Paradigmatic Uniformity: Evidence from Heritage Speakers of Spanish

Subject-verb agreement mismatches have been reported in the L2 and heritage literature, usually involving infinitives, analyzed as default morphological forms for fully specified T-heads. This article explores the mechanisms behind these mismatches, testing two hypotheses: the default form and the surface-similarity hypotheses. It compares non-finite and finite S-V mismatches with subjects with different persons, testing whether similarity with other paradigmatic forms makes them more acceptable, controlling for the role of verb frequency. Participants were asked to rate sentences on a Likert scale that included (a) infinitive forms with first, second and third person subjects, and (b) third person verbal forms with first, second and third person subjects. Two stem-stressed verbs (e.g., tra.j-o ‘brought.3p.past’) and two affix-stressed verbs (e.g., me.ti-o ‘introduced.3p.past’), varying in frequency were tested. Inflectional affixes of stem-stressed verbs are similar to other forms of the paradigm both phonologically and in being unstressed (tra.j-o ‘brought.3p.past’ vs. trai.g-o ‘bring.1 p.pres’), whereas affixes of affix-stressed verbs have dissimilar stress patterns (me.ti-o ´introduced.3p.past’ vs. me.t-o ‘introduce.1p.pres’). Results show significantly higher acceptability for finite vs. non-finite non-matching, and for 1st vs. 2nd person subjects. Stem-stressed verbs showed higher acceptability ratings than affix-stressed ones, suggesting a role for surface-form correspondence, partially confirming previous findings.

Situation-Specific Speaking Anxiety: University-Level Students’ Experiences

Second language (L2) learners are very keen to master speaking in their L2, and this is among the most important of all language skills. However, speaking anxiety is a major obstacle to successful L2 learning. This study was designed to investigate university-level students’ attitudes towards speaking in English and their experience of anxiety. 81 participants who majored in English with an average age of 21.8 years were recruited. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews and administered a four-point Likert-scale questionnaire with 18 items, designed to address three constructs: a) fear of speaking in English; b) fear of making mistakes in English; and c) fear of being judged by others. The findings showed that although the participants were generally unconcerned about speaking English, their attitudes were different when they were asked about specific situations. When asked about their fear of making mistakes in front of their classmates, or of being judged by them, they agreed that in those circumstances they would experience anxiety.

Evaluation of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Teachers of SMK Negeri 6 Malang (Case Study of Electrical Power Installation Engineering and Autotronic Engineering)

This study aims to determine the level of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) proficiency. This type of research is descriptive quantitative research. The instruments used to measure TPACK are in the form of questionnaires and interview questionnaires using a Likert scale with 5 scales. The samples of this study were Electrical Power Installation Engineering (EPIE) teachers at SMK N 6 Malang, totaling 7 people and Autotronic Engineering (AE) teachers at SMK N 6 Malang totaling 6 people. The results of the study are EPIE teachers' TK skills are in very good criteria with an average of 68, while AE teachers' kindergarten skills are in good criteria with an average of 53. EPIE teachers' PK skills are in good criteria with average - an average of 67.3, while the PK skills of AE teachers are in good criteria with an average of 75.2. EPIE teachers' CK skills are in very good criteria with an average of 31, while the CK skills of AE teachers are in very good criteria good with an average of 31. EPIE teachers' TCK skills are in very good criteria with an average of 26, while AE teachers' TCK skills are in good criteria with an average of 22. EPIE teachers' PCK skills are at criteria very good with an average of 57, while the PCK skills of AE teachers are in very good criteria with an average of 56. EPIE teachers' TPK skills are in good criteria with an average of 26.6, while the TPK skills of AE teachers are at good criteria with an average of 26.8. EPIE teachers' TPACK skills are in good criteria with an average of 18.4, while AE teachers' TPACK skills are in good criteria with an average of 18.2.

