Varying Approaches to Readability Measurement

L’article présente et analyse trois mesures de la lisibilité qui ont été développées depuis le début du vingtième siècle jusqu’à aujourd’hui : les mesures classiques, les mesures à teneur cognitive et les mesures qualitatives basées sur le jugement humain.Les mesures dites classiques sont celles qui sont les plus largement utilisées. Elles tiennent compte de certaines particularités du texte pour mesurer la lisibilité comme la difficulté des mots et la complexité des phrases. Les mesures à teneur cognitive considèrent la structure du texte et ses aspects sémantiques. Les mesures qualitatives basées sur le jugement humain ont une approche plus heuristique qui considèrent l’ensemble des difficultés d’un texte selon une évaluation plus subjective.La présentation de chacune de ces mesures souligne le cadre théorique sous-jacent, les particularités du texte et les aspects mesurés, sa fiabilité et sa validité ainsi que les domaines d’application où elle est utilisée.The article discusses the three approaches to readability measurement that have been developed from the early 1900s to the présent—classic readability, cognitive-structural readability, and judgment-qualitative approaches. The classic approaches to readability are the most widely used. They use similar text features to predict readability—some aspects of word difficulty and some measure of sentence complexity. The cognitive-structural approaches are concerned more with the structure of a text and its meaning. The judment-qualitative approaches do not rely on specific features but on a qualitative judgement of overall difficulty.Each of these approaches is further treated in terms of its underlying theories, the text features and characteristics mesured, its reliability and validity and its practical uses

Language Modeling by Clustering with Word Embeddings for Text Readability Assessment

We present a clustering-based language model using word embeddings for text readability prediction. Presumably, an Euclidean semantic space hypothesis holds true for word embeddings whose training is done by observing word co-occurrences. We argue that clustering with word embeddings in the metric space should yield feature representations in a higher semantic space appropriate for text regression. Also, by representing features in terms of histograms, our approach can naturally address documents of varying lengths. An empirical evaluation using the Common Core Standards corpus reveals that the features formed on our clustering-based language model significantly improve the previously known results for the same corpus in readability prediction. We also evaluate the task of sentence matching based on semantic relatedness using the Wiki-SimpleWiki corpus and find that our features lead to superior matching performance

Language and literacy skills of home and international university students: How different are they, and does it matter?

Although international students experience lower attainment at university than home students (Morrison et al., 2005), reasons are poorly understood. Some question the role of language proficiency as international students come with required language qualifications. This study investigated language and literacy of international students who successfully met language entry requirements and those of home students, matched on non-verbal cognition, studying in their native language. In a sample of 63 Chinese and 64 British students at a UK university, large and significant group differences were found at entry and eight months later. Furthermore, language and literacy indicators explained 51% of variance in the Chinese group’s grades, without predicting the home students’ achievement. Thus language proficiency appears predictive of academic outcomes only before a certain threshold is reached, and this threshold does not correspond to the minimum language entry requirements. This highlights a systematic disadvantage with which many international students pursue their education

Чинники ефективності антикризового управління суб'єктами господарювання в економіці України

У статті розглядаються проблеми формування підходів організації антикризового управління суб'єктами господарювання в економіці України. На ґрунті вітчизняного та зарубіжного досвіду й результатів власних досліджень автора запропоновано психологічний тип антикризового менеджера. (The article is devoted to the problems of forming of approaches of organization of anticrisis management by the subjects of menage in the economy of Ukraine. On the base of domestic and foreign experience and results of own researches of author the psychological type of anticrisis manager is offered.

Awe and Positive Affect: the Role of Self-Transcendence and Self-Focused Attention

The present study discussed the mechanism behind awe’s ability to improve affect. Proposed mechanisms include a lowered level of self-focused attention and a heightened level of self-transcendence since awe experiences have been found to decrease self-interest and significance (Bai et al., 2017; T. Jiang & Sedikides, 2021). To examine self-focused attention and self-transcendence as potential mediators for the relationship between awe and positive affect, this study utilized therapeutic writing techniques. In a between-subjects design, participants were randomly assigned to write about either a personal experience of awe or a neutral experience. Following this, participants filled out questionnaires assessing affect, level of awe induced, self-focused attention, and self-transcendence. Ultimately, 431 participants (college student from the Department of Psychology) of at least 18 years old were included. Half of the proposed mediation model was supported—only the path from condition to self-transcendent experience to positive affect was significant. This provides support for self-transcendence as a mechanism by which awe improves affect. Additionally, the awe recall writing intervention did relate to significantly greater feelings of awe than the neutral writing intervention, indicating that writing about awe may be an effective method of inducing it. This study addressed the mechanism by which awe has therapeutic effects in an effort to (a) increase knowledge of awe in general, (b) increase knowledge of what makes certain experiential alternatives to talk therapy effective, and (c) assess the effectiveness of writing about awe experiences as a more direct method of accessing the benefits of awe. KEYWORDS: Awe; self-focused attention; self-transcendence; positive affect; well-being

