Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kindergarten teachers’ challenges in teaching English as a foreign language to children

ABSTRACT Teaching English as a foreign language in early years has become prevalent in response to contemporary trends of English as a global language. However, early childhood teachers may face challenges that would prevent children from achieving success in learning English in different educational contexts. This study explored the challenges that kindergarten teachers face when teaching English as a foreign language at kindergarten schools in Kuwait. There is high demand for teaching English as a second language in most countries in the world at early stages, and stakeholders could take responsibility for overcoming these challenges that are related to many aspects of this field. The researchers interviewed 16 kindergarten teachers and then conducted classroom observations. Lack of teacher preparation and training, English curriculum deficiencies, and teachers’ English proficiency level emerged as key challenges faced by kindergarten teachers. Other localized challenges were also identified. This paper concludes by highlighting several implications for decision makers to further enhance teaching English as a foreign language in kindergarten schools.
GROWTH AND PRODUCTION RESPONSES OF BOSCHVELD CHICKENS TO BAKERS’ YEAST SUPPLEMENTATION

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of probiotic-yeast supplementation on growth and productivity of Boschveld chickens reared intensively from 1 - 91 days of age. Birds were raised on commercial starter mash (1 - 49 days) and grower mash (50 to 91 days). Six hundred unsexed Boschveld chicks with a mean live weight of 27.8 ± 1.07 g were allotted into six treatment groups. Each group was divided into five replicates of 20 chickens. Birds in each group were assigned to a diet containing 18 -20% crude protein and 3001.38 - 3009.98 Kcal/kg energy, but with increasing levels of bakers’ yeast (TS) at 0 (TS0), 2.5 (TS2.5), 5.0 (TS5), 7.5 (TS7.5), 10.0 (TS10) and 12.5 g/kg feed (TS12.5). Experimental chickens were raised in a deep litter house; feed and water were given ad libitum. Data on growth performance indices, apparent metabolizable energy (AME) and nitrogen retention were collected and analysed statistically at p < 0.05. Treatment means where significant were separated using Duncan’s test for multiple comparisons. Results revealed that dietary probiotic-yeast supplementation had no significant influence on feed intake and AME in Boschveld chickens. Chickens fed treatment diets had better final live weight (FLW), feed conversion efficiency (FCE), average daily gain (ADG) and nitrogen retention in comparison with chickens fed control diet. Our results demonstrated that probiotic-yeast supplementation at 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0 g/kg feed had a positive effect on performance indices of indigenous Boschveld chickens reared in a closed confinement from 1 up to 91 days of age. Similar results were found in Indonesia's native chickens (Ma’rifah The present findings show that nitrogen retention value increased progressively as the amount of yeast in the diet was increased, and thereafter declined, which is similar to the finding of Mbajiorgu et al. (2011) in South African unsexed Venda chickens. The significantly higher nitrogen retention recorded in birds fed treatment diets indicates the ability of the diets to support muscle development leading to better growth. This also suggests greater efficiency of the use of nitrogen in birds fed treatment diets over the control diet. Oyedeji et al. found a similar pattern in Ross 355 broiler chickens offered yeast culture at 0.2, 0.25 and 0.3 g/kg feed. Furthermore, the significant decline in nitrogen retention value of birds offered yeast at 12.5 g/kg feed in comparison with birds fed yeast at 7.5 g/kg indicates that 12.5 g yeast/kg feed could be higher than the level the Boschveld chickens could utilize.
Effect of Reprocessing on Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance of Zr-Sn-Nb Alloy

To study the effect of reprocessing on the microstructure and corrosion resistance of Zr-Sn-Nb alloy, the original plates of Zr-Sn-Nb alloy were hot-rolled, cold-rolled and recrystallized to obtain the reprocessed plates. The microstructure of both plates was observed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM), a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD). The original plates and reprocessed plates were put into a static autoclave for 300 days in 360 °C/18.6 MPa water. The relationship between the microstructure and corrosion resistance of the Zr-Sn-Nb alloy was discussed. The coarse deformation grains with twins and fine recrystallized grains were obtained, and grain sizes became smaller. The Ostwald ripening of second phase particles (SPPs) happened, and the average size of SPPs increased. Some SPPs changed from an HCP structure to an FCC structure. Reprocessing made the transition advance, which is related to the accelerated evolution of cracks in the oxide film and the increase in metal-oxide film interface roughness. The deterioration of corrosion resistance is closely related to the change of grain size, SPP size and SPP structure.
A Practical Application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process and Integer Linear Programming for Fuzzy Front-End Project Selection

