Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phonological Short-term Memory and Foreign Language Learning

This study investigated links between short-term memory skills and children’s abilities to learn the vocabulary of a foreign language taught in school. Forty-® ve Greek children who were learning English as a foreign language were assessed on their short-term memory in both languages, and on their knowledge of both native and foreign vocabulary. Knowledge of native and foreign vocabulary shared highly signi® cant associations with the phonological short-term memory measures. However, vocabulary scores in the two languages shared a close relationship that could not be explained exclusively in terms of phonological loop capacity. Implications of these ® ndings for theoretical accounts of how words are learned in the native and foreign language are considered. Cette eÂ tude explore les liens entre les habileteÂ s de meÂ moire aA court terme et la capaciteÂ des enfants aA apprendre le vocabulaire d’une langue eÂ trangeA re. Quarante-cinq enfants grecs ont eÂ teÂ eÂ valueÂ s au plan de leur meÂ moire aA court terme et de leur connaissance du vocabulaire dans les deux langues (grec et anglais). La connaissance du vocabulaire dans les deux langues est fortement associeÂ e aux mesures de meÂ moire a court terme phonologique. Cependant, meA me si la relation entre les deux scores de connaissance du vocabulaire est treA s forte, celle-ci ne peut eA tre expliqueÂ e exclusivement en terme de capaciteÂ de la boucle phonologique. La discussion porte sur les implications de ces reÂ sultats pour des hypotheA ses theÂ oriques expliquant l’apprentissage des mots dans une langue maternelle et dans une langue eÂ trangeA re.
FRACTIONAL AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ALKALINE LIGNINS FROM CAREX MEYERIANA KUNTH

Successive extractions with distilled water, 0.25% NaOH-95% ethanol solution, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2% NaOH aqueous solutions at a solid-liquid ratio of 1:25 (g mL -1 ) at 80 °C for 3 h from Carex meyeriana Kunth released 4.4%, 6.9%, 10.9%, 13.2%, 7.9% and 4.9% of the original lignin, respectively. The physico-chemical properties and structural features of these lignin fractions were comprehensively characterized by HPLC, GPC, NMR spectroscopy, and TGA. The alkali concentration increment had a positive influence on the purity of the lignin fractions, but a negative influence on the average molecular weight and thermal stability. The FT-IR spectra showed that the lignin fractions had similar structural features with those of HGS lignin. The 1 H, 13 C and 2D NMR spectra illustrated that typical lignin fractions had predominantly β-O-4 aryl ether linkages followed by β-β and β-5’ ones.
LOW COST VISION SYSTEM FOR MACHINE ATTENDANCE

The paper presents the development of the low cost machine vision system based on open source libraries. The system is to be used for pick and place tasks in machine attendance or assembly operations. Application, which runs under Linux based operating systems, and uses hierarchical edge matching algorithm, is developed for this purpose. Experimental results show that object recognition robust to illumination changes can be achieved in partially occluded images, with average computation time of 6 seconds, using inexpensive hardware components. Results also show potential of open source systems as platform for similar industrial applications.
Conceptualizing “Race” and Racism in Health Disparities Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Critically analyzing how language and discourse influence health policy agendas to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities (REHD) supports social work’s commitment to address oppression and marginalization. Various institutions construct health policy agendas regarding REHD without explicitly conceptualizing terms such as “race,” “racism,” “African American/Black,” “Latino/a,” “Asian,” and “White”, and their relationship to racialized health outcomes. However, there is limited research examining the inherent ideologies and meaning related to racial concepts, which rely heavily on conveying historical influences through discourse over time. The purpose of the current qualitative study is to explore how policy initiatives to address REHD conceptualized “race” and racism. By employing grounded theory (GT) and critical discourse analysis (CDA), the study examined the discourse underpinning city, state, and national policy agendas to eliminate REHD. The study’s findings highlighted how terminology, assigned meanings, and ideology are replicated over time to reproduce a non-critical analysis of “race” and racism. The resulting implications suggest that conceptualizing “race” void of understanding differential racial health outcomes as racism omits the structural, historical, and ethical characteristics of racial concepts. Within health disparities discourse, the meanings assigned to “race” and racism ultimately influence which interventions are identified to address REHD.
Anatomical studies of the testes of wild African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) in spawning and non-spawning seasons in Maiduguri, Nigeria

