Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Authentic and Instructional Materials to Support Intercultural Communicative Competence in ELT

The paper presents a study carried out in 2015-2016 within the national scheme of research VEGA 1/0106/15 based on theoretical research and empirical verification of the concept of intercultural communicative competence. Our research has revealed how the concept of intercultural communicative competence had been perceived by secondary-school teachers of English in Slovakia before they were intensively trained. Intensive workshops were based on the use of both authentic and instructional materials with the goal to support interculturally oriented language teaching aimed at challenging thinking. The former concept that supported the development of the students’ linguistic knowledge and the use of a target language to obtain information about the culture of the country whose language learners were learning was expanded by the meaning-making framework which views language as a typical means by which culture is mediated. The goal of the workshop was to influence English teachers to better understand the concept of intercultural communicative competence, combining theory and practice optimally. The results of the study will be presented and analysed, providing particular recommendations for language teachers from which English learners should benefit in their future studies or professional careers.
'ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND RESISTANCE DILEMMAS' RESOLUTION APPROACHES AND MECHANISMS

Change management initiatives in contemporary organizations face numerous challenges resulting from rigid organizational structures, improper communication of the change vision, and sabotage from various quarters affected by the change initiatives. This paper addresses the phenomenon of change and outlines the dilemmas that often accompany change management initiatives at various stages of implementation. The paper goes ahead to demonstrate that change management is not a bad idea after all. The paper also suggests a way out for resolution of change dilemmas in organizations.
Integrin alfa3beta1 and tetraspanin CD151 in particular in the skin and the kidney

Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva. nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.
An Empirical Examination of the EUA Emission Rights Market Investigation of the price dynamics of EUA future contracts

Since the introduction of an international market for emission rights researchers are still trying to determine the price dynamics of these instruments, which are traded in a market that bears no resemblance to any other equity or commodity market to date. In our thesis we apply econometric analysis and derivative theory to find factors that affect the prices of EUA futures. We use regression analysis and ARIMA modeling, combined with ARCH and GARCH modeling for error term variance. Although we find that major equities and interest rates are weakly correlated with EUA returns, we can establish that when modeling EUA future returns with a threshold GARCH process we obtain significantly better results than previous studies. Since the sample period is largely affected by extreme observations during the initial trading period we also broke the sample down into sub-periods and repeated the tests. Our findings suggest that while the initial sub-period shows significant autoregressive behavior, the latter period follows a random walk. We also determine whether the standard cost of carry approach can be applied to link EUA spot and future prices. We find that there are significant convenience yields in the EUA market for the first sub-period, while the second shows no significant convenience yields. We finally conduct ARIMA modeling and test for convenience yield for the first half of 2008. Our results indicate that there is a positive convenience yield of holding future contracts and the autoregressive behavior has diminished, signifying that the market follows a random walk.
Composition and nutritional value for chickens and rats of seeds, cake and solvent meal from low-glucosinolate yellow-seeded spring rape and dark-seeded winter rape

The chemical composition and nutritional value of seeds, press-cakes and solvent meals produced under the same processing conditions from yellow-seeded spring Brassica rapa (YSR), and dark-seeded winter Brassica napus (DSR) rape were determined. Both varieties were of double low type. YSR products contained more protein and less fibre than DSR products, YSR meal contained less glucosinolates and had a similar concentration of amino acids (g/16 gN) as DSR meal. The nutritional value of DSR and YSR seeds and products was evaluated in two experiments on 261 broiler cockerels; press-cakes and solvent meals also in 4 experiments on 212 male rats. In chickens, the energy value of all YSR products was considerably higher than DSR due to greater fat digestibility. In rats, the nutritional value of protein (TD, BV, NPU) and energy value of YSR cake and meal were similar or marginally greater than of the respective DSR products. Growth performance of chickens fed isoenergetic diets containing 20% of YSR and DSR meal did not differ from controls. In rats, feed intake and growth rate were negatively correlated with the glucosinolate level in the evaluated products and better on YSR than DSR cake and meal.
Strategic Asset Valuation: A Model Including Asymmetry and Kurtosis in Its Distribution in Continuous Time

The valuation of real assets is a complex problem which influences the strategic decision making in companies, such as decisions to differing or selling a project. Uncertainty takes over the manager when defining the attributes of the density function representing values that could assume the asset in the future. In this issue, we include not only its mean and variance, but also stochastic higher moments of this function (asymmetry and kurtosis). This paper proposes to valuate this type of entrepreneurships using real options theory making adjustments that allow us to abandon the assumption of normal returns in continuous time. This technique permits the expansion’s coefficient to depend also on the higher moments, either the original distribution or the approach one. Therefore, we obtained theoretical solutions to asset valuations that would have been impossible to solve.
A Novel Efficient Host Detecting Scheme in SDN

