Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
English Language Anxiety: A Case Study on Undergraduate ESL Students in Malaysia

The level of foreign language anxiety and the factors leading to the English anxiety level among English students were explored using a sequential mixed method with semi-structured interviews and survey. The interview was the main research tool to learn about students’ coping strategies in dealing with English language anxiety, while the survey was aimed to provide additional information to support the qualitative data. The questionnaire and the interview questions were adapted from Horwitz et al.’s (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). The participants of the study (11 interviewees and 33 questionnaire respondents) were selected purposively from the “Basic English” of a private university students in Malaysia. Analysis of the findings revealed that the students’ of Basic English were “slightly anxious” because of Fear of Negative Evaluation (m=3.16), “slightly anxious” about Communication Apprehension (m=3.07), “slightly anxious” about tests (Test Anxiety, m=3.02), and “not very anxious” about being in the Basic English class (m=2.9). Therefore, overall, the students were “slightly anxious”. The most common coping strategies used by Basic English students were “enquiring friends and lecturer”, “referring to sources such as Google and dictionaries”, “self-helping”, “self-motivation”, “positive thinking”, “shifting focus”, “doing revision”, “listening and understanding”, “self-reflect”, “trying to perform”, “calming down”, “acceptance, exercise”, “taking time to think”, “entertainment”, and “land laugh back to hide embarrassment”. Language educators are advised to prioritize their students’ social and emotional needs by removing or lessening the obstacles and challenges that the students go through when learning English by creating relaxed and non-threatening setting for the teaching and learning.
Mass School Shootings and the Short-Run Impacts on Use of School Security Measures and Practices: National Evidence from the Columbine Tragedy

ABSTRACT Following high-profile school shootings, policymakers and educators seek ways to prevent such shootings, but there has been little research on school-level responses in the immediate aftermath of such events. This study examines how school-level security measures and practices changed after the 1999 Columbine shooting using a nationally representative sample of elementary school principals from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (N = 810). Exploiting variation in the timing of survey completion relative to the Columbine shooting, we used regression analysis to examine the use of seven security measures and practices before and after Columbine. Elementary schools were 16 percentage points more likely to lock exits after Columbine and, over time, were more likely to use visitor sign in procedures. School racial/ethnic composition had a moderating effect in some models. Implications for policy and schools are discussed.
Retinotopic remapping of the visual system in deaf adults

Deaf individuals rely on visual rather than auditory cues to detect events in the periphery, putting a greater demand on neural resources for vision. Comparing visual maps in the brains of early deaf and hearing adults, we found a redistribution of neural resources in the lateral geniculate nucleus and primary visual cortex, with larger representations of the periphery, at a cost of smaller representations of the central visual field.
The Chiropractic Subluxation and Insomnia: Could there be a

Sleep disorders in general are a common occurrence in today’s society, with the most common of these disorders being insomnia. The Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition defines insomnia as having difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, or difficulty obtaining restorative sleep with associated daytime dysfunction or distress due to that lack of sleep. While precise figures as to the prevalence of insomnia are not known it has been estimated that approximately two thirds of adults will have one or more episodes of insomnia each year and approximately 15% of adults per year will have a serious chronic episode. Etiology of Insomnia is multifaceted and includes physiological, psychological and environmental factors with the most common treatment being pharmacological intervention. While studies have shown this form of treatment to be effective in increasing sleep time and decreasing sleep latency they carry with them the high risk of dependency and subsequent withdrawal symptoms if the patient elects to cease using them. They are somewhat successful in treating the symptom of insomnia, but not its underlying cause. While insomnia is a common co-morbidity with chronic pain conditions such as chronic low back and chronic neck pain and chiropractic has been demonstrated to effectively treat such conditions, this paper will not look on the musculoskeletal effects of the chiropractic adjustment, but instead will examine a potential hypothesis as to why traditional subluxation based chiropractic can have on patients suffering from primary insomnia and examine the neuro-physiology behind such theory.
Profile of Crack Users in Detoxification Process in Therapeutic Communities from Paraíba

OBJECTIVE: This study traces the therapeutic communities’ interned crack users profile in Paraiba. METHODS: A descriptive study with the quantitative approach, developed with 20 voluntaries. The data collection was conducted through semi structured interview and Anxiety Trace-State Inventory (IDATE-T). RESULTS: The therapeutic communities’ crack users are predominantly young adults, single, brown, having the high school completed, guided to use due to the drugs effects’ desire/curiosity. First crack consumption from 10 to 19 years old, using period from 1 to 5 years daily with the average of more than 21 stones. Multiple users with high anxiety who work regularly tried to abandon the crack, 55% of them lived on the streets and 65% presented a suicide thought. CONCLUSIONS: The study gives parameters to the dependents assistance, highlighting the therapeutic communities’ research importance.
Psychological Adjustment of Expatriate Children in Cultural Transitions

