Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Narrow reading, vocabulary load and collocations in context: Exploring lexical repetition in concordances from a pedagogical perspective

Abstract Narrow reading has the potential to reduce vocabulary load and to provide rich opportunities for developing collocation knowledge, but these benefits rely on narrow reading increasing lexical repetition within a text. Hence, interest in narrow reading has been limited by the relatively small lexical effect of narrowing reading by topic (Nation, 2013). Nevertheless, research in data-driven learning and teaching and language corpora has reported positively on learners using concordances in a manner comparable to narrow reading. However, the potential for concordances to provide an increased lexical-repetition effect has not been assessed. This study bridges this gap by exploring the degree of lexical repetition available in concordances and identifies corpus composition as a key predictor of lexical repetition. The study uses standardised type-token ratio (sTTR) to analyse concordances extracted from corpora at three different levels of homogeneity/heterogeneity. The results show large, reliable variations in lexical repetition resulting from variation in corpus homogeneity/heterogeneity, and so identifies concordance-based narrow reading as a possible means of overcoming the limitations of traditional narrow reading by topic. The results are discussed with reference to pedagogical implications for language learners, teachers, and researchers.
Enhancing learning with 3D print technology: A case study of problem based learning

Abstract 3D printing and interdisciplinary collaboration were used to enhance an existing problem-based, team learning project in an undergraduate management course. In addition to the more traditional steps common to team building in group work, students were tasked with designing a prototype product with a basic computer-aided drawing program and then constructing it using 3D printing. Overwhelming positive responses from students show that the combination of 3D printing and working across disciplines is a viable method to achieve a high level of engagement from students.
Amorphous silicates as a record of solar nebular and parent body processes—A transmission electron microscope study of fine‐grained rims and matrix in three Antarctic CR chondrites

Renazzo‐type (CR) carbonaceous chondrites belong to one of the most pristine meteorite groups containing various early solar system components such as matrix and fine‐grained rims (FGRs), whose formation mechanisms are still debated. Here, we have investigated FGRs of three Antarctic CR chondrites (GRA 95229, MIL 07525, and EET 92161) by electron microscopy techniques. We specifically focused on the abundances and chemical compositions of the amorphous silicates within the rims and matrix by analytical transmission electron microscopy. Comparison of the amorphous silicate composition to a matrix area of GRA 95229 clearly shows a compositional relationship between the matrix and the fine‐grained rim, such as similar Mg/Si and Fe/Si ratios. This relationship and the abundance of the amorphous silicates in the rims strengthen a solar nebular origin and rule out a primary formation mechanism by parent body processes such as chondrule erosion. Moreover, our chemical analyses of the amorphous silicates and their abundance indicate that the CR rims experienced progressive alteration stages. According to our analyses, the GRA 95229 sample is the least altered one based on its high modal abundance of amorphous silicates (31%) and close‐to‐chondritic Fe/Si ratios, followed by MIL 07525 and finally EET 92161 with lesser amounts of amorphous silicates (12% and 5%, respectively) and higher Fe/Si ratios. Abundances and chemical compositions of amorphous silicates within matrix and rims are therefore suitable recorders to track different alteration stages on a submicron scale within variably altered CR chondrites.
Nuclear and Radiochemistry, 3rd Edition

A broad coverage of radioactivity and nuclear phenomena fundamentals is presented, followed by discussions of applications in such fields as basic chemistry, biology, medicine, earth and space sciences. Following an introductory historical chapter, the basic fundamentals of nuclear properties, radioactive growth and decay, and nuclear reactions are covered in the first five chapters. Chapters 6-10 deal mainly with topics essential to the practicing radiochemist. They include discussion of interactions of radiation with matter, radiation detection and measurement, techniques in nuclear chemistry, statistics and radioactivity and nuclear models. Applications of these disciplines in the various fields noted above together with chapters on nuclear energy and sources of nuclear bombarding particles complete the 15 chapters of the book. (JMT)
When Mutual Fund Names Misinform

Mutual funds often inform directly about their strategy in their name. This paper studies the accuracy of mutual fund names. Constructing a fund name history data set based on SEC filings and applying unsupervised machine learning techniques, we document that a significant fraction of mutual funds features an inaccurate name, i.e. a name which is not aligned with their actual investment style. Funds that provide an inaccurate name experienced lower fund inflows before the inaccuracy, under-performed in the year before, and charged higher expenses. Strikingly, after featuring an inaccurate name, funds see a worse risk-return trade-off due to an increased idiosyncratic risk. Finally, we document that investors experience difficulties in responding to this misleading information while at the same time, they do not profit from this deviating behavior of the funds. Thus, our results highlight the importance of regulatory intervention in the name dimension.
Turing vegetation patterns in a generalized hyperbolic Klausmeier model