Data centers with millions of physical and virtual end hosts are now the basis for many Internet and cloud computing services. Hence, it is no longer practical to employ the traditional flooding method for host detecting in such large networks. In order to improve the efficiency of host detecting among millions of hosts, we present a novel Software Defined Networking (SDN) based broadcast scheme in this paper. In most of the existing SDN technologies, the centralized Controller usually outputs messages to every port of all switches for broadcasting. However, in our scheme, a broadcast tree is previously created and corresponding instructions are installed into the switches as flow entries by the Controller. Hence, the Controller only needs to send a message to one switch, and then the informed switch will automatically spread the message to entire network along the broadcast tree. Therefore, the heavy broadcast task is transferred from the Controller to the distributed switches, which greatly alleviates the burden on the Controller and reduces the interactions between the Controller and switches. Moreover, a prototype is developed and the experimental results prove the good efficiency of the presented broadcast scheme. Keywords—Broadcast; SDN; Host detecting scheme
Antifungal, antibacterial and antioxidant properties of Adansonia digitata and Vitex doniana from Bnin pharmacopeia

The dichloromethane, methanol and hydroethanolic extracts from leaves of Vitex donianaand stem bark of Adansonia digitata have been investigated for their antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant activities and toxicity. The antifungal activity has been investigated against six species of Aspergillus by measuring the mycelial and sporulation inhibitions. The antimicrobial activity was investigated against six Gram positive and Gram negative strains using the microplate dilution method. The phytochemical study was performed on thin layer chromatography and antioxidant activity was measured using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging test. The sporulation inhibition percentage was 70% while mycelial inhibition was less than 40%. The minimum inhibitory concentration ranged from 0.039 to 2.5 mg/ml. In DPPH radical scavenging assay, the effect on reducing free radicals increased in a dose dependent manner. Three extracts out of six were very active compared to quercetol, with inhibition percentage ranging from 77.39 to 86.55%. The results supported the utilization of these plants in infectious diseases and also showed these plants as good sources for antioxidants. Key words: Antifungal, antibacterial, antioxidant, Adansonia digitata, Vitex doniana.
The Impact of Higher Secondary Assessment Systems on the Tertiary-Level Academic Performance: An Empirical Study

In Australia there is no centrally administered nationwide assessment system for students who complete their final year (Year 12) of high school. Each state and territory uses its own Year 12 assessment system. Apart from Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, all states and territories use externally set competitive examinations. The Queensland and Australian Capital Territory systems focus on continuous assessment that commences when students begin Year 11. Hence, policymakers at the state, territory and federal levels in Australia are debating over which of the Year 12 systems is superior, that is, an externally set competitive examination or a school/collegebased continuous assessment system? If one of the assessment systems is superior to the other, then it is expected that the superiority should be reflected by the students’ subsequent academic performances at their tertiary-level studies. In this article we specifically addressed this issue and compared the academic performances of these two groups of students at an Australian university in their first year of a business degree. We found no difference in their academic performances in the subjects studied. The empirical evidence provided in the article does not, therefore, support the claim that one system is superior to the other. Essentially, both systems have their inherent merits and demerits. The merits of one system are offset by the merits of the other system and vice versa.
Application of Polymer Interlayers in Silicon–Carbon Nanotube Heterojunction Solar Cells

We explore the use of polymers as a conducting interlayer within silicon–carbon nanotube heterojunction photovoltaics. Three types of devices have been fabricated and characterized including silicon–carbon nanotube, silicon–conducting polymer and silicon–conducting polymer–carbon nanotube. The conducting polymers studied were polyaniline, poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate). A thin conducting polymer interlayer significantly improves photovoltaic performance by creating a better depletion layer within the underlying silicon. With the addition of a top antireflection layer, a photovoltaic device, silicon-poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate)–carbon nanotube–poly(styrene) has been fabricated with a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 8.7 %.
Small Mammal Populations and Food Selection in Relation to Timber Harvest Practices in the Western Cascade Mountains

