Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining Character Recognition and Recall Skills of CFL beginner Learners under Four different Approaches

The following paper presents an action research project investigating four approaches to teaching Chinese as a foreign language (henceforth CFL) to beginner learners in an Irish secondary school over a period of 16 weeks. Around 85 participants were divided into four groups and were taught Chinese via one method of rote memorisation, delayed character introduction, character colour-coding, or a unity curriculum approach respectively. The fourth group acted as a comparative group, and focused on all four skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Participants were taught for two one-hour classes per week and each group covered the same material, including learning 107 Chinese words and their characters. Upon completion of the 16 weeks of teaching, participants were presented with identical recognition and recall tests, whereby higher results in each group reveal effectiveness in a given teaching approach, and provided written feedback detailing their learning experience in the form of a questionnaire. It was found from the questionnaires that all participants felt that learning Chinese was challenging, particularly the characters. While all groups struggled to provide correct answers in the recognition and recall tests, the character colour-coding group coped best in providing the highest percentage of correct answers in both tests. At the same time, all groups agreed that more time spent learning would have allowed for more favourable outcomes. It is hoped that the current study will encourage further research relating to character-teaching methods, with particular reference to using colour, as well as providing some possible guidelines for a future Irish secondary school Chinese language course that is currently in the planning stage. These may include guidelines not only relating to the use of colour when teaching characters, but also in relation to the amount of time spent learning Chinese both inside and outside the classroom.
Mapping Obstacles to Collision States for On-line Motion Planning in Dynamic Environments

This paper presents a representation of static and moving obstacles, using Velocity Obstacles (VO), for on-line planning in dynamic environments. Each obstacle is mapped to forbidden states by selecting a proper time horizon for the velocity obstacle. The proper choice of the time horizon ensures that the boundary of the mapped obstacle overlaps with the boundary of the set of inevitable collision states (ICS). This time horizon is determined by the minimum time it would take the robot to avoid collision, either by stopping or by passing the respective obstacle. This representation allows safe on-line planning using only one step look ahead. The on-line trajectories favorably compare with the trajectories obtained by a global planner.
Student Writers’ Categories of Construals and Sense of the English Preposition on: A cognitive linguistics study

This study aims to investigate the categories of construal’s and senses of the English preposition ‘on’ used by Indonesian and American student writers in their master’s and doctoral theses and to examine the similarities and differences in their construal’s and senses of the preposition. This study was based on the cognitive theory of Tyler and Evans, namely the polysemy of prepositions and the categorizations of construal’s and senses were based on Brenda. The method used was primarily qualitative and the data were collected from two sources: The Indonesian data were taken from the library of a private university in Jakarta and the American data from two American websites; all of which were classified into prepositional phrases and clauses using the concordance software Antconc 3.4. 1.0 developed by Anthony. Findings indicate that there are more construal’s and senses found in American master’s and doctoral theses than in Indonesian master’s and doctoral theses. This study reveals that some of the categories used for the English preposition ‘over’ developed by Brenda were suitable for
Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada: Are They Really Filling Labour Shortages?

Since easier access to a large supply of foreign labour might generate undesirable incentives on the part of both employers and prospective workers, a Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW ) program requires careful design. Failure at any stage of the process – at time of hiring, during employment, or at the end of the contract – is likely to create significant negative effects on domestic workers and, in the medium term, on the temporary foreign workers themselves. When choosing between domestic and foreign workers, employers are naturally concerned about labour costs and labour productivity. Therefore, a key design feature of any TFW program is the hiring conditions it imposes on employers – conditions that must deal with regional or occupational labour market shortages. Between 2002 and 2013, Canada eased the hiring conditions of TFWs several times, supposedly because of a reported labour shortage in some occupations, especially in western Canada. By 2012, the number of employed TFWs was 338,000, up from 101,000 in 2002, yet the unemployment rate remained the same at 7.2 percent. Furthermore, these policy changes occurred even though there was little empirical evidence of shortages in many occupations. When controlling for differences across provinces, I find that changes to the TFWP that eased hiring conditions accelerated the rise in unemployment rates in Alberta and British Columbia. The reversal of some of these changes in 2013 is welcome but probably not sufficient, largely because adequate information is still lacking about the state of the labour market, and because the uniform application fee employers pay to hire TFWs does not adequately increase their incentive to search for domestic workers to fill job vacancies.
SINGLE PARAMETER GALAXY CLASSIFICATION: THE PRINCIPAL CURVE THROUGH THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SPACE OF GALAXY PROPERTIES