Purpose. This study applies a novel approach that integrates AHP with integer linear programming (ILP), to address a gap in management literature regarding the need to consider both sustainability and COVID-19 impact on project selection, with a view to avoid implementation failures. Design/Methodology/Approach. A case study approach involving experts in semiconductor manufacturing was conducted, using the Delphi method, to determine weights of various criteria, including additional new criteria associated with both sustainability and COVID-19 issues considered in the selection decision for four candidate projects. Findings. Integrated results revealed two projects to be selected (projects 1 and 3). Whilst AHP results revealed more information about the ranking of all four projects, the ILP model results complemented the findings by indicating that 2 projects (projects 1 and 3) should be selected, taking account of not only resource constraints but also sustainability issues and customer behavior towards selected projects, influenced by COVID-19 impact. Originality/Value. The value lies in not only proposing a novel framework that integrates AHP with ILP but also adding to our understanding of the importance to incorporate both sustainability and COVID-19 impacts on semiconductor industry project selection, both of which have significance for the industry in terms of maximizing implementation success for selected projects.
Seasonal study of the small-scale variability in dissolved methane in the western Kiel Bight (Baltic Sea) during the European heatwave in 2018

Abstract. Methane (CH4) is a climate-relevant atmospheric trace gas which is emitted to the atmosphere from coastal areas such as the Baltic Sea. The oceanic CH4 emission estimates are still associated with a high degree of uncertainty partly because the temporal and spatial variability in the CH4 distribution in the ocean surface layer is usually not known. In order to determine the small-scale variability in dissolved CH4 we set up a purge and trap system with a significantly improved precision for the CH4 concentration measurements compared to static headspace equilibration measurements. We measured the distribution of dissolved CH4 in the water column of the western Kiel Bight and Eckernförde Bay in June and September 2018. The top 1 m was sampled in high resolution to determine potential small-scale CH4 concentration gradients within the mixed layer. CH4 concentrations throughout the water column of the western Kiel Bight and Eckernförde Bay were generally higher in September than in June. The increase in the CH4 concentrations in the bottom water was accompanied by a strong decrease in O2 concentrations which led to anoxic conditions favourable for microbial CH4 production in September. In summer 2018, northwestern Europe experienced a pronounced heatwave. However, we found no relationship between the anomalies of water temperature and excess CH4 in both the surface and the bottom layer at the site of the Boknis Eck Time Series Station (Eckernförde Bay). Therefore, the 2018 European heatwave most likely did not affect the observed increase in the CH4 concentrations in the western Kiel Bight from June to September 2018. The high-resolution measurements of the CH4 concentrations in the upper 1 m of the water column were highly variable and showed no uniform decreasing or increasing gradients with water depth. Overall, our results show that the CH4 distribution in the water column of the western Kiel Bight and Eckernförde Bay is strongly affected by both large-scale temporal (i.e. seasonal) and small-scale spatial variabilities which need to be considered when quantifying the exchange of CH4 across the ocean–atmosphere interface.
Force spectroscopy analysis in polymer translocation

This paper reports the force spectroscopy analysis of a polymer that translocates from one side of a membrane to the other side through an extended pore, pulled by a cantilever that moves with constant velocity against the damping and the potential barrier generated by the reaction of the membrane walls. The polymer is modeled as a beads-springs chain with both excluded volume and bending contributions, and moves in a stochastic three dimensional environment described by a Langevin dynamics at fixed temperature. The force trajectories recorded at different velocities reveal two unexplored exponential regimes: the force increases when the first part of the chain enters the pore, and then decreases when the first monomer reaches the trans region. The spectroscopy analysis of the force values permit the estimation of the free energy barrier as well as the limit force to permit the translocation. The stall force to maintain the polymer fixed has been also calculated independently, and its value confirms the force spectroscopy outcomes.
Davis-Greenstein Alignment of Nonspherical Grains

Paramagnetic alignment of non-spherical dust grains rotating at thermal velocities is studied. The analytical solution is found for the alignment measure of oblate grains. Perturbative approach is used for solving the problem. It is shown that even the first approximation of the suggested iteration procedure provides the accuracy well within one percent of the expected measure of alignment. The results obtained are applicable both to paramagnetic and to superferromagnetic grains.
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL-SURVEY-BASED STUDY FOR UNDERSTANDING DAILY MOBILITY OF ELDERLY IN SOUTHEAST CHINA

