Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Investigation Link between Critical Thinking and Reading Comprehension: A case of A Madrasah in Lubuk Linggau, South Sumatera

The aims of the study were to find out (1) whether critical thinking had any significant correlation to reading comprehension of English Education Study Program Students at one of Madrasahs in Lubuk Linggau, South Sumatera; and (2) whether critical thinking significantly influenced their reading comprehension. The study was in the form of correlational research method. The population of the study was 636 active EFL students. By using purposive sampling technique, there were 108 students involved as participants in this research. The instruments, both critical thinking test and reading comprehension test, were analyzed in order to gain the data of the study. To find out whether critical thinking of students, as a whole, had any correlation with students' reading comprehension achievement or not, Pearson-Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was applied. Besides, to answer the second research problem, to find the significant influence of critical thinking, the coefficient determination (R Square) was applied. From the data analysis, it was found that there was significant correlation between students’ critical thinking and their reading comprehension since the p-value was (0.020) was less than significance value (0.020 < 0.005). In addition, to know the percentage of critical thinking skill influence on reading comprehension, R-square was obtained. The students’ critical thinking skill gave significant effect with 48.4% contribution towards reading comprehension. In short, critical thinking had relation to reading comprehension of the students of one of Madrasahs in Lubuk Linggau, South Sumatera.
Telecollaboration in the foundation year classroom: the ‘Global Student Collective’

The ‘Global Student Collective’ is a telecollaboration project on the International Foundation Year (IFY) programme at the University of Southampton. IFY students were connected with volunteers in Brazil, India, Hungary, and Italy online in order to find out more about their countries. The project required the students to exercise multiple transferable skills, including teamwork, time management, and intercultural awareness. They also developed vital oral, written, and digital skills. The researcher used an Exploratory Practice (EP) approach utilising existing pedagogical activities for data collection. This paper identifies the challenges the project presented and presents preliminary findings from the research data in order to assist practitioners interested in telecollaboration to design their own projects.
Extending usability inspection evaluation techniques for synchronous collaborative computing applications

This dissertation presents a new methodology for specifying and evaluating usability-related features of synchronous collaborative computing applications. The methodology, called Synchronous Collaborative Awareness and Privacy Evaluation (SCAPE), has two parts. First, a specification is developed for the awareness and privacy requirements of the users of a synchronous collaborative application. Second, the application is evaluated for compliance with the specification. The evaluation can be performed at multiple stages of the software lifecycle (namely, on a requirements definition, design, prototype, or implementation of the application). Unlike techniques for evaluating single-user applications, SCAPE focuses on issues that are unique to collaborative applications. And unlike previous techniques for evaluating collaborative applications, SCAPE uses fine-grained analysis of the requirements of individual users playing specific roles and performing specific tasks during a collaborative session. SCAPE is based on an analysis of theories of collaborative work. It is classified as an inspection evaluation technique since it is performed without the need for human test subjects. Contributions of the dissertation project include (1) a new vocabulary for describing awareness requirements; (2) the SCAPE methodology, with techniques for fine-grained analysis of users' awareness and privacy requirements, specification of awareness and privacy requirements, estimating the level of effort necessary to perform the evaluation phase of SCAPE, and performing an evaluation of an application's compliance with a SCAPE specification; (3) problem report forms tailored to synchronous collaborative applications; (4) a handbook for performing SCAPE specification and evaluation, and (5) a demonstration that SCAPE can be used by its intended audience of experienced usability evaluators.
Human-Directed Empathy and Attitudes Toward Animal Use: A Survey of Spanish Veterinary Students

ABSTRACT Veterinary practitioners are thought of as guardians of animal health and wellbeing, and are considered important in the development of policies on animals. Measuring veterinary students’ attitudes toward animals and animal use is needed when assessing the effectiveness of education programs focused on animal welfare and ethics. The present study examined Spanish veterinary students’ attitudes toward different types of animal use, their human-directed empathy, and the relationship between these and various personal variables. The sample comprised 200 students who completed an online questionnaire. Attitudes toward animal use varied significantly, depending on the type of use in question. There was also a relationship between attitudes toward animal use, one component of human-directed empathy, “Empathic Concern,” and a number of personal variables such as gender, career choice, and contact with animal welfare organizations. Concern about the use of animals for research and animal management was lower in students who were in the later years of their studies. Reasons for this and the role of veterinary education are discussed.
Life satisfaction linked to different independence-from-parents conditions in Italian emerging adults

