Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Teaching Islam: Islamic religious education in Sweden

In this book, Jenny Berglund, currently senior lecturer and researcher at Södertörn University, South Stockholm, has brought together material which will be of interest to different types of readers. To those with an interest in European Islamic education, it constitutes one of the few books available that is based on fieldwork within contemporary Islamic education institutions. To those with an interest in the growth and development of the various European Muslim communities, it offers insight into one key aspect of the life of these communities. To those with an interest in qualitative/ethnographic fieldwork in general, it provides a useful model of how to undertake such work. Noting the dearth of first-hand material on contemporary Muslim educational practice, in Sweden or elsewhere, Berglund carried out her PhD fieldwork in three independent Muslim schools in Sweden (such schools are still funded by the state in that country), looking at how the Islamic religious education (IRE) teacher in each school went about her task. She defined the objective of this work as ‘to increase understanding of how the lived classroom experience of IRE is shaped and directed by teachers attempting to impart a religious tradition within the framework of the Swedish school system’ (26–7). Following a useful introduction and a thorough account of her ‘theoretical and methodological approach’, are three central ‘empirical chapters’ in which Berglund analyses and contextualises three key themes drawn from what she had observed during IRE lessons and interviews with each of the IRE teachers across the three Muslim schools: ‘Teaching the Words of God’ (63–103), ‘Using the Past to Orient in the Present’ (104–57) and ‘Teaching Islam with Songs’ (158–94). There follows two shorter final chapters, one bringing together ‘Conclusions’, the other developing a ‘General Discussion’. That Berglund is not only a thorough and skilled researcher but also a clear communicator is shown, for example, in her statement about the diverse attitudes towards music to be found in Islam. The spectrum of Muslim perspectives on the role of music in Islam, she writes:
Phase diagram of the two component body-centered solid-on-solid model.

The (001) surface of a two component crystal of CsCl structure is described by a six vertex model with staggered vertex weights, which may be applicable to certain ionic crystals. Transfer matrix and finite-size scaling techniques yield a phase diagram with, besides previously known critical lines, a “critical fan” bounded by a line of Kosterlitz-Thouless points. This line is almost joint with a second order line with critical exponents which we find deviating from Ising values. Several thermal trajectories show inverse roughening transitions with reentrance into a disordered flat phase.
A NEW CHARACTERIZATION OF STABLE NEURAL NETWORK CONTROL FOR DISCRETE-TIME UNCERTAIN SYSTEMS

Abstract A novel neuro adaptive control framework for discrete-time multivariable nonlinear uncertain systems is developed. The proposed framework is Lyapunov-based and guarantees, instead of ultimate boundedness, partial asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system; that is, Lyapunov stability of the closed-loop system states and attraction with respect to the plant states. Unlike standard neural network approximation, we assume that the approximation error can be confined in a small gain-type norm-bounded conic sector over a compact set. This helps to couple tools from robust control with adaptive laws in discrete time to prove partial asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system. Finally, an illustrative numerical example is provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach.
Procedural Content Generation for Cooperative Games

A popular topic more now than never, procedural content generation is an interesting concept with applications in numerous content creation areas, such as in game development. On the other hand cooperation in games is also an increasingly researched theme and cooperative games have become more common and more massive. A noticeable amount of research has been done on both these subjects, however, little work has been done on a joint effort on both of these areas. This work attempts to start filling the gap, linking together concepts worked on both cooperative games and procedural level generation and what makes them interesting. Existing research is compared on both areas and what ways a cooperative level generator can be conceptualized are evaluated. In this work a procedural cooperative level generator is also implemented, for the game Geometry Friends. Finally limitations and set backs are looked upon and possibilities of improvement and future work is discussed, aimed at the subject of Procedural Level Generation for Cooperative Games. Keywords— Procedural content generation; Cooperative play; Procedural level generation; Procedural generation of cooperative
Revisiting motivation preference within the Chinese context: an empirical study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a motivation preferences scale and identify different groups' motivation preferences.Design/methodology/approach – Song Lianke designed a motivation preferences scale in 2002. Authors developed this scale by factor analysis in 2006. Participants were a sample of employees from ten organizations in Jiangsu Province, Eastern China. This paper compared motivation preferences among different groups via multivariate analysis of variance.Findings – Motivation preferences can be characterized by existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. Results indicated that motivation preferences were strongly related to needs with which individuals desire to be satisfied. There were significant differences in motivation preferences among groups that were categorized by gender or personality. Additionally, we found that Chinese culture influenced motivation preferences.Research limitations/implications – Authors collected all data from Jiangsu Province, but future in.
Genetic Variability of the mTOR Pathway and Prostate Cancer Risk in the European Prospective Investigation on Cancer (EPIC)

The mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signal transduction pathway integrates various signals, regulating ribosome biogenesis and protein synthesis as a function of available energy and amino acids, and assuring an appropriate coupling of cellular proliferation with increases in cell size. In addition, recent evidence has pointed to an interplay between the mTOR and p53 pathways. We investigated the genetic variability of 67 key genes in the mTOR pathway and in genes of the p53 pathway which interact with mTOR. We tested the association of 1,084 tagging SNPs with prostate cancer risk in a study of 815 prostate cancer cases and 1,266 controls nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). We chose the SNPs (n = 11) with the strongest association with risk (p<0.01) and sought to replicate their association in an additional series of 838 prostate cancer cases and 943 controls from EPIC. In the joint analysis of first and second phase two SNPs of the PRKCI gene showed an association with risk of prostate cancer (ORallele = 0.85, 95% CI 0.78–0.94, p = 1.3×10−3 for rs546950 and ORallele = 0.84, 95% CI 0.76–0.93, p = 5.6×10−4 for rs4955720). We confirmed this in a meta-analysis using as replication set the data from the second phase of our study jointly with the first phase of the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility (CGEMS) project. In conclusion, we found an association with prostate cancer risk for two SNPs belonging to PRKCI, a gene which is frequently overexpressed in various neoplasms, including prostate cancer.
Concurrence, coopératives de producteurs et Marketing Orders aux États-Unis

[fre] Bien que l'economie americaine soit soumise a diverses lois antitrust, les cooperatives agricoles et les « marketing orders » beneficient d'exemptions partielles par rapport a ces lois. Ces institutions autorisent leurs membres a determiner conjointement le volume de la production qui est commercialisee. Cet article examine dans quelle mesure ces institutions ont obtenu un authentique pouvoir de marche. Les auteurs presentent l'histoire et la logique sous-jacentes aux lois adoptees par le Congres et qui ont facilite le developpement des cooperatives et institue les Marketing Orders federaux. Les auteurs discutent ensuite les limites que rencontrent ces institutions pour se constituer un authentique pouvoir de marche. [eng] Competition, us farmer cooperatives and marketing orders - Although industries in the United States are subject to a variety of antitrust laws, agricultural cooperatives and marketing orders have received partial exemptions from these laws. These institutions allow their members to jointly regulate the amount of product that goes to market. Because of this statutory authority, it is important to examine the extent to which these institutions have attained market power. The authors present the history and rationale behind the Congressional acts that facilitated development of cooperatives and established federal marketing orders. The authors further discuss the limitations that cooperatives and marketing orders in the United States face in achieving substantial market power.
Culturizing differential evolution for constrained optimization

We propose the use of differential evolution as a population space of a cultural algorithm, applied to the solution of constrained optimization problems. Differential evolution is a relatively recent evolutionary algorithm that has been found to be very robust as a search engine for real parameter optimization. Adding different knowledge sources to the variation operator of differential evolution it is possible to improve the search and reduce the computational cost necessary to approximate the global optima of different problems. The proposed technique is validated using a set of well-known constrained optimization problems commonly adopted in the specialized literature. The approach is compared with respect to two techniques that are representative of the state-of-the-art in the area.
Examining changes in group acceptance of a newcomer from a different culture

A local workgroup’s initial acceptance of a newcomer from a different culture is determined by the group members’ expectations of the newcomer that are influenced by his/her category stereotypes. If the resulting attitude towards the newcomer is not favorable initially, it becomes important to study how it can be changed to ensure that the workgroup functions properly. I draw from expectancy violation theory and argue that a change in group acceptance will occur if a newcomer violates a host group’s expectations of him/her. The findings of my study show evidence of changes in a foreign newcomer’s task-based and relationship-based group acceptance when the newcomer’s performance and cross-cultural adaptability do not confirm the group’s expectations. The direction of the change is determined by whether the violation that occurs is favorable or not.
Inducing Use of a Text Lookback Strategy Among Unsuccessful Readers

A text lookback strategy was taught to 12 remedial readers in three sessions. Readers were taught why to use lookbacks, when to use them, and where to use them with expository texts and accompanying questions. Five days after training was completed, the 12 subjects and 12 students in a control group were assessed for use of lookbacks and question-answering accuracy. Significant differences between training and control groups emerged both for percentage of correct answers with lookbacks (for questions not answered correctly from memory) and for percentage of lookbacks used (sometimes leading to an accurate answer, sometimes not) when needed. Classroom instruction in the use of text lookbacks is suggested.
Economie « sans esprit » et données cognitives

