Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reappraising Test Anxiety Increases Academic Performance of First-Year College Students

The idea that test anxiety hurts performance is deeply ingrained in American culture and schools. However, researchers have found that it is actually worry about performance and anxiety—not bodily feelings of anxiety (emotionality)—that impairs performance. Drawing on this insight, anxiety reappraisal interventions encourage the view that anxiety can be neutral or even helpful. Initial evidence—largely from laboratory studies—suggests that these kinds of reappraisal interventions can improve student performance in mathematics. But can they do so in other domains and within the constraints of everyday classroom activities? If so, for whom and how? In an intervention study, we tested whether a minimal reappraisal message embedded in an email from course instructors could improve students’ academic experience and performance in an introductory college course. The night before their first exam, students received an e-mail that either did or did not include a paragraph designed to lead them to interpret exam anxiety as beneficial or at least neutral. First-year students, who experience greater test anxiety and are less certain about how to perform well, benefited from the reappraisal message, showing decreased worry and increased performance on the exam the next day as well as increased performance in the course overall. Mediation analyses revealed that the effect on overall course performance for first-year students was partially mediated by reduced exam worry and enhanced performance on the first exam. The message did not affect the performance of upper year students.
The angular correlation function of the ROSAT All‐Sky Survey Bright Source Catalogue

We have derived the angular correlation function of a sample of 2096 sources detected in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) Bright Source Catalogue, in order to investigate the clustering properties of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the local Universe. Our sample is constructed by rejecting all known stars, as well as extended X-ray sources. Areas with |b|<30° and declination δ<−30° are also rejected owing to the high or uncertain neutral hydrogen absorption. Cross-correlation of our sample with the Hamburg/RASS optical identification catalogue suggests that the vast majority of our sources are indeed AGN. A 4. 1σ correlation signal between 0° and 8° was detected with w(θ<8°)=2.5±0.6×10−2. Assuming a two-point correlation function of the form w(θ)=(θθ0)−0.8, we find θ0=0062. Deprojection on three dimensions, using Limber's equation, yields a spatial correlation length of r0≈6.0±1.6 h−1 Mpc. This is consistent with the AGN clustering results derived at higher redshifts in optical surveys and suggests a comoving model for the clustering evolution.
Predicting species di ersity with ED : the quest for e idence

Faith (2003) raises three questions concerning the evidence obtained from our applications that showed environmental diversity (ED; Faith and Walker 1996) to be a poor predictor of species diversity among terrestrial vertebrates in Europe (Araújo et al. 2001). First, that implementation of the p-median model in our study was likely to provide conservative estimates of species diversity, relative to more effective ED assessments. Second, that poor sampling of species across Europe might have caused ED analyses to underestimate the true recovery of species. Third, that randomisation tests are inadequate null models to evaluate the performance of ED. He concludes that, when taken together, these points should lead to a more positive interpretation of our results. In response, we discuss each of these claims and suggest that they are unwarranted. ED performed poorly with terrestrial vertebrates in Europe, partly because real-world species distributions do not always behave as predicted by ED theory. In particular 1) species responses to environmental gradients are not always symmetrical and normally bellshaped; but more importantly, 2) species do not have equal probabilities of having the centres of their distribution anywhere in environmental space. Consequently, rather than being spread evenly across environmental space, as predicted by Faith and Walker (1996), complementary-areas may well cluster around particular regions with high density of species, especially among those with the most restricted-ranges. This pattern of clustering should cause the ED model to fail, in a variable but not necessarily always a negligible extent. Effectiveness of p-median model
Impact of the human walking motion on BAN diversity effects

This paper presents analytical results on the BER degradation of QPSK signals for BAN diversity antennas for the case where the combined outcome of shadowing and multipath fading emerge simultaneously and statistical model of human walking motion is employed in the analysis. The results show that a probability of a low signal level is higher than that for the Rayleigh distribution owing to shadowing caused by the movement of the arms, resulting in the significant impact on the BER performance of body-attached BAN devices. The antenna separation greater than 80 deg. is required for reducing the shadowing effects.
Background ADC calibration in digital domain

A 100 MS/s pipelined ADC is digitally calibrated by a slow SigmaDelta ADC using a least-mean-square (LMS) algorithm. Both linear and nonlinear memoryless residue gain errors of the pipeline stages are adaptively corrected. With a 411 kHz sinusoidal input, the peak SNDR improves from 28 dB to 59 dB and the SFDR improves from 29 dB to 68 dB. The complete 0.13 mu ADC SoC occupies a die size of 3.7 mm times 4.7 mm, and consumes a total power of 448 mW.
The creation and exploitation of a translation reference corpus