The formation of Turing vegetation patterns in flat arid environments is investigated in the framework of a generalized version of the hyperbolic Klausmeier model. The extensions here considered involve, on the one hand, the strength of the rate at which rainfall water enters into the soil and, on the other hand, the functional dependence of the inertial times on vegetation biomass and soil water. The study aims at elucidating how the inclusion of these generalized quantities affects the onset of bifurcation of supercritical Turing patterns as well as the transient dynamics observed from an uniformly vegetated state towards a patterned state. To achieve these goals, linear and multiple‐scales weakly nonlinear stability analysis are addressed, this latter being inspected in both large and small spatial domains. Analytical results are then corroborated by numerical simulations, which also serve to describe more deeply the spatio‐temporal evolution of the emerging patterns as well as to characterize the different timescales involved in vegetation dynamics.
Finding balance in Huntington's disease: PIAS1 and huntingtin in protein homeostasis

Author(s): Ochaba, Joseph | Advisor(s): Thompson, Leslie | Abstract: The disruption of protein quality control networks that ensure proper folding and degradation of cellular proteins is likely central to pathology in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD), and other “protein misfolding” diseases (La Spada and Taylor, 2010; Wilkinson et al., 2010). A detailed understanding of the proteostasis network components and their contributions to pathology are therefore crucial to developing improved therapeutic interventions. HD is caused by the abnormal expansion of a CAG repeat within the HD gene resulting in an expanded stretch of polyglutamines in the Huntingtin (HTT) protein (Group, 1993a). A key pathological feature is the accumulation of mutant HTT protein (mHTT) (Cisbani and Cicchetti, 2012; Zhao et al., 2016). Post-translational modifications of HTT, including SUMOylation and phosphorylation (Ehrnhoefer et al., 2011; Pennuto et al., 2009), appear to contribute to mechanisms underlying mHTT function, clearance, and accumulation (O'Rourke et al., 2013; Ochaba et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2016). The work presented here represents an innovative conceptual shift to address questions fundamental to HD and other diseases where protein homeostasis is affected. This approach may therefore provide insight into a broad spectrum of protein misfolding disorders. My dissertation utilized gain-of and loss-of-function approaches to query the importance of HTT function, modulation of PIAS1-regulatory networks, and SUMO-interaction motifs in the context of cell culture and in vivo mouse model systems to assess the impact on critical disease regulatory networks and HD pathogenesis. The precise mechanisms involved in the aforementioned have not yet been elucidated, nor has the PIAS and SUMO pathways been tested in vivo for its relevance to the following: the accumulation of neurodegenerative disease-causing proteins, neuroinflammation, protein clearance networks, or overall impact on disease phenotypes. My dissertation suggests that PIAS1 may link protein homeostasis and neuroinflammation in HD through a combination of modulating accumulation of toxic HMW species of HTT and compensating for dysfunctional inflammatory signaling cascades between neurons and microglia, potentially allowing improved flux through protein clearance pathways, of which HTT itself is likely involved in regulating.
Body mass affects short‐term heterothermy in Neotropical bats

Recent work in Australia and Africa has shown that heterothermy is widespread among phylogenetically diverse tropical and subtropical mammalian taxa. However, data on the use of heterothermy by Neotropical mammals are relatively scant, and those studies that exist focus on insect‐eating bats. We investigated the capacity of fruit‐eating Neotropical bats to use heterothermy when exposed to acute cold temperatures, and compared this to previous data focused on insect‐eating bats sampled from the same region and time of year. We measured rectal temperatures prior to acute cold exposure (1 hr at an air temperature of 6, 7, or 10°C), and again after exposure. Our data show considerable variation in the thermoregulatory patterns of Neotropical bats, and generally, our results show that smaller bats cool quicker and to a greater extent than larger bats. Our results highlight the importance of energy conservation even in environments in which resources are relatively abundant.
Yield and physicochemical characteristics of ‘BRS Magna’ and ‘Isabel Precoce’ grapes influenced by pruning in the SãoFrancisco river valley