We propose to describe the variety of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by using only one affine parameter. To this aim, we construct the principal curve (P-curve) passing through the spine of the data point cloud, considering the eigenspace derived from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of morphological, physical, and photometric galaxy properties. Thus, galaxies can be labeled, ranked, and classified by a single arc-length value of the curve, measured at the unique closest projection of the data points on the P-curve. We find that the P-curve has a “W” letter shape with three turning points, defining four branches that represent distinct galaxy populations. This behavior is controlled mainly by two properties, namely u − r and star formation rate (from blue young at low arc length to red old at high arc length), while most other properties correlate well with these two. We further present the variations of several important galaxy properties as a function of arc length. Luminosity functions vary from steep Schechter fits at low arc length to double power law and ending in lognormal fits at high arc length. Galaxy clustering shows increasing autocorrelation power at large scales as arc length increases. Cross correlation of galaxies with different arc lengths shows that the probability of two galaxies belonging to the same halo decreases as their distance in arc length increases. PCA analysis allows us to find peculiar galaxy populations located apart from the main cloud of data points, such as small red galaxies dominated by a disk, of relatively high stellar mass-to-light ratio and surface mass density. On the other hand, the P-curve helped us understand the average trends, encoding 75% of the available information in the data. The P-curve allows not only dimensionality reduction but also provides supporting evidence for the following relevant physical models and scenarios in extragalactic astronomy: (1) The hierarchical merging scenario in the formation of a selected group of red massive galaxies. These galaxies present a lognormal r-band luminosity function, which might arise from multiplicative processes involved in this scenario. (2) A connection between the onset of active galactic nucleus activity and star formation quenching as mentioned in Martin et al., which appears in green galaxies transitioning from blue to red populations.
Curvature Based Mesh Improvement

It is very important to improve the quality of surface meshes for numerical simulations, solid mesh generation, and computer graphics applications. Optimizing the form of the mesh elements it is necessary to preserve new nodes of the mesh as close as possible to a surface approximated by the initial mesh. This paper proposes a novel technique in which both of the requirements to mesh improvement are implemented. In the method presented here the new location of each node is found using values of principal curvatures in this node. Such procedure allows preserving new mesh very close to the initial surface while improving element quality. The method has been successfully tested on triangular meshes both for analytical surfaces (sphere, ellipsoid, paraboloid) and for arbitrary surfaces with great number of points. Comparison of the deviation of the mesh optimized by our method and by Laplacian smoothing from the original analytical surfaces shows advantage of the proposed method. Key-Words: surface meshes, quality improvement, principal curvatures.
Learning Sequential Decision

This paper presents a new approach called SANE for learning and performing sequential decision tasks. Compared to problem-general heuristics, SANE forms more eeective decision strategies because it learns to utilize domain-speciic information. SANE evolves neural networks through genetic algorithms and can learn in a wide range of domains with minimal reinforcement. SANE's evolution algorithm, called symbiotic evolution, is more powerful than standard genetic algorithms because diversity pressures are inherent in the evolution. SANE is shown to be eeective in two sequential decision tasks. As a value-ordering method in constraint satisfaction search, SANE required only 1/3 of the backtracks of a problem-general heuristic. As a lter for minimax search, SANE formed a network capable of focusing the search away from misinformation, creating stronger play.
The Impact of an LGNd Impulse on the Awake Visual Cortex: Synaptic Dynamics and the Sustained/Transient Distinction

We used spike-triggered current source-density analysis to examine axonal and postsynaptic currents generated in the visual cortex of awake rabbits by spontaneous spikes of individual sustained and transient dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGNd) neurons. Using these data, we asked whether sustained/transient sensory responses are related to short-term synaptic dynamics at the thalamocortical synapse. Most sustained (34 of 40) and transient (24 of 25) neurons generated axonal and monosynaptic responses in layer 4 and/or 6 of the aligned cortical domain, with input from transient neurons arriving ∼0.3 ms earlier and 100–200 μm deeper. Postsynaptic cortical responses generated by both thalamic cell classes were reduced in amplitude after a preceding impulse and slowly recovered over a period of >750 ms. We interpret this to reflect interval-dependent recovery from chronic depression at the thalamocortical synapse, caused by significant spontaneous firing of LGNd cells (∼8 Hz). Surprisingly, postsynaptic cortical responses generated by spontaneous spikes of sustained thalamic neurons were more depressed than those of transient neurons. This difference was seen both in layers 4 and 6. The depression saturated rapidly with multiple preceding impulses, and postsynaptic responses generated by sustained neurons during maintained visual stimulation remained sufficiently robust to allow a sustained flow of information to the cortex. Our results indicate a relationship between the sensory response properties of thalamic neurons and the short-term dynamics of their synapses, and suggest that cortical recipients of sustained and transient thalamic inputs will differ considerably in their response modulation by prior impulse activity.
Immune Neuroendocrine Phenotypes in Coturnix coturnix: Do Avian Species Show LEWIS/FISCHER-Like Profiles?

