Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integration of Task-Based Approaches in a TESOL Course.

Under task-based language teaching (TBLT), language learners engage in purposeful, problem-oriented, and outcome-driven tasks that are comparable to real-world activities. This qualitative case study discusses the integration of a task-based approach into a TESOL course in a language teacher education program in Taiwan with regard to 39 participants’ attitude and learning in a northern city in Taiwan. The major data in this study included participants’ projects, class observations and class PowerPoint slides, and class evaluations. The study has the following findings. First, a total of 20 tasks were designed in order to help participants be familiar with TESOL issues. Second, participants held positive attitudes toward the integration of tasks into this TESOL course because they felt that they learned TESOL issues. They regarded Catherine as a role model in modeling the task-based approach into the class and she clearly explained how each task should be carried out and completed. Moreover, she scaffolded participants while they had problems. Finally, participants learned TESOL issues, different types of task, and research methods through completing the tasks, group discussion, classmates’ sharing, reading texts and references, and the instructor’s scaffolding.
The reader as audience: The appeal of the writers' festival to the contemporary audience

The contemporary popularity of the writers' festival might appear something of a contradiction, given that such festivals are based around an art form that has been chiefly a solitary experience for the reader for several centuries. Taking the 2009 Eye of the Storm Writers' Festival in Alice Springs as its case study, this article examines the motivations of the audience for participating in community-based writers' festivals. Interviews with audience members suggest that the writers' festival serves a much larger cultural and social role for the audience participant than simply increasing their enjoyment of literature.
rac-Dimethyl 2-(1H-pyrrole-2-carboxamido)butanedioate

The title compound, C11H14N2O5, was synthesized by condensation of (RS)-2-aminosuccinic acid dimethyl ester with 2-trichloroacetylpyrrole at room temperature. The amide group is twisted by 7.4 (1)° from the plane of the pyrrole ring. In the crystal, molecules are linked by intermolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds into chains extending along the c axis.
Identification of Potassium-Dependent and -Independent Components of the Apoptotic Machinery in Mouse Ovarian Germ Cells and Granulosa Cells1

Abstract Recent studies with thymocytes have suggested a critical role for intracellular potassium in the regulation of apoptosis. In this study, we examined the pathways of K+ regulation during ovarian cell death. In initial studies, fluorographic analysis demonstrated a significant loss of K+ during apoptosis stimulated by doxorubicin in oocytes and trophic hormone deprivation in granulosa cells. In oocytes, suppression of potassium efflux by potassium-enriched medium prevented condensation, budding, and fragmentation, although it did not block DNA degradation, suggesting the existence of potassium-independent nucleases in oocytes. Culture of granulosa cells in potassium-enriched medium inhibited internucleosomal DNA cleavage, although high-molecular weight DNA cleavage was apparent, suggesting that the nuclease or nucleases responsible for generating 50-kilobase (kb) fragments in these cells is potassium independent. To address this directly, isolated granulosa cell nuclei were stimulated to autodigest their DNA, and internucleosomal, but not large-fragment, cleavage was completely blocked by 150 mM potassium. We next examined whether the proapoptotic caspases are targets for potassium regulation. In cell-free assays, processing of pro-interleukin-1β and proteolysis of cellular actin by recombinant caspase-1 and caspase-3, respectively, were suppressed by the presence of 150 mM potassium. Other monovalent ions (NaCl, LiCl) exerted a similar effect in these cell-free assays. Thus, in oocytes and granulosa cells, potassium efflux appears to occur early in the cell death program and may regulate a number of apoptotic events including caspase activity and internucleosomal DNA cleavage. However, there also exist novel potassium-independent pathways in both ovarian germ cells and somatic cells that signal certain apoptotic events, such as large-fragment DNA cleavage.
Child mortality and cohort lifespan: a test of diminished entelechy.

BACKGROUND The literature implies a 'diminished entelechy' hypothesis in which birth cohorts subjected to relatively many or relatively virulent environmental insults early in life do not realize their otherwise expected lifespan. No direct test of this hypothesis appears in literature. METHODS We test the hypothesis directly by measuring the association between mortality in the first 5 years and life expectancy at age 5 for male and female cohorts born in Sweden (1751-1912), Denmark (1835-1913), and England and Wales (1841-1912). The methods control for trends, seasonal cycles, and other forms of autocorrelation that could induce spurious associations. RESULTS Our results support the hypothesis in that life expectancy at age 5 fell below the values expected from history in cohorts in which child mortality before age 5 increased over its expected value. We find no evidence for culling effects in which a cohort remaining after suffering relatively many environmental insults may be smaller but hardier than expected. CONCLUSIONS These findings converge with individual-level studies and suggest that suffering relatively virulent or many environmental insults during childhood reduces the subsequent lifespan of birth cohorts.
Achieving content representativeness in organizational diagnosis