EnglishThe objective of this study was to evaluate the productive performance and physicochemical characteristics of ‘BRS Magna’ and ‘Isabel Precoce’ grapes influenced by two types of pruning. The experiment was carried out during two growing seasons in a commercial vineyard of Petrolina, PE, in the period 2013-2014. Treatments were represented by two cultivars, ‘Isabel Precoce’ and ‘BRS Magna’, and two types of pruning, with selection during plant formation (P1) and without selection (P2) of lateral branches, using a randomized experimental block design, in subdivided plots and four replicates. After pruning P2, the amount of buds kept on vines was greater than after pruning P1, favoring an increase in yield. However, the sizes of bunches and berries, content of soluble solids, and titratable acidity were not influenced by the pruning type. In general, the sizes of bunches and berries in ‘BRS Magna’ were larger than in the ‘Isabel Precoce’ cultivar. Conversely, content of soluble solids and titratable acidity varied among cultivars as a function of production cycle and type of pruning; however, within the standards described for both cultivars and accepted by the Brazilian legislation. Key words: tropical viticulture; grapevine; juice grapes; Vitis labrusca portuguesO presente trabalho teve como objetivo estudar o desempenho produtivo e caracteristicas fisico-quimicas das uvas ‘BRS Magna’ e ‘Isabel Precoce’ submetidas a dois tipos de poda. Um experimento foi realizado durante dois ciclos de producao, nos anos de 2013 e 2014, em um vinhedo comercial em Petrolina, PE. Os tratamentos foram representados por duas cultivares copa, ‘Isabel Precoce’ e ‘BRS Magna’, e dois tipos de poda, com selecao de ramos laterais na formacao da planta (P1) e sem selecao de ramos laterais (P2), utilizando delineamento experimental em blocos ao acaso em parcelas subdivididas e quatro repeticoes. A quantidade de gemas mantidas na videira apos a poda e mais elevada na poda P2, favorecendo o aumento da produtividade, mas o tamanho dos cachos e das bagas e o teor de solidos soluveis e acidez titulavel nao foram influenciados pelo tipo de poda. O tamanho dos cachos e das bagas da cultivar ‘BRS Magna’ e, de modo geral, maior que os de ‘Isabel Precoce’. Por outro lado, o teor de solidos soluveis e acidez titulavel variaram entre as cultivares em funcao do ciclo de producao e do tipo de poda, estando dentro dos padroes descritos para ambas cultivares e aceitos pela legislacao brasileira. Palavras-chave: viticultura tropical; videira; suco de uva; Vitis labrus
Using Biophysical Models to Improve Survey Efficiency for Cryptic Ectotherms

Inefficiencies in monitoring programs waste resources. Ideally, we would predict when and where target species are most detectable and place our effort accordingly. Statistical models can generate predictor functions relating survey conditions to detectability but are phenomenological; they do not incorporate biological constraints and so using them to predict into unsampled time and space is risky. Biophysical ecology allows us to place constraints on detection by identifying abiotic conditions in which the target species cannot be present. We show how such constraint can be incorporated into standard detection models. We use the striped legless lizard ( Delma impar ), a threatened cryptic species, in southeastern Australia, as a case study, using fortnightly monitoring data collected between June 2016 to May 2017. These lizards are monitored by searching under tiles placed in arrays; we used a biophysical model to simulate the thermal microclimate under tiles and combined this with the striped legless lizard’s thermal physiology to predict when tiles could be used. When compared against a large monitoring dataset, lizards were rarely observed at times the model predicted they should not be present, but the model also over-predicted presences. A statistical occupancy model showed that much of this over-prediction is explained by a generally low detection probability, and a seasonal trend in detection beyond that captured in the biophysical model. We then replaced the temperature covariates of detection in the statistical model with our biophysical prediction (a categorical variable). The resulting model explained almost the same amount of variance in detections as the original model but using a single variable that captured biological constraints. The biophysical model allowed us to place mechanistic constraints on detection, but it still needed to be informed by observed
Effectiveness of an evaporative charcoal cooler for the postharvest preservation of tomatoes and kales

The preservation of fresh produce can provide rural households with better diets all-year round and income by reducing their deterioration. Promotion of low-cost temporary storage technologies requires evidence of their eﬀectiveness to attain conducive conditions. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of an evaporative charcoal cooler for the preservation of tomatoes and kales. The cooler microclimate and outdoor conditions were investigated by measuring the air temperature and relative humidity. During the study period, the maximum temperature difference between the cooler and the outdoors was found to be 9.2 °C while the maximum relative humidity difference was 36.8%. Due to the presence of light rain and, consequently, low solar radiation, the temperature and relative humidity differences were significantly reduced. Despite the light rain, the cooler still registered a maximum relative humidity of 83.5% and a maximum cooling efficiency of 91.5%. Overall, the cooler demonstrated promising results in terms of favourable microclimate conditions, the shelf-life and colour changes for tomatoes and kales.
Creating a scalable deep learning based Named Entity Recognition Model for biomedical textual data by repurposing BioSample free-text annotations