The aim of the current study was to define the factorial structure of the psychological adjustment (PA) of Finnish expatriate children (EC) and to construct a model consisting of three child-level variables (age, school success, and attitude toward moving). Survey data concerning Finnish EC (N = 324) who had lived temporarily abroad were gathered from the EC’s parents. The mean age of the children was 4.8 years in the expatriation context and 8.2 years in the repatriation context. PA was examined using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS). Survey data were subject to a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). A hypothesized two-factor structure (physiological and affective factors) of PA was fitted for the sample using the CFA. A SEM of PA was presented, where the child-level explanatory variables were the age of the child, school success, and attitude toward moving. The main findings were the following: First, there is a two-factor structure of Finnish EC’s PA with both physiological and affective factors. Second, a model of PA with three child-level variables (age, school success, and attitude toward moving) was constructed. The results contribute to the understanding of PA in general and EC’s PA in particular. This study increases our understanding of EC’s PA in unique and novel contexts of dual cultural transitions. This comprehension is important in an increasingly globalized world, especially in clinical and other support contexts, where professionals work for children’s mental well-being.
Neural source localization using particle filter with optimal proportional set resampling

To recover the neural activity from Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and Electroencephalography (EEG) measurements, we need to solve the inverse problem by utilizing the relation between dipole sources and the data generated by dipolar sources. In this study, we propose a new approach based on the implementation of a particle filter (PF) that uses minimum sampling variance resampling methodology to track the neural dipole sources of cerebral activity. We use this approach for the EEG data and demonstrate that it can naturally estimate the sources more precisely than the traditional systematic resampling scheme in PFs.
African Indigneous Food Crops: Their Roles in Combating Chronic Diseases in Ghana

African Indigenous Food Crops (AIFCs) face eminent extinction due to negative perceptions about them (Voster et al., 2007a). The decline in consumption of AIFCs has been implicated in the emergence and spread of chronic diseases in Africa (Rasche et al., 2007). In view of this, the objectives of this thesis are to establish the links among food, culture and politics, to determine the consequences of changing food habits in indigenous communities in Ghana, and also to examine the potential of AIFCs to address chronic diseases in Ghana. Using the theoretical prism of Indigenous knowledge, this thesis employs the methodology of document analysis. The findings of this thesis include the presence of numerous AIFCs and food habits that could be harnessed to address chronic diseases in Ghana. The study recommends education and promotion of AIFCs in Ghana, and further studies to investigate toxic metabolites that may be hidden in uncommon AIFCs to ensure safe consumption.
College Students From Rural Hometowns Report Experiences of Psychological Sense of Community and Isolation

The literature suggests that rural residents experience psychological sense of community (PSOC), as well as isolation, and some researchers indicate that PSOC and isolation may be related to the mental health and wellbeing of rural residents. However, few studies have investigated how rural residents understand and experience these constructs. This study explored experiences of PSOC and isolation among individuals who grew up in rural areas using qualitative methods. Fourteen students enrolled at a Midwestern university who were from small towns or rural areas completed a brief survey and were individually interviewed. A thematic analysis was performed on participants’ interview responses, and 6 themes were identified that were organized in 2 domains: PSOC and isolation. Participants reported feeling connected to their rural hometowns by knowing others and being known, as well as by the support they perceived community members to be providing to each other. In addition, participants felt isolated from people and resources outside their communities and described not wanting to “get stuck” in their hometowns as they perceived others to do. These findings provide information about the scope of these constructs and provide direction for future research examining the relation of PSOC and isolation to the mental health and wellbeing of rural residents.
Evaluation of the physical-mechanical properties of cement-lime based masonry mortars produced with mixed recycled aggregates

This study investigated the physical-mechanical effects of cement-lime mortars containing recycled aggregate of construction and demolition waste (CDW). The natural aggregate (NA) was replaced by volume at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% by mixed recycled aggregate (MRA) obtained from the CDW crushing. Five types of mortars were prepared with a volumetric ratio of 1:1:6 (cement, lime and aggregate) and water/binder ratio based on the fixed consistency of 260 mm. The effects of MRA on fresh and hardened mortars’ properties were analyzed. The results were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA. MRA incorporation improved most of the physical-mechanical properties of mortars tested, except for hardened bulk density, water absorption and porosity. In the long-run, mechanical strengths significantly increased in all compositions, especially those with higher percentages of MRA. The results obtained showed that the use of MRA in masonry mortars is an alternative to reduce the generation of waste and consumption of natural resources.
Causal Inference and Estimands in Clinical Trials

