Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Peer-assistance and Negotiation for Meaning upon Novice Learners’ Speaking Ability

Notwithstanding the widely accredited effectiveness of Communication Strategies (CSs) (Canale, 1983), the necessity of instructing them has been a contentious subject (Kellerman, 1991; Dörnyei, 1995). In this study, the instruction of prefabricated patterns (Brown 2007) which function as CSs was included in Task-Based Language Teaching to novice learners. We analyzed students’ utilization of CSs in their topic conversations, as well as the functions of peer assistance or negotiation for meaning (NfM) (Foster & Ohta, 2005). Students audiorecorded their conversations four times and reported on their performance after each recording, subsequently their audio-recorded conversations were evaluated. We analyzed their conversations by means of the occurrences of peer-assistance and NfM to compare the differences between student groups who had improved the most and the least in their speaking capabilities. The results showed an increase of the quantity of conversation and CS usages of the better-developed group compared to the less-developed group. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups throughout the semester referencing to the demonstration of NfM. The functions of peer-assistance and NfM for novice learners might be distinguished from advanced learners, which might contribute to promote specific CS instruction for novice learners.
Recursive Algorithms for Implementing Digital Image Filters

The B-spline functions are used to develop recursive algorithms for the efficient implementation of two-dimensional linear digital image filters. These filters may be spatially varying. The B-splines are used in a representation of the desired point spread function. We show that this leads to recursive algorithms and hardware implementations which are more efficient than either direct spatial domain filter realizations or FFT implementations. The Z-transform is used to develop a discrete version of Duhamel's theorem. A computer architecture for B-spline image filters is proposed and a complexity analysis and comparison to other approaches is provided.
On the expressiveness of CSP

We show that Hoare’s CSP, with the addition of the exception-throwing operator P ΘA Q in which any occurrence of an event a ∈ A within P hands control to Q , can simulate any operator that has a “CSP-like” operational semantics. Thus any language, all of whose operators are CSP-like, has a semantics over each of the behavioural models of CSP and a natural theory of refinement. This demonstrates that CSP+ is a natural language to compile other notations into. We explore the range of possibilities for CSP-like languages, which include
Absolute Consistency: Individual versus Population Variation in Annual-Cycle Schedules of a Long-Distance Migrant Bird

Flexibility in scheduling varies throughout an organism’s annual cycle, reflecting relative temporal constraints and fitness consequences among life-history stages. Time-selection can act at different scales, either by limiting the range of alternative strategies in the population, or by increasing the precision of individual performance. We tracked individual bar-tailed godwits Limosa lapponica baueri for two full years (including direct observation during non-breeding seasons in New Zealand and geolocator tracking of round-trip migrations to Alaska) to present a full annual-cycle view of molt, breeding, and migration schedules. At both population and individual scales, temporal variation was greater in post-breeding than pre-breeding stages, and greater in molts than in movements, but schedules did not tighten across successive stages of migration toward the breeding grounds. In general, individual godwits were quite consistent in timing of events throughout the year, and repeatability of pre-breeding movements was particularly high (r = 0.82–0.92). However, we demonstrate that r values misrepresent absolute consistency by confounding inter- and intra-individual variation; the biological significance of r values can only be understood when these are considered separately. By doing so, we show that some stages have considerable tolerance for alternative strategies within the population, whereas scheduling of northbound migratory movements was similar for all individuals. How time-selection simultaneously shapes both individual and population variation is central to understanding and predicting adaptive phenological responses to environmental change.
A Progress Report on Marxian Economic Theory: On the Controversies in Exploitation Theory Since Okishio ([Okishio, N., 1963])

This report explores the development of exploitation theory in mathematical Marxian economics by reviewing the main controversies surrounding the definition of exploitation since the contribution of Okishio (1963). The report first examines the robustness and economic implications of the debates on the Fundamental Marxian Theorem, developed mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by the property relation theory of exploitation by Roemer (1982). Then, the more recent exploitation theory proposed by Vrousalis (2013) and Wright (2000) is introduced, before examining its economic implications using a simple economic model. Finally, the report introduces and comments on recent axiomatic studies of exploitation by focusing on the work of Veneziani and Yoshihara (2013a).
WOMEN IN FAMILY BUSINESS

The role of women in family businesses is explored in the paper. Although recognized as generally very important players, the role of women is often defin d as invisible in business decision-making, supportiv e in men’s traditional business domains and only rarely adequately recognized and rewarded. The paper explores possible differences in the views of men a nd women who manage small family firms. Their attitudes opposing the traditional business roles o f women, different views on managerial, ownership and transition issues and possible gender discriminatio are examined. The findings support the paradigm of a different, more feminine style of management, while signs of discrimination are not clearly revealed. T his paper is based on a research intended to provide a comparative analysis of the status of women entrepreneurs and men entrepreneurs in Family Business in India. It first draws demographic & psychographic profiles of women and men entrepreneurs in family business, identifies & addresses operational problems faced by women and men entrepreneurs in family business, draws their inclination for future plans for growth and expansi on and also for the furtherance of research on women entrepreneurs in India.
Memo No . 022 June 15 , 2014 Learning An Invariant Speech Representation by Georgios Evangelopoulos ?