An organizational diagnosis provides analysts with information on which to base and plan an appropriate intervention to improve an organization’s functioning. In many instances, the data collected are from a sample of an organization’s population. However, the information collected must be considered representative of the whole organization. In this article, we discuss the importance of response rate in organizational surveys and non-response bias in achieving the necessary representativeness. We describe an action research project in which we involved members of a high-tech organization. Our data were collected through interviews and an anonymous web survey representing 42 percent of the organization’s population. We describe how we employed action groups to determine the content representativeness of our data. This step was deemed necessary before initiating the action planning step. We propose a guideline for action researchers to apply during organizational diagnoses requiring respondent anonymity.
Sensitivity of a Fuzzy-Constrained Cellular Automata Model of Forest Insect Infestation

Cellular automata (CA) are discrete systems used for modelling complex spatial dynamic phenomena. The discrete nature of CA enables integration with rasterbased geospatial datasets in geographic information systems (GIS), and also can be beneficial when modelling complex ecological processes that evolve over time. However, when modelling forest insect infestations it is difficult to use discrete cell states to represent, for example, the concept of susceptibility of a tree to insect attack. The use of binary or probabilistic approaches for cell states definition is not appropriate because insect disturbances are driven by numerous components of insect-tree relationships that are difficult to understand. Furthermore, uncertain transition zones exist between forest stands of different sizes and different species where a discrete definition of a cell cannot be provided. The objective of this study was to integrate fuzzy set theory with GISbased CA modelling to model tree mortality patterns caused by insect infestation, and to explore the sensitivity of the model to different spatial properties. This study focused on a case study of lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta, mortality patterns caused by infestations of mountain pine beetle (MPB), Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins. The use of fuzzy set theory addresses the issue of inherent uncertainty of the geospatial data used for studies of forest infestations, while a test of model sensitivity exp lores the influence of the spatial properties of a fuzzy-constrained CA.
Nonlinear manifold learning for meshfree finite deformation thin‐shell analysis

Calculations on general point‐set surfaces are attractive because of their flexibility and simplicity in the preprocessing but present important challenges. The absence of a mesh makes it nontrivial to decide if two neighboring points in the three‐dimensional embedding are nearby or rather far apart on the manifold. Furthermore, the topology of surfaces is generally not that of an open two‐dimensional set, ruling out global parametrizations. We propose a general and simple numerical method analogous to the mathematical theory of manifolds, in which the point‐set surface is described by a set of overlapping charts forming a complete atlas. We proceed in four steps: (1) partitioning of the node set into subregions of trivial topology; (2) automatic detection of the geometric structure of the surface patches by nonlinear dimensionality reduction methods; (3) parametrization of the surface using smooth meshfree (here maximum‐entropy) approximants; and (4) gluing together the patch representations by means of a partition of unity. Each patch may be viewed as a meshfree macro‐element. We exemplify the generality, flexibility, and accuracy of the proposed approach by numerically approximating the geometrically nonlinear Kirchhoff–Love theory of thin‐shells. We analyze standard benchmark tests as well as point‐set surfaces of complex geometry and topology. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Javana: a system for building customized Java program analysis tools

Understanding the behavior of applications running on high-level language virtual machines, as is the case in Java, is non-trivial because of the tight entanglement at the lowest execution level between the application and the virtual machine. This paper proposes Javana, a system for building Java program analysis tools. Javana provides an easy-to-use instrumentation infrastructure that allows for building customized profiling tools very quickly.Javana runs a dynamic binary instrumentation tool underneath the virtual machine. The virtual machine communicates with the instrumentation layer through an event handling mechanism for building a vertical map that links low-level native instruction pointers and memory addresses to high-level language concepts such as objects, methods, threads, lines of code, etc. The dynamic binary instrumentation tool then intercepts all memory accesses and instructions executed and provides the Javana end user with high-level language information for all memory accesses and natively executed instructions.We demonstrate the power of Javana through a number of applications: memory address tracing, vertical cache simulation and object lifetime computation. For each of these applications, the instrumentation specification requires only a small number of lines of code. Developing similarly powerful profiling tools within a virtual machine (as done in current practice) is both time-consuming and error-prone; in addition, the accuracy of the obtained profiling results might be questionable as we show in this paper.
Social class and Japanese mothers’ support of young children’s education: A qualitative study