Abstract The National Research Council’s report on the prevention and treatment of missing data highlighted the need to clearly specify causal estimands. This focus fundamentally changed how the missing data problem was perceived and addressed in clinical trials. The recent ICH E9(R1) addendum is another major step in promoting the use of the causal estimands framework that should further influence how clinical trial protocols and statistical analysis plans are written and implemented. The language of potential outcomes that is widely accepted in the causal inference literature is not widely recognized in the clinical trialists community and was not used in defining causal estimands in the NRC report or the ICH E9(R1). In this article, we attempt to bridge the gap between the causal inference community and clinical trialists to further advance the use of causal estimands in clinical trial settings. We illustrate how concepts from causal literature, such as potential outcomes and dynamic treatment regimens, can facilitate defining and implementing causal estimands and may provide a unifying language to describing the targets for both observational and randomized clinical trials.
Spectra of atmospheric water in precipitating quasi-geostrophic turbulence

Atmospheric water has a complex behaviour partly due to the influence of precipitation. Consequently, it is challenging to explain properties of water such as the scale-dependence of its variance, for which a range of spectral exponents has been identified in observational data. Here, a precipitating quasi-geostrophic (PQG) model is explored as a possible prototype for contributing to understanding of water spectra, in an idealised setting. Geostrophic turbulence is examined in numerical simulations, where precipitation is included to explore its effect on the water spectrum, but where phase changes are neglected to allow corresponding theoretical analysis. The water spectral exponent is seen to range from approximately −1.4 to approximately −5 depending on the rainfall speed parameter, , which indicates a significant influence of precipitation on the water spectrum. The limiting values of this range are explained through asymptotic analyses for large and small values of . To obtain this theoretical understanding of the model, a key observation is that water can be written as a linear combination of two other tracers (equivalent potential temperature and a moist variable M), which themselves have theoretically tractable spectra. These two other tracers are linked to distinct modes of the PQG equations–the vortical mode and a moist mode – and the analysis here highlights the usefulness of wave or mode decompositions for understanding water in a saturated domain.
Personality and interests for selection: Theoretical perspectives

ABSTRACT This article explores two theoretical perspectives on both personality and vocational interests in terms of their value for personnel selection. These theories stand out for the amount of research attention each has received. The personality perspectives considered are trait theory and social cognitive theory. The two vocational interest theories are Holland’s typology model and social cognitive career theory. These theories are compared on the basis of how they address three questions: (1) What is the nature of personality and of vocational interests? (2) What are the processes by which each becomes instilled in the individual? and (3) What are the processes by which personality and interests are translated into behavior? Although each approach has certain strengths and weaknesses, the potential benefits associated with personality trait theory and Holland’s typology model, both of which are viewed as essentially trait-based approaches, seem particularly salient for the immediate future.
Online knowledge sharing in Vietnamese tele-communication companies: An integration of social psychology models

Organizational knowledge is regarded as a key source of sustainable competitive advantages for organizations. Along with the development of information technology, organizations often find many ways to facilitate the online knowledge sharing process. However, the establishment of successful online knowledge sharing initiatives seems to be challenging to accomplish. This study aims to enhance the understanding of the factors that affect employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior in organizations by examining the integration of two social psychology models—the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). A total of 501 complete responses, from full-time employees in Vietnamese tele-communication companies, were collected and used for data analysis using structural equation modelling. The overall findings of this study appear to coincide with the propositions of the TAM and the TPB, which this research model was built on. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness significantly affect employees’ attitudes toward knowledge sharing. In turn, attitudes, along with subjective norms and perceived behavior control (PBC), have a positive influence on knowledge sharing intentions (KSI). Consequently, KSI can be used to predict knowledge donating and knowledge collecting. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel. 2019.11. 026
The Specter of Authoritarianism among Criminal Justice Majors at Outreach Centers: Do University Outreach Efforts Breed Right-Wing Authoritarianism?