Abstract. China's aging population has brought both opportunities and challenges to the society and economy. Promoting healthy aging is crucial to sustainable social and economic development. Learning the daily mobility pattern and health status of the elderly can provide references for the formulation and implementation of policies such as urban planning and social welfare. We derived key mobility indicators from the epidemiological survey data and then applied exploratory factor analysis to identify latent factors that can significantly affect mobility of the elderly in Southeast China. The study found that: quantity of out of home activities, extent of life space and stability of life space are three important factors that affect elder’s mobility; gender gap is small in elders’ mobility while the urban-rural differences in extent of life space and stability of life space are significant. The maximum distance from home for the rural elderly is significantly higher than urban elderly, while rural elder’s extent of activities is narrower and longer, and the repetition is low. There were significant differences in both the quantity of out of home activities and the extent of living space between elderly in China and Switzerland, and the activities of the elderly in China are more consistent, while the mobility pattern of the elderly in Switzerland are extremely divergent. Epidemiological survey data can be used as a data source for the elder’s daily mobility studying, and the results of this paper provide references for the policy formulation of policies to cope with aging, such as building an elderly-friendly community and caring for the physical and mental health of the elderly.
Level compressibility for the Anderson model on regular random graphs and the eigenvalue statistics in the extended phase

We calculate the level compressibility χ(W,L) of the energy levels inside [−L/2, L/2] for the Anderson model on infinitely large random regular graphs with on-site potentials distributed uniformly in [−W/2,W/2]. We show that χ(W,L) approaches the limit limL→0+ χ(W,L) = 0 for a broad interval of the disorder strength W within the extended phase, including the region of W close to the critical point for the Anderson transition. These results strongly suggest that the energy levels follow the Wigner-Dyson statistics in the extended phase, which implies on the absence of non-ergodic extended wavefunctions. This picture is consistent with earlier analytical predictions derived using the supersymmetric method. Our results are obtained from the accurate numerical solution of an exact set of equations for the level-compressibility of infinitely large regular random graphs.
The Positive Effect of Behavioral Contract Techniques on Children's Discipline

The discipline of children who have not been maximized indicates a lack of reinforcement of the moral and discipline aspects from an early age. This study analyzes the behavior contract technique on children's discipline attitudes. This research is a pre-experimental research type One group Pre-test-Post-test. The population of this study was children in group B, with four children as samples who were given treatment. The sampling technique in this study used a purposive sampling technique. Data analysis through descriptive statistics includes mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and variance; inferential statistics include normality, homogeneity, and t-test. The results of the Pre-test normality test were obtained < (0.381). It was accepted, and the Post-test normality test was obtained < (0.381) it was accepted. The homogeneity test results = 1.8 < 9.28, categorized as homogeneous. Hypothesis test results t-count = 9, smaller than the t-table that is 2.446. This shows that H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted. It is a finding that explains the influence of behavior contract techniques on children's discipline. Thus, the behavior contract technique positively affects the child's disciplinary behavior. This research implies that the behavioral contract technique is appropriate as an alternative to stimulate disciplinary behavior in early childhood.
Revisiting the Inverted-U: Congruency Tasks Reveal Divergent Developmental Trajectories

The Simon, Stroop, and flanker tasks are commonly used to investigate cognitive control. However, it remains unclear whether these three tasks in fact measure the same cognitive abilities and in the same proportion. We take a developmental approach to this question: if the Simon, Stroop, and flanker tasks all roughly measure the same capacity, they should show similar patterns of age-related change. This is difficult to ascertain from prior developmental research, which typically relies on small sample sizes, large age bins, and procedures that complicate direct comparisons of performance between the tasks. We present data from two massive online studies: Study 1 included 9,642 native English speakers between 10 and 80 years of age who completed two-alternative forced-choice versions of the Simon and Stroop tasks, and Study 2 included 13,448 English speakers between 10 and 79 years of age who completed a two-alternative forced-choice version of the flanker task. To minimize the contribution of feature- integration effects on performance, analysis was restricted to response switch trials. Of the three tasks, only the flanker task revealed an inverted U-shaped developmental trajectory, with performance improving until approximately 24 years of age and declining starting around 39 years of age. In contrast, performance on the Simon task improved until around 34 years of age but did not reveal significant age-related declines in later adulthood. Accuracy in the Stroop task revealed age-related improvements until approximately 21 years of age, but these improvements coincided with age-related declines in response time performance during the same period. Although the Simon and Stroop tasks are commonly interpreted to target similar underlying processes, we observed near zero correlations between the congruency effects observed in each task in terms of both accuracy and response time. We discuss these results in light of recent debates regarding the suitability of these tasks for assessing developmental and individual differences in cognitive control.
FedTH : Tree-based Hierarchical Image Classification in Federated Learning