The study was aimed at documenting the gross and histology of testes of wild African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) during spawning and non-spawning seasons in Maiduguri. Grossly, the testes were lobulated and whitish during the spawning season; during non-spawning season the lobulations were not clear and it was pinkish in colouration. Histologically, the testes were encapsulated with connective tissue fibres and the dense interstitial connective tissue divided the testis into wide compartments with presence of spermatozoa during the spawning season. During non-spawning season, the seminiferous tubules were markedly reduced with clusters of dormant spermatogonia. The tunica albuginea covering the testis was of loose connective tissue but the underlying dense collagen fibres divided the testis into trabeculae containing seminiferous tubules when viewed at higher magnification. The epithelium of the seminiferous tubules also contained spermatogenic cells. Also during the spawning season, different shapes and sizes of seminiferous tubules containing darkly stained spermatozoa undergoing regeneration were observed.
Comparing Robot Embodiments for Social Human-Robot Interaction of a Health Coach Service

As robotics technologies are advancing at an ever increasing rate, various types of service robots have emerged in the market and focused on assisting people through social interaction. This study aims to investigate the effects of robotic platforms on users’ perception of a socially assistive robot, to better understand whether people respond differently to a physical robot versus its digital representation on screen. By applying the Wizard of Oz method, a three-condition experiment was conducted to compared participants' responses in a health coaching session with (a) a physical, humanoid robot coach, (b) its full size, 3D animated agent coach displayed on a 37inch TV screen, or (c) a much smaller animated agent coach on a mobile. The results showed that participants’ responses to the physical robot coach differed from their responses to its digital representations (agent coaches). In addition, the display device for an agent coach also affected participants’ subjective and behavioral responses to the health coach service. Participants appreciated more and disclosed more with the physical robot coach and the agent coach on TV, than with the agent coach on mobile device. In all subjective evaluations, the attitudes of the participants were most positive toward physical robots, except trust. Instead, the agent coach on the TV was the most trusted. To conclude the study, implications for robotic platforms in HRI were discussed.
Deducing explicit from implicit visibility for global illumination with antiradiance

The antiradiance method, a variant of radiosity, allows the computation of global illumination solutions without determining visibility between surface patches explicitly, unlike the original radiosity method. However, this method creates excessively many links between patches, since virtually all elements exchange positive and negative energy whose interplay replaces the visibility tests. In this paper we study how and if explicit visibility information can be recovered only by analyzing the link mesh to identify chains of links whose light transport cancels out. We describe heuristics to reduce the number of links by extracting visibility information, still without resorting to explicit visibility tests, e.g. using ray casting, and use that in combination with the remaining implicit visibility information for rendering. Further, to prevent the link mesh from growing excessively in large scenes in the beginning, we also propose a simple means to let graphic artists define blocking planes as a way to support our algorithm with coarse explicit visibility information. Lastly, we propose a simple yet efficient image-space approach for displaying radiosity solutions without any meshing for interpolation.
The impact of object organization and its attentional modulation in a visual scene

Two objects are presented simultaneously, defined by shape and color, which suffer some mutations in certain local features, to measure the attentional blink’s (AB) effect, which is evident in case of different-object transitions. Results proof that the attentional transitions established between two features of a single object are easier than transitions between two features belonging to different objects, and, in addition, this isn’t a homogeneous effect on the visual field, so there is a favored hemi field in such transitions. A N230 component is obtained with higher amplitude for same-object transitions in relation with different-object transitions. These results are compared with other design that separate the mutant attributes from base figures, and then the behavioral effect is annulled.
Fabrication and Characterisation of Flexible Coaxial Thin Thread Supercapacitors

Flexible coaxial thin thread supercapacitors were fabricated semi-automatically using a dip coating method. A typical coaxial thin thread supercapacitor of a length of 70 cm demonstrated a specific length capacitance of 0.3 mF cm−1 (11.2 mF cm−2 and 2.18 F cm−3) at 5 mV s−1, the device exhibited good electrochemical performance with a high volume energy density of 0.22 mWh cm−3 at a power density of 22 mW cm−3. Thread supercapacitors were assembled in series and parallel combinations, the accepted models for series and parallel circuit combinations were obeyed for two coaxial thread supercapacitors. The thread shows high flexibility and uniformity of specific length capacitance, one integrated with a commercial solar cell could be charged and power a LED. The process is simple, robust and easy to scale up to make unlimited length thread supercapacitors for numerous miniaturized and flexible electronic applications.
Enhancing Business Intelligence Quality with Visualization: An Experiment on Stakeholder Network Analysis

intelligence (BI) has gained a strategic importance in today's global competitive environment. However, high-quality BI is not easy to obtain on the Web due to information overload and difficulty to present complicated relationships among various types of business stakeholders. Unfortunately, existing BI tools lack the capability of analyzing and visualizing such relationships and research on BI systems is sparse. In this paper, we review the current market of BI tools and related research, describe an approach to support the development of tools that provide high-quality BI, and report the findings of a user evaluation study of the prototype developed based on the proposed approach. The approach combines information visualization and Web mining techniques with human knowledge to enable business analysts to analyze and visualize complicated business stakeholder relationships. Results of an experiment involving 62 subjects show that the prototype significantly outperformed a traditional method of BI analysis in terms of efficiency, quality of BI, and user satisfaction. The subjects provided favorable comments and expressed strong preferences toward the prototype in most applications. This research contributes to advancing BI research and to providing new empirical findings for BI systems evaluation.
The Difference between the Returns to Shareholders of UK Acquirers Involved in Domestic and Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions

This paper examines the difference between the reaction of the market to the announcement of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions by focusing on the returns to acquirers’ shareholders around the announcement date. Based on a sample of 585 domestic and foreign acquisitions made by UK public acquirers over the period 1996-2003, and after applying the event study methodology using three benchmark methods which are the mean-adjusted method, the market model method and the market-adjusted method; the results in general show significant positive returns to shareholders in domestic mergers and acquisitions whereas insignificant negative abnormal returns to shareholders in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Overall, cross-border acquisitions result in lower announcement returns than domestic acquisitions
Positive Information vs. Negative Information: Whether Humans Can Learn from Mistakes

In this study, we analysed an experience-based learning process in which part icipants received immediate feedback in formation as a reaction to right choices and to mistakes made. Informat ion was measured as non-randomness in the distributions of right and wrong choices. The data obtained provide evidence that the majority of the part icipants could use both positive and negative informat ion while learn ing. A small but conspicuous proportion of the part icipants could learn exclusively through the use of negative feedback informat ion, i.e., through their own mistakes.
Frequency of depression, anxiety and stress in military Nurses

Aims: Nurses are among professional groups that are affected by psychological factors and stress and anxiety and stress are their common problems. The objective of this study was to examine the abundance of depression, anxiety and stress among a group of military nurses. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed from February 2008 until April 2009 on 272 nurses working in a selected military hospital who were selected by probable multi stage sampling method. Data was collected by a two-part questionnaire containing individual data and DASS-21 Standardized Questionnaire. The test consists of 21 items including three 7-question subscales of depression, anxiety and stress. Analysis was done by SPSS 15 software. Results: Results showed 24.9% rate of depression, 27.9% anxiety and 23.8% stress among military nurses. Depression scores were higher among female nurses. There was co-relation between prevalence of stress and anxiety with level of education and ward. Conclusion: The high prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms among military nurses is alarming. The development of adequate and appropriate support services for this group leads to healthy nurses and therefore health promotion.
WELL-POSEDNESS OF HIGHER DIMENSIONAL CAMASSA-HOLM EQUATIONS

We formulate the n-dimensional Camassa-Holm (CH) equation on an arbitrary compact Riemannian manifold with boundary, and show that these equations are well-posed with respect to Dirichlet or Navier-slip boundary conditions. The method of proof consists in showing that the physically relevant H 1 -like Riemannian metrics admit a smooth geodesic spray on the dieomorphism groups associated to the above boundary conditions.
Optimal Real Consumption and Asset Allocation for a Hara Investor with Labour Income

In this paper, we take into account a very general setting with : (i) a set of stochastic investment opportunities, (ii) a set of risky assets, (iii) a riskless asset paying a stochastic interest rate, (iv) a stochastic inflation risk, (v) stochastic labor income , and (vi) HARA preferences. We compute a quasi-explicit solution for both the optimal consumption and asset allocation. This solution is based on two changes in the probability measure. We also show that the investor behaves as if he could rely on his wealth augmented by the expected value of all his “forward real labor incomes”
Gender Differences in Perceptions of the Marketing Stimuli of Family Owned Businesses (FOBs)

The purpose of this study is to compare (by gender) the perceptions by consumers of the marketing activities of family owned businesses (hereafter referred to as FOBs) in the United States. A mail survey of US consumers was used. The statistically significant results indicate that both males and females are generally receptive to most of the creation, communication, delivery, and exchange of product and service offerings of family owned business or ‘FOBs. ’ However, the price of FOB offerings is not perceived as reasonable. In addition, customer perceptions did not vary by gender for most items. One activity where differential views resulted pertained to sales promotion. Specifically, “coupon redemption” is significantly perceived more favorably by females than males. The results suggest that while managers of FOBs should emphasis their “family business” status in their marketing presentations, they should not expect different responses to their activities based on gender.
Importance of Transgenic Fish to Global Aquaculture: A Review

Many faster growing transgenic fish including both cold water (salmon, trout) and warm water (tilapia, carp) species have been produced. The development of transgenic fish can serve as excellent experimental models for basic scientific investigations, environmental toxicology and in biotechnological applications. The fast growth characteristic of GH gene transgenic fish will be of great importance to support aquaculture production and economic efficiency. The transgenic fish are efficient feed converter, thus more economical for the fish farmer as the feed accounts for 60-70% of total cost in aquaculture.
Recursive Partitioning Methods for Data Imputation in the Context of Item Response Theory: A Monte Carlo Simulation