Decompression of the Greater Occipital Nerve for Occipital Neuralgia and Chronic Occipital Headache Caused by Entrapment of the Greater Occipital Nerve

Background Chronic entrapment of the greater occipital nerve (GON) can not only manifest in typical stabbing pain of occipital neuralgia (ON) but also lead to continuous ache and pressure-like pain in the occipital and temporal areas. However, the effect of GON decompression on these symptoms has yet to be established. We report the follow-up results of GON decompression in typical cases of ON and chronic occipital headache due to GON entrapment (COHGONE). Methods A 1-year follow-up study of GON decompression was conducted on 11 patients with typical ON and 39 COHGONE patients with GON entrapment. The degree of pain reduction was analyzed using the numerical rating scale-11 (NRS-11) score and percent pain relief before and 1 year after surgery. A success was defined by at least a 50% reduction in pain measured via NRS-11 during the 12-month follow-up. To assess the degree of subjective satisfaction, a 10-point Likert scale was used. Postoperative outcome was also evaluated using the Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) pain intensity score. The difference in GON decompression between the patients with typical ON and those with COHGONE was studied. Results GON decompression was successful in 43 of 50 patients (86.0%) and percent pain relief was 72.99 ± 25.53. Subjective improvement based on a 10-point Likert scale was 7.9 ± 2.42 and the BNI grade was 2.06 ± 1.04. It was effective in both the ON and COHGONE groups, but the success rate was higher in the ON group (90.9%) than in the COHGONE group (84.6%), showing statistically significant differences in the results based on average NRS-11 score, percent pain relief, subjective improvement, and BNI grades (p < 0.05, independent t-test). Conclusion GON decompression is effective in chronic occipital headache and in ON symptoms induced by GON entrapment.

Leveraging AI and Machine Learning for National Student Survey: Actionable Insights from Textual Feedback to Enhance Quality of Teaching and Learning in UK’s Higher Education

Students’ evaluation of teaching, for instance, through feedback surveys, constitutes an integral mechanism for quality assurance and enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education. These surveys usually comprise both the Likert scale and free-text responses. Since the discrete Likert scale responses are easy to analyze, they feature more prominently in survey analyses. However, the free-text responses often contain richer, detailed, and nuanced information with actionable insights. Mining these insights is more challenging, as it requires a higher degree of processing by human experts, making the process time-consuming and resource intensive. Consequently, the free-text analyses are often restricted in scale, scope, and impact. To address these issues, we propose a novel automated analysis framework for extracting actionable information from free-text responses to open-ended questions in student feedback questionnaires. By leveraging state-of-the-art supervised machine learning techniques and unsupervised clustering methods, we implemented our framework as a case study to analyze a large-scale dataset of 4400 open-ended responses to the National Student Survey (NSS) at a UK university. These analyses then led to the identification, design, implementation, and evaluation of a series of teaching and learning interventions over a two-year period. The highly encouraging results demonstrate our approach’s validity and broad (national and international) application potential—covering tertiary education, commercial training, and apprenticeship programs, etc., where textual feedback is collected to enhance the quality of teaching and learning.

Subjective norms as a mediation of the opportunity to donate factors and agreeableness personality that can affect the intention to donate

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of subjective norms as a mediation between the relationship opportunity to donate and agreeableness personality on intention to donate. This research includes a quantitative approach with a survey method distributed to 400 participants of BPJAMSOSTEK East Java Province using a Likert scale. Data analysis using SEM using WarpPLS 6.0 software. The results of this study state that subjective norms can be a link between the opportunity to donate and in accordance with the intention to donate. This can increase the intention to donate for BPJAMSOSTEK participants. The increased intention to donate owned by participants will increase participants who donate.

Computational tool for learning electrostatic physics through the development of a disruptive methodology

A computational tool for learning electrostatic physics is presented through the development of a disruptive methodology. The tool allows the analysis of case studies based on Coulomb’s law, Gauss’s law, Poisson’s equation, and Laplace’s equation with boundary value. The tool was tested using reference exercises for each case study, making use of quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis between the traditional mathematical development and the computational tool. Errors were measured using Likert scale. The quantitative results showed errors of less than 1.8% in all the cases studied, concluding that the tool is effective. The qualitative results showed that the methodology allows a better development of the electrostatics learning process, dynamizing the study of complex topics such as electromagnetic physics theories through interactivity and technological resources, in addition to having a theoretical module developed using agile methodologies that provide dynamism and an intuitive environment to the interface.