ABSTRACT The transition toward adulthood in Italy lasts longer than in other countries with respect to living with the family of origin, starting work, and gaining economic independence. This study aimed to analyse the transition to adulthood in Italian youths by exploring these developmental tasks. The first aim was to analyse gender and age differences in these developmental tasks. Given that these tasks are not necessarily achieved at the same time, the second aim was to establish if it might be possible to identify different clusters of individuals according to their residential, economic and employment conditions. The third aim was to explore life satisfaction in different clusters. 191 Italian emerging adults (65 males) aged 20–30 years (M = 24.40) completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale and a specific questionnaire assessing residential independence, economic autonomy, and job stability. Results showed no gender differences in the three developmental tasks. However, older participants reported a higher level of independence. Cluster analysis identified three different groups: ‘totally dependent’, ‘partially independent’ and ‘totally independent’ from parental family, differently composed in terms of partnering. These groups do not differ in life satisfaction levels. Results are discussed focusing on different independence-from-parents conditions that characterize Italian emerging adults.
Ethnic discrimination in hiring: comparing groups across contexts. Results from a cross-national field experiment

ABSTRACT Existing field experimental research unequivocally shows the existence of ethnic discrimination in the labour market. Furthermore, studies have documented considerable variation in discrimination rates across countries. However, while the field of discrimination research is rapidly expanding, there are at present no harmonised comparative studies. This is unfortunate, as we do not know why there are cross-national differences in discrimination. In this paper, I present the GEMM study (N = 19,181), a harmonised cross-national field experiment on hiring discrimination. The GEMM study contains 53 ethnic minority groups and is carried out in six countries: Germany, Norway, The Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States. Furthermore, I discuss the need and potential for a comparative analysis of discrimination and outline the methodological challenges of carrying out a cross-national field experiment. The special issue presents results for the major ethnic minority groups in six countries and compares discrimination rates across national contexts.
Uniprocessor Performance Tuning of a Structured Grid Based Parallel CFD Application

This paper optimized the performance of a high order structure grid based parallel CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) application from a view of uniprocessor optimization.Performance critical variables were identified and transformed into constant parameters to enable compiler to apply specific high level optimizations.Multi-level data buffering was applied for the application's main data structures based on their structure and access characteristics,enabling the main computation codes to access these data more efficiently.Some loop transformations were applied to optimize the application's memory access performance.Performance evaluation was carried out on "Tianhe-1A" parallel computer installed at national super computer center in Changsha.Compared to the original code compiled by Intel compiler with the highest optimization level,the optimized code improves the serial performance for about 22.2%~28.9% for an 100 million grid points 2D aerofoil test case,and improves the parallel performance for about 13.9%~20.2% for an 112 million grid points delta aerofoil test case.
A Graph-based Model of Contextual Information in Sentiment Analysis over Twitter

English. Analyzing the sentiment expressed by short messages available in Social Media is challenging as the information when considering an instance is scarce. A fundamental role is played by Contextual information that is available when interpreting a message. In this paper, a Graph-based method is applied: a graph is built containing the contextual information needed to model complex interactions between messages. A Label Propagation algorithm is adopted to spread polarity information from known polarized nodes to the others. Italiano. Uno dei principali problemi nella analisi delle opinioni nei Social Media riguarda la quantitá di informazione utile che un singolo messaggio puó fornire. Il contesto di un messaggio costituisce un insieme di informazioni utile ad ovviare questo problema per la classificazione della polaritá. In questo articolo proponiamo di rappresentare le interazioni tra i messaggi in grafi che sono poi utilizzati in algoritmi di Label Propagation per diffondere la polaritá tra i nodi.
Strengthening Community Sense of Place through Placemaking

The concept of community involvement and the effect that the act of “making” has on the community itself is a key consideration in the placemaking discussion (Project for Public Spaces, 2015a; Silberberg, Lorah, Disbrow, & Muessig, 2013). From a historical perspective, community development has been placed in the hands of individuals who are considered experts in the creative process. This approach often results in targeted criticism of the proposed development by the host community and a lack of trust in the motives and priorities of the professionals involved (Nikitin, 2012) and diminishes community involvement in the development of public space, a practice that empowers communities and fosters a sense of place among community members. This article discusses the theoretical foundations of community participation and the value of coproduction in the planning and design process, explores the role of placemaking as a strategy for developing a host community’s sense of place, and proposes a continuum of placemaking strategies based on Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation to increase the likelihood that a sense of place within the host community will be developed as an outcome of the planning and design process. This continuum is designed to help planning and design professionals better understand how they might include the community in a co-produced process and to highlight the degree to which a placemaking approach to community planning and design promotes a sense of place as an outcome of the process.
Novel Gait Pattern Planning Method for Increasing Flexibility of Biped Robot