Smali mammals were snap+rapped in a maturc conifer forest, unburoed clearcuts, and burned clear, cJr in rhe Nesrern Cast adc Mountains io cenrral Washingron. Thc large5r populdr,ons $ere In un burned clcarcuts, atrd rhe smallest overall popularioo *ai in tte f". e"i. S;; tu1ub;idg;t w; aie mosr abundant ioee.Tivofe caughr. Cletbrionomys gapperi \Na.t the moat abundaot . odeni ca"ght i; mo\r clcnrcurs. and irs prpularion was rhe largest of any species in the srudy area. Orher fucics crught rn.lude S.r,. r nnnri,oltr. Neuot,ithi gtbbtii. Enrana tountendii, Glazcony sab'rinu, Pctun)t-. t t naai.xld! rs. Mi,rott' tnt ttndti, nd ZaDu trinuta.tu. Vegerarion and percenr cover were analyzcd in rhe srudy area, aod small mammal sromarh cootcos o{ all nioe animai spe.cies were examined. In thc forest and burned clearcut, small mammals ate more invcrtebrates than any other food type. In unburned clearcuts, fungi and epiphytic lichens, esp€cially Alectoria sarmento:a, atd con;fer seeds uere the major focxls catcn by rodents. Inlroduclion Io contiguous forests, cover is an important factor limiting small mammal ptesence and relative abundance (Dice l9l1; Getz 1910; Miller and Getz 1.972, 19j3, 1()j7 t Dragavon 1978). Logging and conrrclled burns drastically alter vegetation, ground cover, and soil moisture. Small mammal species react differently to habimt altetations depending oo their specific shelter, eoergy, nuffienr, and moisture requirements (Bunnell and Easrman 1976). Most studies relating small mammal species distribution and abundance in forests have shown a decline in forest dwelling small mammals and an increase in small mammals tyPical of gmssland plant communities wherever forests are logged arrd burned ( Gashwiler 1959, i970; Ahlgren 1966; Miller ar.d, Getz 1,972, 1973, 1977; Sims and Buckner 1973; Hooven and Black 1976). These studies were conducred io areas with a low percentage ol ground cover and ranged over a period of sweral years after clearcutting. Other studies (Kirdand 1977, Martell and Radvanyi 1977) found that after spruce forests wse clearcut, small mammals increased within the first year after logging and then decreased in subsequent years. Ground cover esrimares were not qiven in these studies.
Multisensory Safety : Zintuigbeïnvloeding in de veiligheidszorg- Een verkenning van de mogelijkheden

Veiligheidszorg draait om beinvloeding van gedrag, percepties en emoties van mensen. Langzaam maar zeker begint in de veiligheidzorg de idee te ontstaan dat die beinvloeding (ook) kan plaatsvinden langs andere wegen dan de tot nu toe gebruikelijke. Bijvoorbeeld via directe beinvloeding van de zintuigen. Op diverse andere vakgebieden zijn immers al interessante resultaten met deze manier van beinvloeding geboekt. Op verzoek van het ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties initieerde het Centrum voor Criminaliteitspreventie en Veiligheid daarom een ontwikkelproject. Doel daarvan is praktisch uitvoerbare manieren te vinden om via zintuigbeinvloeding bij te dragen aan veiligheid en veiligheidsbeleving in de (semi) openbare ruimte.
Eigenface Based Recognition of Emotion Variant Faces

In present, the automatic machine based face recognition has become significant due to its urgency in potential application and current scientific challenges of industries. However, most of the existing systems designed up to now can only effectively distinguish the faces when source images are collected under numerous constrained conditions. The success rate or positive impact of face recognition systems depend on a variety of information imposed in images of human faces. Pose of face, facial expression, angle, occlusion and state of structural components are some of those. Emotions can be expressed in different ways that can be seen such as facial expression, speech, written text and gestures. This model propose an efficient approach for the recognition of expression or emotion variant faces since there are very few emotion recognition software tools to handle such problems and there is a significant importance to this research area in the field of face recognition. Especially an approach proposed here to face recognition where the facial expression in the training image set and in the testing image set diverge and only one sample image per class is existing in the system. The input to the system is a frontal neutral expression oriented face image with unique background. In this image the hair is tied away from the face and facial hair should be removed. Principal Component Analysis approach was used as a primary mechanism in the proposed model. This approach has been applied purely on a set of face images in order to extract a set of eigenface images as the output. Here weights of the representation or image are used for recognition of emotions. One of the distance metric approaches Euclidean Distance used to discover the distance with the weight vectors which was associated with each of the training images for the existence of classification task.
Graphene–Metamaterial Photodetectors for Integrated Infrared Sensing