Immunoneuroendocrinology studies have identified conserved communicational paths in birds and mammals, e.g. the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal axis with anti-inflammatory activity mediated by glucocorticoids. Immune neuroendocrine phenotypes (INPs) have been proposed for mammals implying the categorization of a population in subgroups underlying divergent immune-neuroendocrine interactions. These phenotypes were studied in the context of the LEWIS/FISCHER paradigm (rats expressing high or low pro-inflammatory profiles, respectively). Although avian species have some common immunological mechanisms with mammals, they have also evolved some distinct strategies and, until now, it has not been studied whether birds may also share with mammals similar INPs. Based on corticosterone levels we determined the existence of two divergent groups in Coturnix coturnix that also differed in other immune-neuroendocrine responses. Quail with lowest corticosterone showed higher lymphoproliferative and antibody responses, interferon-γ and interleukin-1β mRNA expression levels and lower frequencies of leukocyte subpopulations distribution and interleukin-13 levels, than their higher corticosterone counterparts. Results suggest the existence of INPs in birds, comparable to mammalian LEWIS/FISCHER profiles, where basal corticosterone also underlies responses of comparable variables associated to the phenotypes. Concluding, INP may not be a mammalian distinct feature, leading to discuss whether these profiles represent a parallel phenomenon evolved in birds and mammals, or a common feature inherited from a reptilian ancestor millions of years ago.
Conducting Nanocrystal Patterns Using a Silver Organic Complex Blended with Polystyrene as e-Beam Resist

With the intention of producing a metal composite consisting of Ag nanoparticles embedded in patterned polystyrene, silver triphenylphosphine nitrate, Ag(PPh 3 ) 3 NO 3 , was chosen as a source of Ag metal as it is soluble in toluene to form a blend with polystyrene, a well-known negative tone e-beam resist. At a constant e-beam dosage of 150 μC cm -2 , the patterns were produced at 5, 10, and 30 keV beam energies while varying the dwell time at a location (pixel) and the number of passes. The presence of Ag in the patterned regions was confirmed by the EDS analysis. TEM showed the formation of small Ag nanoparticles in the embedded matrix of the polymer. The reduction of Ag precursor following exposure to the e beam was monitored by XPS. UV-vis absorption studies showed a broad peak at 464 nm, typical of surface plasmon absorption by Ag nanoparticles. Confocal fluorescence studies showed the embedded Ag nanoparticles in the carbon matrix to have fluorescence property as well. C-AFM measurements have shown that the patterned blend is well conducting due to the interacting Ag nanoparticles, the resistance being two orders less compared to that of polystyrene itself. The higher the beam energy, the lower was the dwell time required to attain a conducting pattern.
A Note on the Money-Output Causality Tests

This study suggests that some empirical findings against money-output causality can be the consequence of ignoring autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (ARCH) errors. Monte Carlo results confirm that ARCH effects drastically reduce the power of the standard causality test. The maximum likelihood approach allowing for ARCH effects, on the other hand, provides a good power performance. Using different specifications and sample periods, Friedman and Kuttner (1993) and Thoma (1994) report limited evidence of money causing output. We detect significant ARCH effects in the models considered by these studies. Once ARCH effects are explicitly accounted for, we find that the monetary effect is significant though its magnitude is quite small.
Clustering multi-way data via adaptive subspace iteration

Clustering multi-way data is a very important research topic due to the intrinsic rich structures in real-world datasets. In this paper, we propose the subspace clustering algorithm on multi-way data, called ASI-T (Adaptive Subspace Iteration on Tensor). ASI-T is a special version of High Order SVD (HOSVD), and it simultaneously performs subspace identification using 2DSVD and data clustering using K-Means. The experimental results on synthetic data and real-world data demonstrate the effectiveness of ASI-T.
Obstacle detection ”for free” in the c-velocity space

Obstacle detection is a key process of automatic driver assistance. The present paper focuses on ”vision”, and particularly on ”monocular” mobile vision, to reconstruct a rough Scene-Structure From Motion. Considering the 3D scene as a set of 3D planes, our c-velocity approach segments the optical flow field into plane pieces without any camera calibration or a priori knowledge about the egomotion. The technical tip is to exhibit iso-velocity curves in establishing relations between their properties and plane orientations. We show in this paper how obstacle detection becomes obvious, costless and robust with the method. Results confirm the expected robustness, not to forget that the method extends to other parameterized surfaces.
Error reduction for the high-contrast regions in phase measuring profilometry

