply Chain Management on the Job Control and Social Support for Relationship between Work-Family Conflict and Job Satisfaction

Abstract- The present study investigates the relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction of Malaysian workers (N = 1125) based on the supply chain management. It examines the direct and moderating effects of job control and social support on work-family conflict and job satisfaction relationship. The current study examines the Job Demand-Control (JDC) [1] and Job Demand-Control-Support (JDCS) [2] models which are under research in the work-family conflict. Hierarchical regression analyses in the study reveal that work to family conflict (WFC), family to work conflict (FWC) and social support have a direct effect on job satisfaction. However, the result reveals that employees’ job control was not the primary predictor of their job satisfaction. Contrary to the prediction of the JDCS model, the moderating effects of job control and social support on the relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction are not found. Implications regarding the importance of the main effect of social support and supply chain management on understanding job satisfaction in Malaysian society and other possible moderators are discussed.
CSIB v1: a sea-ice biogeochemical model for the NEMO community
ocean modelling framework

Abstract. Numerical models are a useful tool for studying marine ecosystems and associated biogeochemical processes in ice-covered regions where observations are scarce. To this end, CSIB v1 (Canadian Sea-ice Biogeochemistry version 1), a new sea-ice biogeochemical model has been developed and embedded into the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) modelling system. This model consists of a three-compartment (ice algae, nitrate, and ammonium) sea-ice ecosystem and a two-compartment (dimethylsulfoniopropionate and dimethylsulfide) sea-ice sulfur cycle which are coupled to pelagic ecosystem and sulfur-cycle models at the sea ice-ocean interface. In addition to biological and chemical sources and sinks, the model simulates the horizontal transport of biogeochemical state variables within sea ice through a one-way coupling to a dynamic-thermodynamic sea-ice model (LIM2). This paper describes technical aspects of implementing sea-ice biogeochemistry into NEMO and provides discussion on the results of several model experiments. Results of the reference simulation were evaluated by comparing the model outputs to observations and previous modelling studies. Additional simulations were conducted to assess the model sensitivity to 1) the temporal resolution of the snowfall forcing data, 2) the representation of light penetration through snow, 3) advective and eddy-diffusive horizontal transport of sea-ice biogeochemical state variables, and 4) light attenuation by ice algae. The sea-ice biogeochemical model has been developed within the generic framework of NEMO to facilitate its use within different configurations and domains, and can be adapted for use with other NEMO-based submodels such as LIM3 and PISCES.
An Attack on an Integrated Navigation System

Maritime cyber security is emerging as a field as reports of cyber attacks against computerized maritime systems have started arriving. Modern vessels are equipped with computerized systems for navigation employing the Global Positioning System (GPS), known as Integrated Navigation Systems (INS) and Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). This paper describes a proof-of-concept attack on an INS and its integrated ECDIS, and reports on a demonstration of the attack on a vessel. The attack includes malware that acts as a man-in-the-middle intercepting and manipulating GPS coordinates. Furthermore, the paper discusses the feasibility of the attack, as well as countermeasures.
Size and Book to Market Effects: Further Evidence from the French Case

The objective of this paper is to study the market, SMB, HML and the leverage factors in explaining cross-sectional returns. We provide the first empirical analysis of Ferguson and Shockley (2003) theoretical framework on the French stock market. Book to market and size, variables which are correlated with leverage, will appear to explain returns. Our main result is that the leverage factor doesn't subsume the SMB and HML factors. In cross-sectional regressions, only the size premium is statistically significant and help explaining returns. In time-series regressions, the three factors (SMB, HML and leverage), with the market portfolio, do a good job. This result suggests that the leverage portfolio has an additional improvement of the model.
On the island sensitivity of topicalization in Norwegian: An experimental investigation

Abstract:Mainland Scandinavian languages have been reported to allow movement from embedded questions, relative clauses, and complex NPs—domains commonly considered to be islands crosslinguistically. Yet in formal acceptability studies Scandinavian participants often show 'island effects': they reject island-violating movement similarly to native speakers of 'island-sensitive' languages. To investigate this apparent mismatch between informal and formal judgments, we conducted two acceptability judgment experiments testing the acceptability of topicalization from various island domains in Norwegian. We were interested in determining whether we could (i) find evidence for island insensitivity and (ii) pin down the source of qualitatively different island effects. We asked whether such effects are best explained as reflecting violations of a uniform syntactic constraint or extrasyntactic factors. Our results suggest that embedded questions and relative clauses are not uniform syntactic islands for topicalization, but complex NPs are. Unexpectedly, we also found evidence suggesting that conditional adjunct clauses may not be islands.
The Returns on Human Capital: Good News on Wall Street is Bad News on Main Street (joint with Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh)