A receptor package for an electron radiography system, in the form of a continuous electrically conducting carrier or backing sheet with electrostatic image receptor pieces mounted thereon at spaced intervals with a separable adhesive permitting removal of the receptor pieces after exposure. A fan or Z fold package and a rolled configuration. A continuous sheet providing transport for the receptor pieces through the imaging chamber and providing the electrical conductivity for the face of the receptor piece opposite the electrostatic image forming face.
Casein Phosphopeptide-Amorphous Calcium Phosphate Reduces Streptococcus mutans Biofilm Development on Glass Ionomer Cement and Disrupts Established Biofilms

Glass ionomer cements (GIC) are dental restorative materials that are suitable for modification to help prevent dental plaque (biofilm) formation. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of incorporating casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) into a GIC on the colonisation and establishment of Streptococcus mutans biofilms and the effects of aqueous CPP-ACP on established S mutans biofilms. S. mutans biofilms were either established in flow cells before a single ten min exposure to 1% w/v CPP-ACP treatment or cultured in static wells or flow cells with either GIC or GIC containing 3% w/w CPP-ACP as the substratum. The biofilms were then visualised using confocal laser scanning microscopy after BacLight LIVE/DEAD staining. A significant decrease in biovolume and average thickness of S. mutans biofilms was observed in both static and flow cell assays when 3% CPP-ACP was incorporated into the GIC substratum. A single ten min treatment with aqueous 1% CPP-ACP resulted in a 58% decrease in biofilm biomass and thickness of established S. mutans biofilms grown in a flow cell. The treatment also significantly altered the structure of these biofilms compared with controls. The incorporation of 3% CPP-ACP into GIC significantly reduced S. mutans biofilm development indicating another potential anticariogenic mechanism of this material. Additionally aqueous CPP-ACP disrupted established S. mutans biofilms. The use of CPP-ACP containing GIC combined with regular CPP-ACP treatment may lower S. mutans challenge.
Fitzgerald Contraction, Larmor Dilation, Lorentz Force, Particle Mass and Energy as Invariants of Galilean Electrodynamics

2 v w b g are shown to be Galilei-invariant vacuum substratum effects, where v w v inv - = °= is the respective object velocity relative to the substratum frame Σ (r°,t°,0). The Lorentz force transferred through the substratum is Galilei-in variant, F = e(E°+ w × B + (v - w) × B ) = e(E° + v° × B°) = inv. The kinetic energy K(v ° ) of high-velocity particles is given by the Galilei-invariant mass-energy relation K(v°) + Eo = mo(v°) co 2 , where Eo = mo co 2 (mass-energy equivalence). The Galilean meas- urement process in inertial frames Σ(r,t,w) is explained considering physical length con- traction of measuring rods and rate retardation of measuring clocks, as well as synchroniza- tion of clocks in absolute time. Crucial experiments underlying Galilean electrodynamics are discussed briefly.
Gender congruency effects in Russian–Spanish and Italian–Spanish bilinguals: The role of language proximity and concreteness of words

Previous studies have shown that bilinguals perform a production task faster when the item is gender-congruent across their two languages than when it is not. The current study aimed to explore three factors that might modulate this effect: the similarity of the gender systems, the need to retrieve grammatical gender to perform the task, and the role of a semantic variable (concreteness) in the processing of gender information. In Experiment 1, Russian–Spanish bilinguals showed gender-congruency effects whether they translated concrete nouns in isolation or in noun-phrases. In contrast, the effect was restricted to noun phrases when they translated abstract words. In Experiment 2, Italian–Spanish bilinguals showed the gender-congruency effect regardless of the translation task. However, the effect was larger with concrete nouns in comparison with abstract nouns. These results are discussed in terms of the proximity of bilingual gender systems and the relationship between semantics and gender.
Rapid development of user interfaces on cluster-driven wall displays with jBricks

Research on cluster-driven wall displays has mostly focused on techniques for parallel rendering of complex 3D models. There has been comparatively little research effort dedicated to other types of graphics and to the software engineering issues that arise when prototyping novel interaction techniques or developing full-featured applications for such displays. We present jBricks, a Java toolkit that integrates a high-quality 2D graphics rendering engine and a versatile input configuration module into a coherent framework, enabling the exploratory prototyping of interaction techniques and rapid development of post-WIMP applications running on cluster-driven interactive visualization platforms.
Panorama da visitação e da condução de visitantes em Parques brasileiros