Reinterpreting the development of reading skills

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88027/1/RRQ.40.2.3.pd

The Cost of Producing Eggs in Utah, 1946

The production of poultry and poultry products is one of Utah\u27s major agricultural industries. In 1945, 22 percent of the farm income in Utah was derived from poultry and poultry products. About 10 percent of the total farm income was from eggs

Can normative influences ease the effects of social exclusion?

Being socially excluded has negative effects on a person’s well-being, both mentally and physically. Few studies have succeeded in finding a way to lessen these negative effects. Previous research in other domains have found that positive role models can help people to feel better about themselves and their situations. This study investigates the idea that role models could buffer the negative effects of social exclusion. Fifty-seven participants were either socially excluded, or, in the case of the control condition, included. Then participants were exposed to no essay, a neutral essay, or a role-model essay. Results showed that the role model essay was effective in buffering the negative impacts of social exclusion on the social needs of meaningfulness and self-esteem but not for the needs of control and belongingness. These findings suggest that the role model’s experience is essential to how it improves one’s sense of well-being. Directions for future research involve providing role models that touch on each of the social needs to see if a role model with high control, for example, will lead the reader to feel a higher sense of control. Additionally, these findings lend additional support to the normalization process for how people might cope with life trauma or threats

Evaluating the Effects of Antibody-Conjugated Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Combination with Microwave Irradiation

Cancer remains one of the largest public health concerns of our day, particularly in developed countries where technological advances have allowed populations to live well into their eighth decade. In America, those in their 80’s have a 1 in 2 chance of developing cancer in their lifetime. Prostate cancer, specifically is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in males. Traditional cancer therapies cause high levels of toxicity to the patient due to mechanisms of action that often attack cancer cells and healthy cells alike. The holy grail of cancer research is to find a treatment that targets the cancer cell directly while leaving healthy cells unharmed. The introduction of monoclonal antibodies as a way to target antigens that are highly expressed on cancer cells may be one way to reach this goal. Coupling antibodies with nanomaterials has also shown promising results which is the subject of this study. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) possess the unique ability to be rapidly heated under microwave irradiation. Furthermore, the sidewalls can be modified to attach various molecules and proteins to its surface. This study evaluated MWCNTs conjugated with an antibody directed against prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in combination with microwave irradiation as a potential ablative therapy. This study demonstrates hyperthermic ablation of the muscle cells surrounding antibody-conjugated MWCNTs after microwave irradiation. Additionally, it showed that these nanotubes remain localized at the sight of injection with no evidence of distribution amongst other tissue. Time-lapse confocal microscopy using transgenic zebrafish larvae demonstrated that macrophages and neutrophils are the first immune responders with phagocytosis. These findings support further efficacy studies in a human prostate tumor xenograft mouse model

Model-Groups as Scientific Research Programmes

Lakatos's methodology of scientific research programmes centres around series of theories, with little regard to the role of models in theory construction. Modifying it to incorporate model-groups, clusters of developmental models that are intended to become new theories, provides a description of the model dynamics within the search for physics beyond the standard model. At the moment, there is no evidence for BSM physics, despite a concerted search effort especially focused around the standard model account of electroweak symmetry breaking (also known as the Higgs mechanism). Using the framework provided by Lakatosian research programmes, we can capture the way the periphery of a model-group changes as the available parameter space shrinks, while its central tenets remain untouched by unfavourable experimental findings. By way of motivation, I provide two case studies of model-groups that offer alternative mechanisms for electroweak symmetry breaking: supersymmetry and composite-Higgs models. Both of these model-groups are under pressure from the discovery of the Higgs boson, yet they have both been active research projects in the years after the Higgs discovery. However, a proper assessment of the progress of an ongoing research programme is impossible through a purely Lakatosian lens, so I propose replacing it with Laudan's problem-solving account, which provides ongoing assessment, while offering normative guidance concerning the pursuit-worthiness of research programmes. My incorporation of model-groups into Lakatosian research programmes captures the developments of two attempts to expand our physical description of the world, and Laudan's problem-solving rationality allows us to assess their pursuit-worthiness