The increase of flexibility of biped robot brings larger application range.Aiming at this problem,a real time planning method is presented.This method generates footstep according to the latest command.Trajectories of Center of Gravity(CoG) and Zero Moment Point(ZMP) are simultaneously planned in real time based on the analytical solution of dynamic equation.This method also solves ZMP fluctuation problem by using a discretization method.The robot is able to change to arbitrary footstep by only one step.We conducted experiments on a real robot named Nao and obtained the expected results.
A Realistic Parallel Computational Model

Network of workstations, NOW or COW, is attracting increased attention as a variable platform for high performance parallel computation. It has higher ratio of performance to price, and it is also more flexible and more scalable. But NOW has two major characteristics, nondedicated and heterogeneous, which distinguish the NOW system from conventional multi processor or other multi computer systems, and make other parallel computational models unsuitable and inaccurate for it. Thus a realistic parallel computational model, called Nondedicated Heterogeneous Barrier LogGP model, NHBL, is presented for NOW and MPP in this paper. NHBL model is based on the LogGP model and is expanded to fit in with NOW's special characteristics. This model is aimed to reflect the influence of different computing power between workstations and the influence of computations occupied by other user's applications on designing and analysis of parallel algorithms on NOW. This model also presents accurate computation and communication cost models. In this paper, we first describe NHBL model and its computation and communication cost models in details, and show the programming style and the method of NHBL model using PSRS algorithm under MPI environment. Then the computation and communication costs of PSRS algorithm are analyzed with NHBL model. At last, PSRS algorithm is implemented on NHPCC NOW and Dawning 1000 MPP, which located in National High Performance Computing Center at Hefei, and the analysis results are validated by those experiment results. Experimental results show that NHBL model captures the most important features of NOW, and it is practical and correct for NOW and MPP. Furthermore, NHBL model is a realistic computational model since it can work only with a subset of the parameters that is enough to the design and analysis of algorithms on certain platforms. More experiment data on more platforms and more accurate and simple cost models are our future work.
Authentic Achievement: Restructuring Schools for Intellectual Quality

Introduction: The School Restructuring Study. AUTHENTIC ACHIEVEMENT. Standards for Authentic Achievement and Pedagogy (G. Wehlage, et al.). Does Authentic Pedagogy Increase Student Achievement? (H. Marks, et al.). PORTRAITS OF RESTRUCTURING SCHOOLS. Careen and Lamar Elementary Schools (K. Doane). 4. Red Lake and Okanagon Middle Schools (K. Doane). Cibola and Island High Schools (K. Doane). FOUNDATIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL RESTRUCTURING. Intellectual Quality (F. Newmann, et al.). Schoolwide Professional Community (K. Louis, et al.). THE INTERPLAY OF SCHOOL CULTURE AND STRUCTURE. Support for Student Achievement (H. Marks, et al.). Pathways to Equity (W. Secada, et al.). Participatory Decision Making (M. King, et al.). Support from External Agencies (G. Wehlage, et al.). Conclusion: Restructuring for Authentic Student Achievement (F. Newmann & G. Wehlage).
Frontal Theta Increase in the Add-n Task and its Relation to Working Memory Capacity

An increase in frontal theta activity has been frequently reported in relation to an increase in mental effort due to increased loads on working memory tasks. However, such research often leaves aside individual differences in imaging data and the role of possible factors, such as cognitive abilities, in explaining such differences. First, this study aims to contribute to the large body of research showing an increase in frontal theta activity in relation to task difficulty by investigating whether such effect is also observable for participants engaging in a less commonly used working memory task, the Add-n task. Second, the study aims to investigate the role of working memory capacity in explaining individual differences, as earlier findings point to an increase in frontal theta only for individuals with high working memory capacity. While the results of this study indeed show an increase in frontal theta activity with increasing loads on the Add-n task and thus increasing mental effort, this effect does not vary between individuals with low versus individuals with high working memory capacity. Hence, further research is needed to make generalisable claims about the role of working memory capacity in explaining individual differences in frontal theta synchronisation.
The Agent oriented time Petri net and its application in behavior modeling of virtual conceptual design

Agent oriented technique and Petri net theory have increasingly become two kinds of absolutely necessary tools in the design and analysis of complicated system. This paper introduced a model of Agent Oriented Time Petri Net(AOTPN) and let it be applied to behavior modeling and analysis of virtual conceptual designing system. It can not only resolve problems of complexity and abstractness of systematic structure but also let the designed system possesses more better extensibility and maintainability.
Temporal Classification Error Compensation of Convolutional Neural Network for Traffic Sign Recognition