We use a standard single-agent model to conduct a simple consumption growth accounting exercise. Consumption growth is driven by news about current and expected future returns on the market portfolio. The market portfolio includes financial and human wealth. We impute the residual of consumption growth innovations that cannot be attributed to either news about financial asset returns or future labor income growth to news about expected future returns on human wealth, and we back out the implied human wealth and market return process. This accounting procedure only depends on the agent's willingness to substitute consumption over time, not her consumption risk preferences. We find that innovations in current and future human wealth returns are negatively correlated with innovations in current and future financial asset returns, regardless of the elasticity of intertemporal substitution. The evidence from the cross-section of stock returns suggests that the market return we back out of aggregate consumption innovations is a better measure of market risk than the return on the stock market.
Understanding the Use of Online Tools Embedded Within a Virtual Learning Environment

Different learning tools are available within virtual learning environments, including forums, quizzes, and ePortfolios. This article investigates perceptions of helpfulness and ease of use of these three tools, including how they are impacted by learner characteristics and what predicts frequency of use of each tool. Critically, the relationship between perceived helpfulness of the three tools and their ability to support achievement of learning outcomes and development of employability skills is assessed. The findings support previous work showing an impact of learner characteristics on perceived helpfulness and ease of use for all tools. Results also show that the ability of forums to support achievement of learning outcomes predicts their perceived helpfulness, whilst development of employability skills predicts helpfulness of quizzes. In turn, helpfulness but not ease of use predicted frequency of these tools.
Taxes and Leverage at Multinational Corporations

Empirical research has struggled to show that variation in corporate capital structure arises from variation in estimated corporate income tax rates. We argue that, in previous studies, both the tax rates applied to multinational corporations and the taxable income earned have been mismeasured. Using the Bureau of Economic Analysis annual survey sample combined with each firm's income and country specific tax rate, we find that firms do have higher leverage ratios and lower interest coverage ratios when they operate in countries with higher tax rates, as theory would suggest. The trade-off theory of capital structure continues to have empirical support.
Analysing Structured Learning Behaviour in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): An Approach Based on Process Mining and Clustering

The increasing use of digital systems to support learning leads to a growth in data regarding both learning processes and related contexts. Learning Analytics offers critical insights from these data, through an innovative combination of tools and techniques. In this paper, we explore students’ activities in a MOOC from the perspective of personal constructivism, which we operationalized as a combination of learning behaviour and learning progress. This study considers students’ data analyzed as per the MOOC Process Mining: Data Science in Action. We explore the relation between learning behaviour and learning progress in MOOCs, with the purpose to gain insight into how passing and failing students distribute their activities differently along the course weeks, rather than predict students' grades from their activities. Commonly-studied aggregated counts of activities, specific course item counts, and order of activities were examined with cluster analyses, means analyses, and process mining techniques. We found four meaningful clusters of students, each representing specific behaviour ranging from only starting to fully completing the course. Process mining techniques show that successful students exhibit a more steady learning behaviour. However, this behaviour is much more related to actually watching videos than to the timing of activities. The results offer guidance for teachers.
Influence of Individual Values Dissimilarity in the Outcome of top Management Teams: a study in a management lab

Several studies relate organizational outcomes to the performance of top management teams (TMT). Some of these studies suggest that the process of strategic choice is influenced by the cognitive background and values of the executives in those teams, and have focused on the composition of TMT, using demographic variables as proxies for deep-level characteristics. The aim of this descriptive and exploratory study was to verify directly the influence of deep-level characteristics – the dissimilarities of TMT members’ individual values – on the team outcomes. This research was carried out using a quantitative method within a public university management lab environment located in the city of Sao Paulo, applying two value surveys validated in Brazil on TMT composed of Business Management and Accounting undergraduates submitted to a business game situation, resulting in a non-probabilistic sample formed of 32 teams comprising 186 students with valid responses. Through multiple linear regression technique, two statistically significant regression models were found. It was found that the improved performance of TMT occurs when members differ in the importance assigned to values related to openness to change and have similar appreciation