The impact of social class backgrounds on young children’s educational experiences has attracted increasing attention in early childhood research. However, few longitudinal studies related to social class and parental involvement in young children’s education are available, especially in East Asian contexts. In this longitudinal qualitative study, I examined middle-class and working-class mothers’ beliefs related to education and processes through which they support their children’s education from preschool to second grade in Japan. Sixteen Japanese mothers were recruited from preschools and four in-depth interviews along with home visits were conducted over 3 years. Findings of this study demonstrated that both middle-class and working-class mothers hoped that their children would do well academically, but their beliefs related to parenting roles and development of the children’s learning interest differed. Such distinctive maternal beliefs affected their ways of supporting their children’s education in everyday contexts.
Unique and redundant roles of Smad3 in TGF‐β–mediated regulation of long bone development in organ culture

The most well‐characterized intracellular signaling molecules for transforming growth factor‐beta (TGF‐β) are the Smads. R‐Smads interact with and are phosphorylated directly by the TGF‐β type I receptor. Phosphorylated R‐Smads can then associate with Smad4, translocate to the nucleus and regulate transcription. Specific R‐Smads transduce distinct signals for members of the TGF‐β superfamily. Smad2 and ‐3 mediate signaling by TGF‐β/activin, whereas Smad1, ‐5, and ‐8 mediate bone morphogenetic protein signaling. TGF‐β inhibits proliferation and hypertrophic differentiation in metatarsal organ cultures by a perichondrium‐dependent mechanism. To determine the mechanism of TGF‐β signaling in the perichondrium, we tested the hypothesis that TGF‐β–restricted Smad2 and Smad3 regulate chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation in embryonic metatarsal organ cultures. Perichondrium was infected with adenoviruses containing dominant‐negative forms of Smad2 (Ad‐Smad2‐3SA) and Smad3 (Ad‐Smad3ΔC). Proliferation and differentiation were measured in response to treatment with TGF‐β1. Results were compared with control bones infected with a β‐galactosidase reporter virus (Ad‐β‐gal). Infection with Ad‐Smad2‐3SA completely blocked the effects of TGF‐β1 on metatarsal development while Ad‐Smad3ΔC only partially blocked TGF‐β1 effects. To further characterize the role of Smad3 in long bone development, TGF‐β1 responsiveness in cultures from Smad3+/+ and Smad3ex8/ex8 mice were compared. Loss of Smad3 only partially blocked the effects of TGF‐β1 on differentiation. In contrast, the effects of TGF‐β1 on chondrocyte proliferation were blocked completely. We conclude that Smad2 signaling in the perichondrium can compensate for the loss of Smad3 to regulate inhibition of hypertrophic differentiation; however, Smad3 is required for TGF‐β1–mediated effects on proliferation. Developmental Dynamics 230:685–699, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Singapore's Opposition Community - Grassroots Activists in the Concrete Jungle

Based on data gained from qualitative research techniques, this paper presents and discusses the opinions of leading Singaporean oppositional grassroots activists about the state of play in Singaporean politics and civil society and likely developments over the next ten years. Our interviewees show that the Singaporean grassroots opposition activist community, while small, is passionate and committed to taking its country away from the right-wing authoritarian pathway. Those activists more interested in civil society and NGOs than contesting elections are eager to expand and deepen the civil society in Singapore. We also find that certain school-age opposition activists have already decided that the official establishment ideology, as taught in school textbooks, is not the reality of Singapore’s history as they understand it. Activists will continue to focus on the income-inequality problem and human rights issues surrounding Article 377A of the Penal Code (which continues to make homosexual sexual acts between males illegal), the Internal Security Act (which allows detention without trial), and use of defamation suits by ruling-party politicians to bankrupt opposition party politicians and activists.
Delay of Gratification as a Moderator of the Procedural Justice Distributive Justice Relationship

The present study examined the hypothesis that procedural justice and distributive justice are positively related. In other words, when individuals perceive fairness in how decisions are made, they are likely to perceive the outcomes as fair. Similarly, when individuals perceive a fair outcome, they are likely to believe that fair procedures led to that outcome. In line with the Tyler group-value model of procedural justice, it was hypothesized that this would hold true primarily when the individual has a long-term view of organization membership, a view influenced by the individual's disposition to delay gratification or reward. Hierarchical-moderated multiple regression analyses on data collected from workers in a small American tooling plant supported this hypothesis. These results have implications for attempts to enhance perceptions of justice.
Clinical outcomes of type III Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia*