Recognition of speech, and in particular the ability to generalize and learn from small sets of labeled examples like humans do, depends on an appropriate representation of the acoustic input. We formulate the problem of finding robust speech features for supervised learning with small sample complexity as a problem of learning representations of the signal that are maximally invariant to intraclass transformations and deformations. We propose an extension of a theory for unsupervised learning of invariant visual representations to the auditory domain and empirically evaluate its validity for voiced speech sound classification. Our version of the theory requires the memory-based, unsupervised storage of acoustic templates – such as specific phones or words – together with all the transformations of each that normally occur. A quasi-invariant representation for a speech segment can be obtained by projecting it to each template orbit, i.e, the set of transformed signals, and computing the associated one-dimensional empirical probability distributions. The computations can be performed by modules of filtering and pooling, and extended to hierarchical architectures. In this paper, we apply a single-layer, multicomponent representation for phonemes and demonstrate improved accuracy and decreased sample complexity for vowel classification compared to standard spectral, cepstral and perceptual features. This work was supported by the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM), funded by NSF STC award CCF 1231216. ar X iv :1 40 6. 38 84 v1 [ cs . S D ] 1 6 Ju n 20 14 Learning An Invariant Speech Representation Georgios Evangelopoulos? †, Stephen Voinea, Chiyuan Zhang, Lorenzo Rosasco? †, Tomaso Poggio? † ? Center for Brains, Minds and Machines | McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT † LCSL, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology [gevang, voinea, chiyuan, lrosasco]@mit.edu, tp@ai.mit.edu
Building Czech Wordnet

This paper describes the process of building Czech WordNet. We give the enumeration of the resources and tools used for this purpose and characterize so far obtained results. There are some problems with Czech as a synthetic language, with its rich inflectional morphology and word derivation. They are mentioned below and some solutions are suggested. The necessary resources for building Czech WordNet were worked out almost from scratch and required considerable adaptation.
Multipath Mitigation Using Particle Filtering

In direct–sequence spread–spectrum (DS–SS) based navigation systems, multipath can degrade seriously synchronization performance causing time delay and code phase estimates to deviate from the actual value. This bias depends on the relative amplitudes and delays of multipath replicas with respect to the direct signal. The error in the estimated position due to multipath, when using a standard Delay Lock Loop, can be on the order of several tens of meters, which is a critical aspect in high–precision applications. This works presents a Sequential Monte Carlo based algorithm which tries to iteratively estimate complex amplitudes and delays of the direct signal and multipath replicas by characterizing the posterior probability density function of these parameters relying on particle filter theory.
Multi-Modal MRI Analysis with Disease-Specific Spatial Filtering: Initial Testing to Predict Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients Who Convert to Alzheimer’s Disease

Background: Alterations of the gray and white matter have been identified in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). However, whether the combination of these modalities could increase the diagnostic performance is unknown. Methods: Participants included 19 AD patients, 22 amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients, and 22 cognitively normal elderly (NC). The aMCI group was further divided into an “aMCI-converter” group (converted to AD dementia within 3 years), and an “aMCI-stable” group who did not convert in this time period. A T1-weighted image, a T2 map, and a DTI of each participant were normalized, and voxel-based comparisons between AD and NC groups were performed. Regions-of-interest, which defined the areas with significant differences between AD and NC, were created for each modality and named “disease-specific spatial filters” (DSF). Linear discriminant analysis was used to optimize the combination of multiple MRI measurements extracted by DSF to effectively differentiate AD from NC. The resultant DSF and the discriminant function were applied to the aMCI group to investigate the power to differentiate the aMCI-converters from the aMCI-stable patients. Results: The multi-modal approach with AD-specific filters led to a predictive model with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.93, in differentiating aMCI-converters from aMCI-stable patients. This AUC was better than that of a single-contrast-based approach, such as T1-based morphometry or diffusion anisotropy analysis. Conclusion: The multi-modal approach has the potential to increase the value of MRI in predicting conversion from aMCI to AD.
Movement screens: Are we measuring movement dysfunction or movement skill?