In recent years, privacy threats have risen in a flood of data. Federated learning was introduced to protect the privacy of data in machine learning. However, Internet of Things (IoT) devices accounting for a large portion of data collection still have weak computational and communication power. Moreover, cutting-edged image classification architectures have more extensive and complex models to reach high performance. In this paper, we introduce FedTH, a tree-based hierarchical image classification architecture in federated learning, to handle these problems. FedTH architecture is constructed of a tree structure to help decrease computational and communication costs, to have a flexible prediction procedure, and to have robustness in heterogeneous environments.
Parameterization of continuous time autoregressive models for irregularly sampled time series data

An increasingly valuable tool for modelling irregularly sampled time series data is the continuous time autoregressive model. The natural parameters in this model are the coefficients of the linear stochastic differential equation describing the process which gives rise to the data. A transformation of these parameters is introduced, based on the Cayley-Hamilton transformation. The new parameter space is identical with that of discrete time autoregressive models. The model is also modified by the introduction of prescribed moving average terms. The resulting modelling improvements include rapid and reliable convergence of parameter estimates and the ability to select the model order by testing whether the highest order coefficient is 0
Online measurements of cycloalkanes based on NO+ chemical ionization in proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS)

Abstract. Cycloalkanes are important trace hydrocarbons existing in the atmosphere, and they are considered a major class of intermediate volatile organic compounds (IVOCs). Laboratory experiments showed that the yields of secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) from oxidation of cycloalkanes are higher than acyclic alkanes with the same carbon number. However, measurements of cycloalkanes in the atmosphere are still challenging at present. In this study, we show that online measurements of cycloalkanes can be achieved using proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry with NO+ chemical ionization (NO+ PTR-ToF-MS). Cyclic and bicyclic alkanes are ionized with NO+ via hydride ion transfer, leading to major product ions of CnH2n-1+ and CnH2n-3+, respectively. As isomers of cycloalkanes, alkenes undergo association reactions with major product ions of CnH2n ⚫ (NO)+, and concentrations of 1-alkenes and trans-2-alkenes in the atmosphere are usually significantly lower than cycloalkanes (about 25 % and <5 %, respectively), as a result inducing little interference with cycloalkane detection in the atmosphere. Calibrations of various cycloalkanes show similar sensitivities associated with small humidity dependence. Applying this method, cycloalkanes were successfully measured at an urban site in southern China and during a chassis dynamometer study of vehicular emissions. Concentrations of both cyclic and bicyclic alkanes are significant in urban air and vehicular emissions, with comparable cyclic alkanes / acyclic alkanes ratios between urban air and gasoline vehicles. These results demonstrate that NO+ PTR-ToF-MS provides a new complementary approach for the fast characterization of cycloalkanes in both ambient air and emission sources, which can be helpful to fill the gap in understanding the importance of cycloalkanes in the atmosphere.
Journal Pre-proof A soy-yoghurt-honey product as a therapeutic functional food: mode of action and narrative review

: Meal replacements and food supplements are now popular commercial weight loss and 11 nutrition products. This review describes the efficacy, effectiveness, and therapeutic use of one such 12 product - a soy-yoghurt-honey food formulation. The original formula of this product was created 13 more than thirty years ago and since that time it has become well established as a food supplement 14 supporting a healthy lifestyle. Therapeutic evidence for this product is based on numerous scientific 15 studies and clinical trials, focusing particularly on weight management and associated metabolic risk 16 factors and published as peer-reviewed articles. Given the availability of the product and the extent 17 to which it has been experimentally evaluated, it is timely and important that the research is brought 18 together under a single review to consolidate the understanding for the scientific and clinical 19 communities. This review discusses the ingredients and the broad mechanisms of action, which are 20 probably due to the biological properties of the three base components - soy, milk, and honey. It 21 further summarizes and discusses the laboratory and clinical intervention studies, including the 22 biochemical and metabolic mechanisms regarding the insulin- and lipid-lowering, anti-hypertensive, 23 anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-microbial properties of the overall food and its base 24 products.