Abstract Missing data is a common problem faced by psychometricians and measurement professionals. To address this issue, there are a number of techniques that have been proposed to handle missing data regarding Item Response Theory. These methods include several types of data imputation methods - corrected item mean substitution imputation, response function imputation, multiple imputation, and the EM algorithm, as well as approaches that do not rely on the imputation of missing values - treating the item as not presented, coding missing responses as incorrect, or as fractionally correct. Of these methods, even though multiple imputation has demonstrated the best performance in prior research, higher MAE was still present. Given this higher model parameter estimation MAE for even the best performing missing data methods, this simulation study’s goal was to explore the performance of a set of potentially promising data imputation methods based on recursive partitioning. Results of this study demonstrated that approaches that combine multivariate imputation by chained equations and recursive partitioning algorithms yield data with relatively low estimation MAE for both item difficulty and item discrimination. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Induction of callogenesis and rhizogenesis in Perovskia abrotanoides Karel., a little known medicinal plant

The present study was carried out to investigate in vitro callogenesis and direct rhizogenesis of Perovskia abrotanoides Karel. for the first time. This medicinal plant grows in various regions of Iran. Leaf explants were incubated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different concentrations and combinations of auxins like IAA, IBA and NAA (0.5 to 4 mg/L) with cytokinins like Kin and BA (0.1 to 0.75 mg/L). Callus induction from leaf explants was achieved at all MS media containing auxins in combination with cytokinins. Most of these treatments revealed 100% callogenesis response. Callus initiated in MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/L IAA in combination with 0.75 mg/L Kin, showed the highest dry weight to fresh weight ratio (0.234±0.2054 mg). Calli grown at MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/L NAA and 0.75 mg/L BA, produced more dry (43.63±12.01) and fresh weight (1150.9± 86.4) than other treatments. Results showed that the MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/L NAA was the best medium to induce adventitious roots. In this treatment, percentage of rhizogenesis and the number of roots per explant were recorded as 84.61% and 46.400±14.258, respectively. Callus and adventitious root cultures of P. abrotanoides were established successfully. Key words: Perovskia abrotanoides, callogenesis, rhizogenesis, plant growth regulators.
Molecular Markers: An Excellent Tool for Genetic Analysis

The exploitation of DNA polymorphisms by an ever-increasing number of molecular marker technologies has begun to have an impact on animal and plant genome research and breeding. A large number of different molecular techniques for genetic diversity analysis are available and each of them differs in its informational content. These techniques not only helped in understanding the different structure and behavior of species genome, but also revolutionized and modernized the ability to characterize genetic variation. Identification of marker linked to useful traits has been based on complete linkage maps and bulked segregation analysis. Markers are therefore used to identify traits, their inheritance and characterize germplasm.
Quelles pratiques différenciées pour l’enseignement de l’orthographe lexicale ? Une recension des écrits

Malgre la quantite d’ecrits sur la differenciation pedagogique, peu d’entre eux visent a appliquer son cadre conceptuel a des contenus scolaires. Cet article propose de croiser les pratiques en orthographe lexicale et ce cadre. Une recension des ecrits a ete effectuee dans differentes bases de donnees. L’anasynthese a ete employee pour analyser les donnees recueillies et elaborer une modelisation de la differenciation en orthographe lexicale. De nombreuses pistes de differenciation pedagogique sont proposees a la suite de cette categorisation dans les quatre axes de la differenciation pedagogique : contenu,processus, structure et production.
THE CHALLENGE OF ENTROPIC SOCIETY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

Africa is a continent enmeshed in serial entropy th e creation of entropic institutions. Although the concrete basis of life is entropic and a finite pro cess, the level of disorder in the continent has er oded the socio-economic and political fabric of the people. Different measures have been put in place to addre ss biophysical problems associated with this negative entropy through institutions of sustainable development governance. However, sustainability re gime faces serious challenges not just from without , but from within. The reinvention of neoliberal whee ls as sustainable development instead of limiting t his developmental shortfall is redefining processes, ch anging the how, when and what policy makers do to stem damages inflicted on the biosphere. The paper analysis the challenge of sustainable development governance framed within the general approach of political ecology linking environmental change to policies and institutions. We note that there are c ontradictions and challenges inherent in Africa’s q uest of transiting to a post fossil fuel future. Poverty an d need are major impediments to Africa’s development as lopsided policy process in an ecologically finite w orld is bringing the continent to its biophysical l imits. For that, Africa faces multiform tension between gr een economy and sustainability with deleterious consequences for the green development trajectory. We sum that the major challenge Africans are now with is not just how to formulate appropriate polic ies but how domestic sources of fund for green development can be explored such that their weak ec onomic foundation is not completely eroded.