L’une des evolutions les plus spectaculaires de l’economie et des sciences de la decision est l’emergence et le developpement rapide de l’economie dite « comportementale » et de la neuroeconomie. Ces domaines soulevent plusieurs questions methodologiques, dont certaines sont, aujourd’hui, discutees intensivement. L’une d’entre elles est la question de la pertinence epistemologique de donnees non-comportementales ou « cognitives », c’est-a-dire des donnees qui portent sur les processus et etats cognitifs en jeu dans la prise de decision. F. Gul et W. Pesendorfer (2005/2008) ont severement critique l’idee que ces donnees pourraient etre pertinentes pour l’economie et les sciences de la decision. Leur critique est devenue le point focal d’une litterature methodologique tres active. Dans cet article, nous reconstruisons et discutons les theses et les arguments de Gul et Pesendorfer. Si certains d’entre eux ne sont pas satisfaisants, ces auteurs mettent au jour, selon nous, une reelle difficulte que nous appelons le probleme des liaisons manquantes et que nous discutons.
Limits of Deterministic Compressed Sensing Considering Arbitrary Orthonormal Basis for Sparsity

It is previously shown that proper random linear samples of a finite discrete signal (vector) which has a sparse representation in an orthonormal basis make it possible (with probability 1) to recover the original signal. Moreover, the choice of the linear samples does not depend on the sparsity domain. In this paper, we will show that the replacement of random linear samples with deterministic functions of the signal (not necessarily linear) will not result in unique reconstruction of k-sparse signals except for k=1. We will show that there exist deterministic nonlinear sampling functions for unique reconstruction of 1- sparse signals while deterministic linear samples fail to do so.
The influence of language context on lexical retrieval in the discourse of bilingual speakers with aphasia

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of conversational language demands on lexical retrieval in the discourse of bilingual speakers with aphasia. Specifically, we explored how normally occurring crosslinguistic variability in lexical retrieval manifests in the discourse of bilinguals with aphasia when language demand of the environment varies. Discourse analyses of conversation samples were conducted for three bilingual Spanish/English speakers with aphasia in monolingual English, monolingual Spanish and bilingual contexts. Results revealed contextual variation in lexical retrieval that were related to pre-morbid language skill. Manifestation of a linguistic impairment is influenced by the context (monolingual or bilingual) in which the information is gathered. Analysis of discourse samples can provide additional insight into the subtle differences in the characteristics of the impairment in monolingual and bilingual contexts.
Control and Attention During Exposure Influence Arousal and Fear among Insect Phobics

Heart beats, skin conductance, and subjective fear levels were recorded among eight pairs of DSM-III-R spider-phobic subjects (Experiment 1) and among eight pairs of DSM-III-R cockroach-phobic subjects (Experiment 2) who were exposed simultaneously to an approaching specimen during eight 4-minute trials. Control over the approach of the specimen alternated between subjects over trials. On different trials, both subjects were instructed either to attend closely to the features of the specimen or to attend closely to their bodily fear reactions. Among spider-phobic subjects (Experiment 1), Self-Control over the specimen produced higher skin conductance during exposure than did Partner-Control over the specimen; instructions to attend closely to the features of the specimen produced higher skin-conductance than did instructions to attend closely to one's bodily fear reactions. Among cockroach-phobic subjects (Experiment 2), Self-Control over the specimen produced higher skin conductance and higher self-reported fear than did Partner-Control over the specimen during the early exposures. Instructions to attend closely to the specimen produced higher skin conductance and higher self-reported fear through-out the experiment and higher heart rates early during the experiment than did instructions to attend to one's bodily reactions. Empirical generalizations based on these data are intended as contributions toward a fund of experimental information that, in due course, will be used to conceptualize the means by which exposure to feared stimuli leads to fear reduction.
MSW students go to burn camp: exploring social work values through service‐learning

Service‐learning is an experiential learning approach that offers promise in facilitating students' personal growth and professional value development while providing service to the community. In a course that implemented this approach, 21 MSW students participated as volunteers in a seven‐day camp for burn‐injured children. This study explores the impact of this experience on the students' learning through the analysis of journals, transcripts of focus groups, and written course evaluations. Data were classified according to two broad categories of learning: learning about the personal self and learning about the professional self. The findings indicate application and integration of learning that reflect social work core values such as social justice, the importance of human relationships, integrity, and service. These findings suggest that this educational approach may be an effective strategy in facilitating a deeper understanding of key areas of the social work profession for students.
Antenna calibration for near-field problems with the Method of Moments