Movement screens are commonly used for assessing athletic readiness or injury potential. However, these screens fail to distinguish between movement dysfunction and movement skill. The purpose of this study was to compare performance on a common movement screen test, the overhead squat, when using no instructions (Baseline), instruction from a commercial movement screen, and instructions which include verbal cues, demonstration, and practice (Instructions, Demonstration, and Practice [IDP]). Fourteen individuals performed the overhead squat under the three different conditions while their movements were recorded using a 12-camera motion capture system. Specific scoring criteria for the overhead squat such as joint angles, depth of squat, torso and shank orientation, and weight distribution were compared between instructional conditions. Compared to the Baseline and commercial movement screen conditions, IDP resulted in greater vertical center of mass displacement, better alignment of the torso and shank segments, and greater peak flexion at the hip and knee. These results show that incorporating verbal cues, providing demonstration, and allowing for practice during movement screening significantly improve performance in the overhead squat assessment. Based on these results, the authors recommend that coaches or clinicians using movement screens to identify movement dysfunction should provide demonstrations of the movement, allow the participant to practice, provide verbal instructions about the movement prior to assessment, and provide corrective feedback during practice. Excluding these elements limits the ability to distinguish between true dysfunctional movement patterns and a simple lack of movement skill.
Thiazolidinedione Use, Fluid Retention, and Congestive Heart Failure: A Consensus Statement From the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association

Diabetes is a chronic, progressively worsening disease associated with a variety of microvascular and macrovascular complications. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the main cause of death in these patients.1,2 During the past decade, numerous drugs have been introduced for the treatment of type 2 diabetes that, used in monotherapy or in combination therapy, are effective in lowering blood glucose to achieve glycemic goals and in reducing diabetes-related end-organ disease. Two such drugs, rosiglitazone and pioglitazone, belong to the class called thiazolidinediones (TZDs). 3 Troglitazone, the first agent of this class to be approved, was effective in controlling glycemia but was removed from the market because of serious liver toxicity. Both rosiglitazone and pioglitazone are indicated either as monotherapy or in combination with a sulfonylurea, metformin, or insulin when diet, exercise, and a single agent do not result in adequate glycemic control4 (package insert Avandia [rosiglitazone maleate; GlaxoSmithKline] and Actos5 [pioglitazone hydrochloride; Takeda Pharmaceuticals]). In addition to lowering blood glucose, both drugs may benefit cardiovascular parameters, such as lipids, blood pressure, inflammatory biomarkers, endothelial function, and fibrinolytic status.6,7 These beneficial effects of TZDs on glycemia and cardiovascular risk factors have made them attractive agents in patients with type 2 diabetes who are at high risk for CVD. There is a growing recognition, however, that edema can occur in patients treated with either drug. Because people with diabetes are at increased risk for CVD and many have preexisting heart disease, the edema that sometimes accompanies the use of a TZD can be cause for concern, as it may be a harbinger or sign of congestive heart failure (CHF). An analysis of Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized with the diagnosis of diabetes and CHF indicated that the number of these patients discharged on TZDs had increased from 7.2% to 16.2% over a …
A compact output stage for low-power low-distortion amplifier with diode negative feedback

This paper describes a compact output stage for low-power rail to rail operational amplifier. A negative feedback diode could be used to decrease even harmonic distortion and simplify frequencies compensation. The amplifier is designed to be loaded 20pF capacitive load, and the unity-gain bandwidth is 200 KHz at 65° phase margin. The quiescent current is limit to 45uA when voltage supply is 5V. The THD down to −95dB when signal frequency at 1 KHz. Finally, this circuit has been thoroughly simulated in a standard 0.8um bipolar process.
Local programming methods and conventions Universal Turing Machine

Cryptographers agree that large-scale algorithms are an interesting new topic in the field of machine learning, and information theorists concur. In fact, few information theorists would disagree with the synthesis of 802.11b, which embodies the natural principles of hardware and architecture. In order to achieve this aim, we disprove that though neural networks and linked lists can cooperate to achieve this intent, the acclaimed compact algorithm for the emulation of rasterization by Martin et al. [54, 58, 59, 62, 68, 70, 95, 99,99,114,114,114,114,129,148,152,168,179,188, 191] runs in Ω(n) time.
Historical Origins of the Cost-Push Fallacy

Increased global competition, rapid technological progress, cheapened imports, falling health-care costs, declining power of trade unions -- can such factors account for the persistent U.S. disinflation of the 1990s? Not according to the writings of David Ricardo, Henry Thornton, Knut Wicksell, Irving Fisher, and Gustav Cassel. They demonstrated that real shocks to costs determine the relative prices of specific goods rather than the average of all prices. Monetary policy, not real cost shocks, determines the general price level and its rate of change.
Explaining Why so Many People Do Not Save