Phase measuring profilometry is a method for measuring the 3D profile of objects. The method is known for its accuracy and high speed. In real world applications, however, the 3D reconstructions of the high-contrast regions have large measurement errors due to the smoothing effect by digital cameras. In this paper, we model the smoothing as a mathematical smooth mask applying process. Accordingly, we propose a novel de-convolution method specified for recovering the phase in the high-contrast regions. The experimental results demonstrate that, compared with the traditional method, the new method improves the measurement accuracy by 2.5 times in the high-contrast regions.
Work-Related Psychosocial Risk Factors and Care Workers Mental Health (In Estonian Nursing Homes)

Abstract The humankind is ageing rapidly, and as a result, there is an increasing need for old people’s homes. The nursing homes face different problems in financing and recruiting the labour force and management. Lack of resources causes the situation, when managers have to find possibilities to accomplish services and to provide quality care with the limited funds. This situation has an additional impact on the nursing professionals, who have to deal with many psychosocial risk factors in their work. The aim of the paper is to explore the work-related psychosocial risk factors and their relationships with mental health problems (MHPs) amongst care workers. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken amongst the care workers in nine Estonian nursing homes. Psychosocial work factors and MHPs (stress, somatic symptoms, depressive symptoms, burnout, cognitive symptoms, and sleep disorders) were analysed using the second version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ II). Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s r correlation were used to analyse the data. The analysis was based on 340 care worker surveys. The highest mean scores for the studied work-related psychosocial factors were recorded for the quantitative demands, influence, rewards, role conflicts, trust, insecurity and work-family balance. Low mean scores were recorded for the meaning of work, role clarity, social relationships at work. The lowest score was followed by burnout and the highest - by cognitive symptoms.
ECG biometric identification for general population using multiresolution analysis of DWT based features

Electrocardiogram (ECG) is not only a vital sign of life but also contains important clinical information and even identical features. Similarly, ECG provides various significant characteristics to advocate its use as a biometric system such as uniqueness, permanence and liveness detection etc. This research provides with the complete systematic approach of ECG based person identification for general population and consists of preprocessing of signal for noise reduction, feature extraction, feature selection and classifier performance. Feature extraction was performed by extraction of cardiac cycle followed by discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to extract wavelet coefficients as feature vector. Feature reduction is performed with best first search and classification is performed by using single nearest neighbor classifier. System is tested on three publicly available databases like MIT-BIH/Arrhythmia (MITDB), MIT-BIH/Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSRDB) and ECG-ID database (ECG-IDDB) including all subjects both separately and in combined manner. For arrhythmic database, identification rate of 93.1% was achieved by using proposed methodology. System is also tested on normal population based databases and accuracy of 99.4% is achieved using NSRDB database and 82.3% for a challenging ECG-ID database. The combined approach for general population results in accuracy of 94.4% with false acceptance rate (FAR) of 5.1% and false rejection rate of 0.1%, proving the effectiveness of suggested approach as non invasive for general population with better results as compared to previous approaches in literature.
Non-data-aided spectral-line method for fine carrier frequency synchronization in OFDM receivers

A nonlinear spectral-line method utilizing the fourth absolute moment of the receiver discrete Fourier transform output is proposed as a non-data-aided fine carrier frequency synchronization algorithm for OFDM receivers. A simple modification of the algorithm resulting in low implementation complexity is also developed. Analytic expressions are derived for the steady-state frequency error variances of the algorithms and verified to be very accurate via computer simulations over AWGN and frequency selective multipath channels. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithms provide reliable and excellent steady-state performance, especially with PSK modulation. Also, the proposed algorithms are insensitive to symbol timing offsets, only requiring a coarse symbol timing recovery.
L'impact de la gouvernance bancaire et de la relation bancaire sur le risque de crédit : cas des banques tunisiennes

L’etude des determinants internes du risque de credit des banques tunisiennes est l’objetprincipal de cette these. Il s’agit en particulier de la gouvernance bancaire et de la relationbancaire. A partir d’un echantillon de 10 banques tunisiennes cotees durant la periode 1998-2009, nous essayons de detecter l’impact de la concentration de la propriete et descaracteristiques du conseil d’administration sur le risque de credit. Nos resultats montrent queles mecanismes internes de gouvernance n’ont pas assure jusqu’a present leur role de controleet de garant de la bonne gestion des banques tunisiennes et qu’ils ont contribue a une gestionimprudente du risque de credit. A partir de l’etude de dossiers de credits accordes par unebanque tunisienne a une clientele d’entreprises, nous essayons de detecter l’impact del’information hard et soft sur le risque de credit. Nos resultats plaident en faveur del’hypothese du laxisme des banques envers certains clients importants et surtout de longuedate. Ce laxisme pourrait etre la cause d’une augmentation du risque de non remboursementdes credits accordes en Tunisie.