A fast and accurate forward scattering algorithm is described for near-field microwave imaging and sensing problems, such as, dielectric parameter estimation, inverse scattering, microwave imaging etc. This algorithm incorporates a variation on the Method of Moments (MOM) simulation technique with antenna calibration measurements. The result is a forward scattering algorithm which accurately caters for antenna-target interactions. Promising preliminary results are given for an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) antenna.
Farm and rural adolescents’ perspective on hearing conservation: Reports from a focus group study

This study explored the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of rural and farm adolescents regarding hearing conservation strategies. This qualitative study took place at two high schools in rural Michigan. Twenty-five adolescents living and working on farms or living in rural areas participated in one of two focus groups. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were coded and analyzed by two researchers and checked by an additional researcher to ensure reliability. Noise exposure was ubiquitous among participants, both in farm-related (e.g., equipment, livestock) and non-farm-related (e.g., music, firearms) activities. Perceived barriers to use of hearing protection devices outweighed perceived benefits, resulting in uncommon use of protection. When hearing protection was used, it was usually earmuffs or earplugs. Participants indicated a lack of training in noise hazards and protective strategies. Despite their acknowledged risk of hearing loss, participants did not associate their use of hearing protection today with their hearing ability later in life. Categories emerging that relate to hearing protector use included: Barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, situational influences, impersonal influences, cues to action, susceptibility, and severity. Farm and rural adolescents are at risk for noise exposure and hearing loss. The findings stress the significance of work environment and adult modeling in facilitating hearing conservation behaviors. As indicated by the youths′ recommendations, school-based interventions may be an effective approach to address this health concern. Intervention studies are needed to test various approaches that can effectively promote use of hearing conservation strategies among rural and farm adolescents.
An Implementation of Low-Power Data Transmission Based on Time Synchronization

Data transmission is a critical function in wireless sensor network (WSN). Due to the limited resource of energy, processing ability, memory, etc, how to extend the lifetime of WSN faces a great challenge. Therefore, it has recently become a hotspot. In this paper, we propose a novel time synchronization algorithm for wireless sensor networks. Using the proposed time synchronization algorithm, we present an energy efficient data transmission protocol. Sensor nodes can weak up and sleep at accurate time. Therefore the listening time can be reduced. The proposed algorithm and protocol are implemented on the Mica2 motes and their performance is evaluated. Experimental result shows that the proposed time synchronization technique can greatly extend the lifetime of wireless sensor network.
Developing grading processes for ideological content

This article focuses on the development and application of methodological tools to measure and to “grade” the content of ideological material seen to promote violence and extremism. Our premise is that variation in such content suggests that the formulation of a substantive grading tool will provide analysts with an empirical foundation to detect the nature of these differences and highlight important distinctions. The paper argues that such an approach will offer ways in which to construct an evidence-based picture of what constitutes different layers of extremist fringes, as well as understanding how and when output from particular sources has changed over time. Initial shortcuts to understanding content, it is argued, fail to reflect these nuances, thus necessitating a more systematic approach. The paper develops a two-pronged approach to grading ideological material, presenting examples of Islamist extremist discourse to illustrate how the process might work in practice.
Nitrogen Deficiency Induced Alterations in the Root Proteome of a Pair of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Varieties Contrasting for their Response to Low N

Improving crop nitrogen use efficiency is important both from the economic and the environmental viewpoint. Here, the aim is to highlight differences between the proteomic response of the roots of two potato cultivars contrasting in their response to nitrogen (N) deficiency, in an effort to understand which proteins and metabolic pathways contribute to the tolerance of N deprivation. The two cultivars ‘‘Topas’’ (tolerant) and ‘‘Lambada’’ (sensitive) are grown under both an N sufficient and an N deficient regime, using an in vitro‐based cultivation system. Responsive proteins are identified and quantified using label‐free quantitative shotgun proteomics. The contrasting cultivars differed with respect to components of the glutamine synthetase/glutamine oxoglutarate aminotransferase pathway, tricarboxylic acid cycle, the glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway as well as protein and amino acid synthesis machinery. Additional differences are associated with protein catabolism and defense mechanisms.
Without a ’doubt’? Unsupervised Discovery of Downward-Entailing Operators

An important part of textual inference is making deductions involving monotonicity, that is, determining whether a given assertion entails restrictions or relaxations of that assertion. For instance, the statement 'We know the epidemic spread quickly' does not entail 'We know the epidemic spread quickly via fleas', but 'We doubt the epidemic spread quickly' entails 'We doubt the epidemic spread quickly via fleas'. Here, we present the first algorithm for the challenging lexical-semantics problem of learning linguistic constructions that, like 'doubt', are downward entailing (DE). Our algorithm is unsupervised, resource-lean, and effective, accurately recovering many DE operators that are missing from the hand-constructed lists that textual-inference systems currently use.