Abstract While research has examined criminal justice students in traditional university settings, a predominately Black college, and a military college, no one has looked at CJ students in outreach centers. These centers allow students to pursue a four-year degree without leaving their community. Students are exposed to limited diversity because of this setting. Previous studies found that lower division male freshman CJ students were of a higher Right-Wing Authoritarian (RWA) mindset. Based on our study, we conclude that having a CJ program at an outreach center produces a broader finding. A young male CJ student at an outreach center is more prone to RWA attitudes – similar to the mindset of a military college CJ major. However, a young male CJ major does not necessarily mean lower division. We found older students tend to have lower RWA attitudes and in this setting, it is common to have older lower division students.
A Single Stage Resection and Primary Anastomosis without Colonic Lavage for Left-Sided Colonic Obstruction- our Experience

In the past century, colorectal surgeons considered a cleansed and empty bowel, a pre-requisite for a safe colonic and rectal resection and anastomosis. Also during this period, acute left colonic obstruction in an unprepared colon, could only be resected and primarily anastomosed if a proximal diverting colostomy was instituted. Tradition has held that an unprepared colon, poses an unacceptable high rate of failure of the anastomosis to heal. But recent evidence from Europe and other centres of the world have proven this surgical dogma to be incorrect. The purpose of this study is to report our experience with a single-staged resection and primary anastomosis of acute left colonic obstruction, without bowel preparation or a diverting colostomy.
On the completeness of non-symmetrical uniform convergence with some links to approach spaces

The quasitopos b-UFIL of b-uniform filter spaces [16] are an appropriate tool for studying convergence from a higher point of view as demonstrated in recent papers by the above mentioned authors. In addition BORN, the category of bornological spaces and bounded maps, can be integrated as bicoreflective subcategory of b-UFIL. As already shown symmetric b-uniform filter spaces have “Cauchy completions” which generalize some important ones as for example those which were considered by Wyler, Preuss, Czászár and Hausdorff, respectively. In the present paper we will construct a completion, called ultracompletion, for a suitable not necessarily symmetric b-uniform filter space and compare this one with a construct presented for quasi-uniform spaces by Carlson and Hicks in the past. Furthermore, among others, we get the result that every quasiuniform limit space in the sense of Behling has an ultracompletion. At the end of this article, we consider some important links to generalized approach spaces, those which were introduced by Lowen. So it is shown that b-topological closure operators can be completely described by so-called approach-bornologies, which represent a common generalization of both approach spaces and bornological spaces, respectively. Thus, as interesting corollary we obtain the result that APB the category of approach-bornological spaces and contracted maps intersects b-URING, the full subcategory of b-UFIL, whose objects have ultracompletions.
Abbreviated title: NEURONAL ACTIVITY IN HUMAN SEIZURES 1 Neuronal firing and waveform alterations through ictal recruitment in humans

1 Clinical analyses of neuronal activity during seizures, invariably using extracellular recordings, 2 is greatly hindered by various phenomena that are well established in animal studies: changes in 3 local ionic concentration, changes in ionic conductance, and intense, hypersynchronous firing. 4 The first two alter the action potential waveform, whereas the third increases the “noise”; all 5 three factors confound attempts to detect and classify single neurons (units). To address these 6 analytical difficulties, we developed a novel template-matching based spike sorting method, 7 which enabled identification of 1,239 single units in 27 patients with intractable focal epilepsy, 8 that were tracked throughout multiple seizures. These new analyses showed continued neuronal 9 firing through the ictal transition, which was defined as a transient period of intense tonic firing 10 consistent with previous descriptions of the ictal wavefront. After the ictal transition, neurons 11 displayed increased spike duration (p < 0.001) and reduced spike amplitude (p < 0.001), in 12 keeping with prior animal studies; units in non-recruited territories, by contrast, showed more 13 stable waveforms. All units returned to their pre-ictal waveforms after seizure termination. 14 Waveshape changes were stereotyped across seizures within patients. Our analyses of single 15 neuron firing patterns, at the ictal wavefront, showed widespread intense activation, and 16 commonly involving marked waveshape alteration. We conclude that the distinction between 17 tissue that has been recruited to the seizure versus non-recruited territories is evident at the level 18 of single neurons, and that increased waveform duration and decreased waveform amplitude are 19 hallmarks of seizure invasion that could be used as defining characteristics of local recruitment. 20 21 NEURONAL ACTIVITY IN HUMAN SEIZURES 3 SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT 22 Animal studies consistently show marked changes in action potential waveform during epileptic 23 discharges, but acquiring similar evidence in humans has proved difficult. Assessing neuronal 24 involvement in ictal events is pivotal to understanding seizure dynamics and in defining clinical 25 localization of epileptic pathology. Using a novel method to track neuronal firing, we analyzed 26 microelectrode array recordings of spontaneously occurring human seizures, and here report two 27 dichotomous activity patterns. In cortex that is recruited to the seizure, neuronal firing rates 28 increase and waveforms become longer in duration and shorter in amplitude, while penumbral 29 tissue shows stable action potentials, in keeping with the “dual territory” model of seizure 30 dynamics. 31 NEURONAL ACTIVITY IN HUMAN SEIZURES 4