In this work we study metamaterial-enhanced graphene photodetectors operating in the mid-IR to THz. The detector element consists of a graphene ribbon embedded within a dual-metal split ring resonator, which acts like a cavity to enhance the absorption of electromagnetic radiation by the graphene ribbon, while the asymmetric metal contacts enable photothermoelectric detection. Detectors designed for the mid-IR demonstrate peak responsivity (referenced to total power) of ∼120 mV/W at 1500 cm–1 and are employed in the spectroscopic evaluation of vibrational resonances, thus demonstrating a key step toward a platform for integrated surface-enhanced sensing.
Load Static Models for Conservation Voltage Reduction in the Presence of Harmonics

The Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR) is a technique that aims to achieve the decrease of power consumption as a result of voltage reduction. The customer is supplied with the lowest possible voltage level compatible with the stipulated level by the regulatory agency. International Standards ANSI C84.1-2006 and IEEE std 1250-1995 specify the range of supply voltage to electronics equipment from 0.9 to 1.05 pu of nominal voltage. To analyse the CVR effect in distribution systems with different load characteristics (residential, commercial, industrial or a combination of these), mathematical load models are used. Typically, these equipment/load models are used to analyse load aggregation without any consideration of its nonlinearity characteristics. Aiming to analyse the nonlinear characteristics and its consequences, this paper presents a discussion of the neglected variables as well as the results of a set of measurements of nonlinear loads. Different mathematical models are applied to obtain them for each load. Using these models the load aggregation is evaluated. It is presented that although the models show adequate results for individual loads, the same does not occur for aggregated models if the harmonic contribution is not considered. Consequently, to apply the load model in CVR it is necessary to consider the harmonics presence and the model has to be done using only the fundamental frequency data. The discussion about the causes is done and the models are compared with the measurements.
Modelling electrical transport in nano-particle composites using 3D network analysis

Conductive composites consist of a conductive filler dispersed within an insulating matrix. These composite materials have been known for many years and are regularly produced experimentally and commercially for a variety of applications. Novel techniques are now being found for creating composites that exhibit conductivity with less conductive filler material than classical physics suggests is sufficient if the particles are uniformly distributed. Several parties have offered physical explanations for the characteristics of their composites by incorporating a blend of classical and quantum physics but few attempts have been made to compare explanations or develop any mechanism to simulate the physics. The model presented in the present work incorporates first principles physics and semi-empirical theory to account for the distribution of particles within a composite and calculate resultant conductivity using three dimensional network analysis. Results from several model iterations are presented and they are compared with published experimental results. The model demonstrates that a random distribution of spherical particles smaller than 200 nm at 3% loading, given realistic wave function decay rates and reasonable tunnelling barrier heights, cannot explain experimentally observed conductivities in these composite materials. The final model, using a Voronoi tessellation approach, duplicates the behaviour trend of the composites being simulated and illustrates some gaps in the present material science knowledge of conductive composites.
Voice-operated Home Automation Affordable System using Open-source Toolkits

This report details the development process for a voice-controlled–home-automation system. Manually controlling various devices found in one’s home might be tiresome and for others nigh impossible. This system is able to ease a user’s interaction with home equipment by providing a new, easy to use, interface. The initial phase of the development involved surveying the current field by conducting studies on speech-recognition software and the needs of potential users. These studies provided a foundation for the prototype requirements that acted as the goal for the implementation phases that followed. The report also presents the finished prototype, which is a system capable of interpreting speech as commands. These commands can be formulated in several different ways to make the interaction more natural. After a command has been interpreted an appropriate action is taken on the correct home equipment. In order to control a number of different equipment the control is achieved through radio-controlled outlets. The use of outlets enables the prototype to control most equipment that is controlled with on and off switches. The prototype can also be used with a graphical user interface for any case when the user has problems using his voice.
Human Resources, Poverty, and Regional Development

Human development has moved to centre stage in development theory. Education makes an important contribution to economic growth, but achievement of mass education is important for a number of other reasons as well. Inequality of access to education is a serious issue everywhere, and serves to reinforce the inequality of income. Inequality is evident from the viewpoint of socio-economic background, of gender, and of regional disparities. In a poverty alleviation programme, tackling regional inequalities in education may be crucial, yet it raises many issues. Will expanding educational opportunities only result in frustration if appropriate jobs are not available? Is the key role of education in poor regions to enable educated young people to migrate elsewhere to find better jobs? In international comparisons, Pakistan appears well behind comparable countries in educational development. “Path dependency” means that the legacy of past deficiencies in expanding education will adversely affect Pakistan’s development for decades to come, and what is done now in education will affect development for half a century. A simple projection shows that even with the highly optimistic assumption that by 2030, Pakistan will reach the enrolment rates currently achieved in the United States, the proportion of the working-age population in that year with no education or only primary school education would still be as high as 35 percent. This underlines the need for a strong drive to expand educational opportunity.