Background:Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia is a serious and life-threatening infection associated with high mortality. Among the multitude of virulence determinants possessed by P. aeruginosa, the type 3 secretion system has been implicated with more acute and invasive infection in respiratory diseases. However, the relationship between the type 3 secretion system and clinical outcomes in P. aeruginosa bacteremia has not been investigated. Objectives:To determine the association between the type 3 secretion system virulence factor in P. aeruginosa bloodstream infection and 30-day mortality. Design:Retrospective analysis of 85 cases of P. aeruginosa bacteremia. Setting:Tertiary care hospital. Interventions:Bacterial isolates were assayed in vitro for secretion of type 3 exotoxins (ExoU, ExoT, and ExoS). Strain relatedness was analyzed using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA polymerase chain reaction genotyping. Antimicrobial susceptibilities were determined by means of the Kirby-Bauer disk-diffusion test. Measurements and Main Results:At least one of the type 3 secretion system proteins was detected in 37 out of the 85 isolates (44%). Septic shock was identified in 43% of bacteremic patients with type 3 secretion system+ isolates compared to 23% of patients with type 3 secretion system– isolates (p = .12). A high frequency of resistance in the type 3 secretion system+ isolates was observed to ciprofloxacin (59%), cefepime (35%), and gentamicin (38%). There was a significant difference in the 30-day cumulative probability of death after bacteremia between secretors and nonsecretors (p = .02). None of the type 3 secretion system+ patients who survived the first 30 days had a P. aeruginosa isolate which exhibited ExoU phenotype. Conclusions:The expression of type 3 secretion system exotoxins in bacteremic isolates of P. aeruginosa confers poor clinical outcomes independent of antibiotic susceptibility profile. (Crit Care Med 2012; 40:–1163)
Automatic multidocument summarization of research abstracts: Design and user evaluation

The purpose of this study was to develop a method for automatic construction of multi-document summaries of sets of research abstracts that may be retrieved by a digital library or search engine in response to a user query. Sociology dissertation abstracts were selected as the sample domain in this study. A variable-based framework was proposed for integrating and organizing research concepts and relationships as well as research methods and contextual relations extracted from different dissertation abstracts. Based on the framework, a new summarization method was developed, which parses the discourse structure of abstracts, extracts research concepts and relationships, integrates the information across different abstracts, and organizes and presents them in a Webbased interface. A user evaluation was performed to assess the overall quality and usefulness of the summaries. Two types of variable-based summaries generated using the summarization method – with or without the use of a taxonomy – were compared against a sentence-based summary that only lists the research objective sentences extracted from each abstract and another sentence-based summary generated using the MEAD system that extracts important sentences. The evaluation results indicated that the majority of sociological researchers (70%) and general user (64%) preferred the variable-based summaries generated with the use of the taxonomy.
Finding Data: Some Reflections on Ontologies and Normativities

The very name of the new International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture is a programmatic challenge. It brings together three concepts that are notoriously difficult to grasp. Instead of providing ultimate definitions for these concepts, this article argues that the object of scrutiny in academic research is not nature as such, but the cultural processes that produce certain ideas about nature as nature. Thus, ontological statements are our data; they are not part of our argument. The article argues for a contextualization and historicization of concepts of nature and exemplifies this with reference to a selection of topics that lend themselves to critical analysis. Ontologies and normativities, implicitly or explicitly, are powerful elements of any nature discourse. They constitute conflicting mindsets that determine the way people respond to their environment. In academic analysis, these mindsets are helpful tools for structuring historical processes and discursive formations, the latter including human action and societal realities. Mindsets are not only ways of thinking; they are inextricably bound to the ‘appropriation of nature’ that scholarly analysis has to decode and contextualize. Two culturally influential concepts of nature are used as an example of these processes.
Evaluation of a Cytomegalovirus Glycoprotein B Recombinant Enzyme Immunoassay To Discriminate between a Recent and a Past Infection

ABSTRACT Fetal damage following cytomegalovirus (CMV) intrauterine infection is mostly linked to primary infection. To differentiate primary infection from nonprimary infection, immunoglobulin M (IgM) tests are not reliable enough, and measurement of the IgG avidity appears to be the method that is the most widely used at present. In the present study the performance of the Vidas (bioMérieux) avidity assay was compared with that of a new enzyme immunoassay based on the use of a recombinant CMV glycoprotein B protein (Biotest).