There are vast differences in wealth holdings, even among households in similar age groups. In addition, a large percentage of U.S. households arrive close to retirement with little or no wealth. While many explanations can be found to rationalize these facts, approximately thirty percent of households whose head is close to retirement have done little or no planning for retirement. Planning is shaped by the experience of other individuals: individuals learn to plan for retirement from older siblings. They also learn from the experience of old parents. In particular, unpleasant events, such as financial difficulties and health shocks at the end of life, provide incentives toward planning. In addition, planning affects wealth levels as well as portfolio choice. Individuals who plan are more likely to hold large amounts of wealth and to invest their wealth holdings in high return assets, such as stocks. Thus, planning plays an important role in explaining the saving behavior of many households.
The Million-Key Question - Investigating the Origins of RSA Public Keys

Can bits of an RSA public key leak information about design and implementation choices such as the prime generation algorithm? We analysed over 60 million freshly generated key pairs from 22 open- and closedsource libraries and from 16 different smartcards, revealing significant leakage. The bias introduced by different choices is sufficiently large to classify a probable library or smartcard with high accuracy based only on the values of public keys. Such a classification can be used to decrease the anonymity set of users of anonymous mailers or operators of linked Tor hidden services, to quickly detect keys from the same vulnerable library or to verify a claim of use of secure hardware by a remote party. The classification of the key origins of more than 10 million RSA-based IPv4 TLS keys and 1.4 million PGP keys also provides an independent estimation of the libraries that are most commonly used to generate the keys found on the Internet. Our broad inspection provides a sanity check and deep insight regarding which of the recommendations for RSA key pair generation are followed in practice, including closed-source libraries and smartcards.
Visible Cohesion: A Comparison of Reference Tracking in Sign, Speech, and Co-Speech Gesture

Establishing and maintaining reference is a crucial part of discourse. In spoken languages, differential linguistic devices mark referents occurring in different referential contexts, that is, introduction, maintenance, and re-introduction contexts. Speakers using gestures as well as users of sign languages have also been shown to mark referents differentially depending on the referential context. This article investigates the modality-specific contribution of the visual modality in marking referential context by providing a direct comparison between sign language (German Sign Language; DGS) and co-speech gesture with speech (German) in elicited narratives. Across all forms of expression, we find that referents in subject position are referred to with more marking material in re-introduction contexts compared to maintenance contexts. Furthermore, we find that spatial modification is used as a modality-specific strategy in both DGS and German co-speech gesture, and that the configuration of referent locations in sign space and gesture space corresponds in an iconic and consistent way to the locations of referents in the narrated event. However, we find that spatial modification is used in different ways for marking re-introduction and maintenance contexts in DGS and German co-speech gesture. The findings are discussed in relation to the unique contribution of the visual modality to reference tracking in discourse when it is used in a unimodal system with full linguistic structure (i.e., as in sign) versus in a bimodal system that is a composite of speech and gesture.
Interactive Exploration of the AFS File System

Managing file systems of large organizations can present significant challenges in terms of the number of users, shared access to parts of the file system, and securing and monitoring critical parts of the file system. We present an interactive exploratory tool for monitoring and viewing the complex relationships within the Andrews File System (AFS). This tool is targeted as an aid to system administrators to manage users, applications and shared access. We tested our tool on UNC Charlotte’s Andrews File System (AFS) file system, which contains 4554 users, 556 user groups, and 2.2 million directories. Two types of visualizations are supported to explore file system relationships. In addition, drill-down features are provided to access the user file system and access control information of any directory within the system. All of the views are linked to facilitate easy navigation.
The Identification of Students Who Are Gifted and Have a Learning Disability: A Comparison of Different Diagnostic Criteria

Students who are gifted and have a learning disability (GLD) may not be identified, in part because of disagreement regarding appropriate identification criteria. In this study, suggested GLD identification criteria were applied to a nationally representative sample of school-age students to determine the number and characteristics of students identified by each set of GLD criteria. Many but not all students identified as potentially GLD had relative weaknesses in lower order processing abilities and achievement, as hypothesized for this population. Students also exhibited academic strengths, which suggests dual differentiation would be appropriate. Commonly used intraindividual discrepancy criteria identified most potentially gifted students as potentially learning disabled; therefore, these are not valid stand-alone criteria to identify learning disabilities in gifted youth. Results suggest it may be best to combine alternative gifted criteria, an intraindividual LD criterion, and examination of absolute deficits in processing and achievement. Additional implications for research and practice are discussed.