In this paper, we propose the method that classifies the traffic signs by using Convolutional Neural Network(CNN) and compensates the error rate of CNN using the temporal correlation between adjacent successive frames. Instead of applying a conventional CNN architecture with more layers, Temporal Classification Error Compensation(TCEC) is proposed to improve the error rate in the architecture which has less nodes and layers than a conventional CNN. Experimental results show that the complexity of the proposed method could be reduced by 50% compared with that of the conventional CNN with same layers, and the error rate could be improved by about 3%.
The impact of unexpected natural disasters on insurance markets

ABSTRACT In this paper, we examine the impact of unexpected natural disasters on the insurance industry. The industry is exposed to greater risks in states with large populations. Hence, we normalize the unexpected disasters with the population of the state. We find evidence that the total sales of the insurance industry goes up in response to an unexpected disaster. However, we also find evidence that unexpected disasters lead to higher market concentration. This could either be because some insurance firms becoming insolvent or people preferring to purchase insurance from larger firms.
Measuring Regional Diffusivity Dependency via Mutual Information

Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) has been extensively applied to depict local intra-voxel microstructure of white matter (WM). These indices (i.e., FA and MD) have been extensively applied as markers for studying WM abnormity related to pathological conditions. The aim of this study is to propose a new metric for measuring inter-voxel coherence of regional diffusivity (i.e., RDD) using mutual information (MI).
Peculiarities of Functional Connectivity—including Cross-Modal Patterns—in Professional Karate Athletes: Correlations with Cognitive and Motor Performances

Professional karate is a sport activity requiring both physical and psychological skills that have been associated with a better “global neural efficacy. ” By means of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), we investigated the neural correlates of cognitive and kinematic abilities in a group of 14 professional karateka and 14 heathy matched controls. All subjects underwent an extensive cognitive test battery for the identification of individual multidimensional cognitive profile and rs-fMRI scans investigating functional connectivity (FC). Moreover, kinematic performances in athletes were quantified by the Ergo-Mak, an integrated system developed for measuring motor reactivity, strength, and power of athletic gestures. Karateka performed significantly better than controls in the visual search task, an ability linked with increased positive correlations in FC between the right superior parietal lobe and bilateral occipital poles. Kinematic performances of athletic feats were sustained by increased positive correlations between subcortical (cerebellum and left thalamus) and cortical (inferior frontal cortex, superior parietal cortex, superior temporal cortex) regions. An unexpected FC increase between auditory and motor-related areas emerged in karateka, possibly reflecting a cross-modal coupling due to the continuous exposure to either internal or external auditory cues, positing this sensory channel as a possible target for novel training strategies. Results represent a further step in defining brain correlates of “neural efficiency” in these athletes, whose brain can be considered a model of continuous plastic train-related adaptation.
Let's talk learning analytics: A framework for implementation in relation to student retention

Free to read at publisher's site. This paper presents a dialogical tool for the advancement of learning analytics implementation for student retention in Higher Education institutions. The framework was developed as an outcome of a project commissioned and funded by the Australian Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching. The project took a mixed-method approach including a survey at the institutional level (n = 24), a survey of individual teaching staff and other academics with an interest in student retention (n = 353), and a series of interviews (n = 23). Following the collection and analysis of these data an initial version of the framework was developed and presented at a National Forum attended by 148 colleagues from 43 different institutions. Participants at the forum were invited to provide commentary on the usefulness and composition of the framework which was subsequently updated to reflect this feedback. Ultimately, it is envisaged that such a framework might offer institutions an accessible and concise tool to structure and systematize discussion about how learning analytics might be implemented for student retention in their own context. © 2016 Online Learning Consortium. All rights reserved.
Implementación de Redes Generativas Adversarias (GANs) para la generación de imágenes de tejido humano

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly collaborating in medicine. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) constitute one of the most interesting algorithms or techniques of AI, concretely of Deep Learning, having great applications to medicine, such as the generation of medical images. This project is based on the generation of images of human tissue, specifically, skin lesions such as melanoma or seborrheic keratosis, using a dataset of 2000 real images. Despite the difficulties involved in GANs models in terms of definition, architecture, programming and training, the added value that they present justifies the above. The main application of the project in the field of medicine is to increase the global database of images of human tissue and thus, contribute to medical studies in the dermatological area. It has been possible to obtain images with a resolution of 64x64 and through a representation of reduced dimensions (PCA and tSNE) of the whole set of images (real and generated); the variability of the generated images has been visually validated against the real ones.