Proposal: Public use of Conservation Units (UCs), mainly through visits, can bring direct and indirect benefits to society. The parks constitute areas prone to visitation and can be an opportunity for visitors to know, understand, and value the natural and cultural resources, while contributing to local socio-economic development. An overview of visitation in Brazilian parks, as well as of the visitor guiding services, important in visit planning, is of utmost importance for managing the increasing public use of these areas and for the evaluation of the impact of the activity on local communities. Objective: The present work aims, through documentary research and survey with managers of Conservation Units, to contribute with data on the current situation of visitation in Brazilian parks and visitor guiding services in these areas. Methodological Design: We draw on data from the National Register of Conservation Units (CNUC) and on information from a questionnaire to managers, designed and sent through Google.docs. Results: Based on the CNUC data, only 33.42% of the Parks are open to visitors. The highest percentage of units open to visitors are the parks managed at the federal (45.07%) or municipal (44.55%) levels, as well as those located in the Caatinga (40.00%) or Atlantic Forest (38, 91%). Regarding the information provided by the park managers, it is evident that the number of visitors per year is more than 10,000 (46.88%), that the local guides work exclusively in 52.13%, being present in 81.25% of them, and that in 39.06% of the areas guiding activities are carried out in an associative way. Originality: Despite the increasing number of visitors, the proportion of parks with visitation, national and statewide, has not changed in the last 10 years. The local guides have a leading role in guiding visitors in Brazilian parks. The collective practice of guides is a reality in little more than a third of these areas.
MIMO Channel Model on Spatial Correlation in Wireless Communication

This paper studies the effect of spatial correlation on the system capacity in realistic channels, accurate channel models are necessary. Although, several MIMO channel models have been proposed in the literature, most of them are based on the assumption that waves travel in the azimuth plane (i.e. two-dimensional (2-D) wave scattering), which may not be the situation in practice. This creates a motivation to develop a MIMO channel model that considers the 3-D wave scattering, and to study the effect spatial correlation on the behavior of MIMO channel capacity under different circumstances and scattered distribution functions.It has been observed that the angular energy spread and antenna spacing (radius) have a pronounced effect on the capacity of MIMO fading channel. As the angular spread decreases the spatial correlation increases and consequently the capacity degraded and vice versa. This paper provides analysis, evaluation and computer simulations in MATLAB.
Factors influencing the intention to use social media for work-related purposes at a South African higher education institution

Orientation: The rapid development of information communication technology (ICT) has changed much of contemporary society. ICT’s influence extends to the working context with ramifications not only for employees but also for the entire organisation. Research purpose: The primary purpose of this research was to investigate the behavioural intention of a sample of employees at a traditional higher education institution to make use of social media within the workplace. Motivation for the study: Social media has become a common tool within society for communication and networking purposes. An understanding of the factors that influence behavioural intention to use social media within the workplace can assist the organisation to better manage social media usage within the workplace. Research design, approach and method: The research adopted the positivism paradigm with a quantitative research approach. The data were analysed making use of exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. A traditional higher education institution was chosen as the research site for the study, relying on a convenience sample ( n = 134) and data gathered using the work-related social media scale and behavioural intention to use scale. Main findings: Although most employees make use of social media for problem-solving and communication purposes already in the workplace, organisations should allow their employees to help manage their reputation on social media. Practical and managerial implications: An understanding of the factors that influence behavioural intention to use social media within the workplace can serve as a useful precursor for both employee and organisational-specific interventions. This study has specific relevance to the use of ICT platforms, such as social media, in traditional higher education institutions in South Africa. The study’s results are therefore useful to both employees as end-users and managers as drivers of such interventions in the workplace. Contribution: This study is one of the first within a South African work context to investigate social media usage in a traditional higher education institution and proposes a workplace social media usage framework (WSMUF) that helps not only employees but also the entire organisation to predict intention to use social media in the workplace.
3D modeling, distance and gradient computation for motion planning: A direct GPGPU approach

The Kinect sensor and KinectFusion algorithm have revolutionized environment modeling. We bring these advances to optimization-based motion planning by computing the obstacle and self-collision avoidance objective functions and their gradients directly from the KinectFusion model on the GPU without ever transferring any model to the CPU. Based on this, we implement a proof-of-concept motion planner which we validate in an experiment with a 19-DOF humanoid robot using real data from a tabletop work space. The summed-up time from taking the first look at the scene until the planned path avoiding an obstacle on the table is executed is only three seconds.
Cell Infectivity in Relation to Bovine Leukemia Virus gp51 and p24 in Bovine Milk Exosomes