Motivation: Extraction of biomedical knowledge from unstructured text poses a great challenge in the biomedical field. Named entity recognition (NER) promises to improve information extraction and retrieval. However, existing approaches require manual annotation of large training text corpora, which is laborious and time-consuming. To address this problem we adopted deep learning technique that repurposes the 43,900,000 Entity-free-text pairs available in metadata associated with the NCBI BioSample archive to train a scalable NER model. This NER model can assist in biospecimen metadata annotation by extracting named-entities from user-supplied free-text descriptions. Results: We evaluated our model against two validation sets, namely data sets consisting of short-phrases and long sentences. We achieved an accuracy of 93.29% and 93.40% in the short-phrase validation set and long sentence validation set respectively. Availability: ​ All the analyses, pre-trained model, environments, and Jupyter notebooks pertaining to this manuscript are available on Github: ​ https://github.com/brianyiktaktsui/DEEP_NLP ​ .
Improved regularized extreme learning machine short-term wind speed prediction based on gray correlation analysis

Accurate wind speed prediction is of great significance to the stable operation of the power grid when large-scale wind power is connected to the grid. This article proposes a new multi-step wind speed combination prediction model based on gray correlation analysis. First, the gray correlation analysis is performed on wind speed–related attributes, the more relevant attribute factors are selected as the input set of the prediction model, and the regularized extreme learning machine improved by the cuckoo optimization algorithm is used to perform multi-step prediction of wind speed. Then, an error self-tuning model is established to further improve the prediction accuracy. Finally, the measured results of different wind farms and seasons are selected to simulate the prediction effect of the proposed model, and the prediction accuracy and generalization ability of the proposed model are verified through comparative analysis.
Examining K–12 teacher learning in a makerspace through the activity–identity–community framework

Abstract Despite growing interest in the educational benefits of integrating making into formal educational contexts, few studies have examined professional development (PD) models for assisting K–12 teachers in doing so. Through the design and implementation of a unique PD experience, this qualitative case study examined the perspectives of eight teachers from an independent girls’ high school who participated in an eight-week maker-centered learning experience situated in a commercial makerspace. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews at the conclusion of the PD experience. Findings suggest participants engaged in making activities both inside and outside of the makerspace, shifted in identity formation between teachers/learners and makers/non-makers, and recognized community development within their peer group as well as with members and staff of the makerspace. Participants also noted elements of maker-centered learning activities that may be incorporated into their teaching practice.
How Online Privacy Literacy Supports Self-Data Protection and Self-Determination in the Age of Information

Current debates on online privacy are rooted in liberal theory. Accordingly, privacy is often regarded as a form of freedom from social, economic, and institutional influences. Such a negative perspective on privacy, however, focuses too much on how individuals can be protected or can protect themselves, instead of challenging the necessity of protection itself. In this article, I argue that increasing online privacy literacy not only empowers individuals to achieve (a necessarily limited) form of negative privacy, but has the potential to facilitate a privacy deliberation process in which individuals become agents of social change that could lead to conditions of positive privacy and informational self-determination. To this end, I propose a four-dimensional model of online privacy literacy that encompasses factual privacy knowledge, privacy-related reflection abilities, privacy and data protection skills, and critical privacy literacy. I then outline how this combination of knowledge, abilities, and skills 1) enables to individuals to protect themselves against some horizontal and vertical privacy intrusions and 2) motivates individuals to critically challenge the social structures and power relations that necessitate the need for protection in the first place. Understanding these processes, as well as critically engaging with the normative premises and implications of the predominant negative concepts of privacy, offers a more nuanced direction for future research on online privacy literacy and privacy in general.
Information and the Acquisition of Social Network Connections

How do information interventions affect individual efforts to expand social networks? We study a randomized controlled trial of a program providing information on settling in the U.S. for new immigrants from the Philippines. Improved information leads new immigrants to acquire fewer new social network connections. Treated immigrants make 16-28 percent fewer new friends and acquaintances and are 65 percent less likely to receive support from organizations of fellow immigrants. The treatment has no effect on employment, wellbeing, or other outcomes. Consistent with a simple model, the treatment reduces social network links more in places likely to have lower costs of acquiring network links (those with more prior fellow immigrants). Information and social network links appear to be substitutes in this context: better-informed immigrants invest less in expanding their social networks upon arrival. Our results suggest that endogenous reductions in acquisition of social network connections can reduce the effectiveness of information interventions.
Mathematical teaching in Nursery Schools in England; A way forward for mathematical pretend play and democratic pedagogies

Only a few studies have focused on mathematics and pretend play, and they have mostly concentrated on the children and their play and not the supporting pedagogy. To move the debate forward, I present research focusing on the pedagogy of mathematical pretend play, within a socio-cultural perspective, centring on two nursery school teachers, from English Nursery Schools. It revealed the unconventional teaching these teachers engaged in to enhance children’s mathematical thinking in play. This may offer us a way into understanding pretend play pedagogies and the conditions that might support children’s own mathematical thinking, especially in early years classrooms.