Inclinations of greenhouse farmers in Turkey toward agricultural insurance

ABSTRACT: This study is explored the reasons why greenhouse farmers take out and do not take out agricultural insurance as well as the farmers’ inclinations toward agricultural insurance and the factors that affect them so that agricultural insurance can be improved. In this context, three districts of Antalya where greenhouse farming is intensively carried out, namely Aksu, Serik and Kumluca, were selected as the research location, and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 200 farmers, 100 of which had agricultural insurance and 100 of which did not. The farms were divided into two groups, namely, those with and without insurance, according to the data obtained. The potential statistical relationship between some selected features of the farms under study and the farmers with and without insurance was identified by chi-square test. Furthermore, the inclinations, views and opinions of farmers with and without agricultural insurance concerning agricultural insurance were evaluated using a Likert scale. Among the reasons why farmers take out agricultural insurance are insuring their crop, avoiding any potential loss, securing their income and presence of disaster risk. The main reasons why farmers do not take out agricultural insurance is the registration and share problems of their lands.

An Interactive Approach to Emotional Expression Through Musical Cues

Previous literature suggests that structural and expressive cues affect the emotion expressed in music. However, only a few systematic explorations of cues have been done, usually focussing on a few cues or a limited amount of predetermined arbitrary cue values. This paper presents three experiments investigating the effect of six cues and their combinations on the music's perceived emotional expression. Twenty-eight musical pieces were created with the aim of providing flexible, ecologically valid, unfamiliar, new stimuli. In Experiment 1, 96 participants assessed which emotions were expressed in the pieces using Likert scale ratings. In Experiment 2, a subset of the stimuli was modified by participants (N = 42) via six available cues (tempo, mode, articulation, pitch, dynamics, and brightness) to convey seven emotions (anger, sadness, fear, joy, surprise, calmness, and power), addressing the main aim of exploring the impact of cue levels to expressions. Experiment 3 investigated how well the variations of the original stimuli created by participants in Experiment 2 expressed their intended emotion. Participants (N = 91) rated them alongside the seven original pieces, allowing the exploration of similarities and differences between the two sets of related pieces. An overall pattern of cue combinations was identified for each emotion. Some findings corroborate previous studies: mode and tempo were the most impactful cues in shaping emotions, and sadness and joy were amongst the most accurately recognised emotions. Novel findings include soft dynamics being used to convey anger, and dynamics and brightness being the least informative cues. These findings provide further motivation to investigate the effect of cues on emotions in music as combinations of multiple cues rather than as individual cues, as one cue might not give enough information to portray a specific emotion. The new findings and discrepancies are discussed in relation to current theories of music and emotions.

Analysis of farmers’ perceptions of the rice farming AUTP program in Landak Regency

Farmers in Landak Regency more frequently face uncertainty and risk of rice farming failure. Therefore, a program that can protect the farmers from the risk is required. Rice farming business insurance (AUTP) is an alternative to overcome the risk of loss due to crop failures. The limited information and knowledge of farmers regarding the AUTP have led to different perceptions among farmers and have affected the farmers’ enthusiasm to become the insurance participants. This research aimed to analyse the farmers’ perceptions of the AUTP program and its implementation mechanisms in Sengah Temila Subdistrict, Landak Regency. A descriptive method with Likert scale was used to analyse the farmers’ perceptions. The research results show that the farmers’ perceptions are at high category with the total score of 3048, indicating that they agree with the AUTP; the highest indicator (195) was that the program objective is protecting the farmers from crop failures, and the lowest indicator (153) was that the program gets success when the farmers agree to pay the insurance premium fully. In general, the implementation of the AUTP in Landak Regency was in accordance with the 2018 AUTP Premium Assistance Guidelines.