Exosomes are small membranous microvesicles (40–100 nm in diameter) and are extracellularly released from a wide variety of cells. Exosomes contain microRNA, mRNA, and cellular proteins, which are delivered into recipient cells via these exosomes, and play a role in intercellular communication. In bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infection of cattle, although it is thought to be a minor route of infection, BLV can be transmitted to calves via milk. Here, we investigated the association between exosomes and BLV in bovine milk. BLV structural proteins, gp51 (Env) and p24 (Gag), were detected in bovine milk exosomes from BLV-infected cattle by Western blot analysis. In cells inoculated with these milk exosomes, BLV DNA was not detected during three serial passages by nested PCR. Purification of exosomes from persistently BLV-infected cells was achieved by immuno-magnetic separation using an antibody against exosomes coupled to magnetic beads. Consistently, BLV gp51 and p24 proteins were detected in purified exosomes. Moreover, reverse transcriptase activity was observed in purified exosomes, meaning that exosomes also contain viral enzyme. However, BLV DNA was not detected in serially passaged cells after inoculation of purified exosomes, indicating that exosomes carrying BLV proteins appeared to be not infectious. These results suggest that BLV proteins are released with milk exosomes and could be transferred into recipient cells of calves via milk exosomes as an alternative route not requiring virus infection. Moreover it is also possible that bovine milk exosomes play a role in clearance of BLV proteins from infected cells.
Implementation of simple MPPT algorithms using low-cost 8-bit microcontrollers

The fundamental topologies like buck and boost are commonly used in low-cost PV systems combined with simple maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms like the perturb-and-observe (P&O) and incremental conductance (INC). This paper presents the influence of the operating modes (Continuous/Discontinuous Current Mode) of converter over the P&O and INC algorithms. A typical architecture that avoids the topology-induced effects is presented and his performance is evaluated in a low-cost PV charger controlled by an 8-bit microcontroller.
Aspects of Load-Balancing at MAC Layer in a Wireless Mesh Network

Wireless communication technology has become popular in our daily life, especially wireless local networks such as the IEEE 802.11, also commonly known as Wi-Fi. It provides wideband access to the Internet and wired infrastructures for ubiquitous users equipped with laptop or other device such as handheld, PDA, cell-phone and other hybrid equipment. In the recent years, the research community in academia and industry alike have focused a significant amount interest on multi-hop wireless network where the backbone is completely based on wireless links. This solution should be suitable for hard-to-wire buildings such as museums, historical building, unfriendly terrains, and rural areas with high costs of network deployment, where self-configuration and self-deployment are the key features its success. This thesis proposes a new load balancing protocol MAC layer optimization for wireless mesh network with multi-radio devices and in the presence of multiple gateways to provide access to external resources. Due to the presence of multiple radios in one node, a coordination protocol between different physical interfaces has been developed and most of the broad guideline present in the IEEE802.11s draft standard has been followed to implement a simulation model for this protocol. Particular attention has been given in reducing the overhead in the network due to the management frames sent at the data link layer. Thus, a lightweight signalling protocol for MAC layer has been designed with the main objective being to maximise the underlying network resources usage for management traffic. To achieve this objective, the beacon transmission mechanism has been leveraged to spread routing metrics information downstream for no extra overhead added. This way the beacon frame is overcharged with QoS metrics that are propagated in the network and used to dynamically adjust the load balancing. A comprehensive set of simulations show the potential of this new approach in wireless mesh networks and its capacity to fully use network resources in the presence of multiple gateways in the network. This work also highlights some lessons learned that can be used as guidelines for future wireless mesh network design and deployment. For instance, we observed critical tradeoffs in the architecture such as the correlation between the required time to learn the network topology and the number of gateways which are known by the access point. Figure 9: Header structure for data frame for three different cases, a) all six fields in data header are used in forwarding, in b) only five …
Finite‐element Analysis of Footwear and Ground Interaction

Military boots are designed to prevent the soft tissue and skeletal structure of the feet from damage under heavy usage. Good slip-resistant tread patterns of the outer-sole are vital to minimise the risk or severity of slipping under demanding conditions, most likely to result in accidents. However, boot design should also offer the customer flexibility, comfort, and shock absorption, be lightweight and be able to operate regardless of the ground surface texture and various weather conditions. The issue of footwear and ground interaction investigated in this study can be classified as a traditional stability problem. Solutions to these problems are often obtained using the theory of perfect plasticity. Therefore, elastic–perfectly plastic theory was adopted in this study and the Drucker-Prager (DP) material model was chosen to model the soil properties. Literature survey showed that little studies exist on the subject of interaction between foot and soft ground, in particular, using numerical modelling methods. However, there are numerous research works on some relevant domains, such as soil–tillage tool interaction, soil–wheel interaction and soil–structure interaction, etc. A three-dimensional finite-element (FE) analysis of a subsoiler cutting with pressurised air injection was performed by employing a DP harden material model without consideration of friction force by Araya and Gao [1]. Saliba [2] undertook elastic–viscoplastic FE modelling for tire/soil interaction and Mouazen and Nemenyi [3, 4] adopted a DP model for analysing soil–tillage tool interaction.