Silent Devotion

On my first day I stepped into class, I attempted to avoid nervousness and unfamiliarity which usually happens to all freshmen. My first class started at 9:05; I saw a lot of people sitting in class, and I thought that I was already late. I opened the door and everyone looked at me like a stranger. The one who looked at me with a tender smile was Professor Jennifer K*, my math teacher. She asked me whether or not I should be in her class at this time; politely, I answered her that my class started at 9:05. Then she told me that I should be in her next class. I was embarrassed and ran out of class. But one thing I realized was that my math professor was a friendly person. She made me feel like I was still in high school

Exploring Language Learning Motivation and Strategies in Viet-namese High School Students: A Case Study in Ho Chi Minh City

This study investigates the motivation and learning strategies of high school students in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and explores the relationship between these two factors. The research involved 76 students from Dang Khoa private high school who completed adapted questionnaires to assess their types of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic) and language learning strategies. Instruments were modified from established scales - Chang's (2005) and Vaezi's (2008) for motivation, and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning, Version 7.0 (Oxford, 1989) for strategies. The findings indicate that the extrinsic motivation (e.g., external pressures, instrumental goals) was more prevalent than intrinsic motivation (e.g., personal interest, enjoyment) among the participants. In addition, a positive correlation was found between motivation level and strategised learning. Students with stronger motivation tended to employ a wider range of learning strategies. Based on these results, the study concludes with recommendations for educators to enhance student motivation and support their strategic use of learning practices for effective English language acquisition

The Relationship Between Sleep and Night Eating on Weight Loss in Individuals with Severe Mental Illness

Introduction: Insomnia and night eating is associated with weight gain in individuals with Severe Mental Illness (Palmese, et al., 2011). Poor sleep, night eating, and psychiatric medications may hinder weight loss which, in turn, can sustain obesity in individuals with psychiatric disabilities. Purpose: The study examined the relationship of sleep and avoidance of night eating on weight loss in individuals who participated in the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program for Weight Loss. Question: Will self-report of the frequency of getting enough sleep and avoidance of night eating predict weight loss? Design: This secondary analysis focuses on data from participants in a weight loss intervention group (N=34) after 3 month of intervention. Methodology: Sleep and night eating scores from the Pender Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II and total score of the Night Eating Questionnaire, respectively, served as predictor variables. Changes in body weight from baseline to 3 months was the criterion variable. Findings: No significant correlation (.354, p=0.24) was found between the Night Eating Questionnaire score and weight loss while report of sleep and weight loss were correlated (-3.44, p=0.05). Because scores on participants' perception of getting enough sleep and total score for the Night Eating Questionnaire were intercorrelated (-.507, p=0.09) and because only scores from 12 participants on the Night Eating Questionnaire were available, a bivariate regression was performed on weight loss and frequency of getting enough sleep. The frequency of getting enough sleep that accounted for weight loss was low (R2= .119). Discussion: Self- report of getting enough sleep is a poor predictor of weight loss. Future studies examining weight loss in this population should use a more robust measure of sleep, and an increased sample size.University of Kansas School of Nursing. Bachelor of Science in Nursing Honors Progra

Context-dependent feature analysis with random forests

In many cases, feature selection is often more complicated than identifying a single subset of input variables that would together explain the output. There may be interactions that depend on contextual information, i.e., variables that reveal to be relevant only in some specific circumstances. In this setting, the contribution of this paper is to extend the random forest variable importances framework in order (i) to identify variables whose relevance is context-dependent and (ii) to characterize as precisely as possible the effect of contextual information on these variables. The usage and the relevance of our framework for highlighting context-dependent variables is illustrated on both artificial and real datasets.Comment: Accepted for presentation at UAI 201

Optimizing model-agnostic Random Subspace ensembles

This paper presents a model-agnostic ensemble approach for supervised learning. The proposed approach is based on a parametric version of Random Subspace, in which each base model is learned from a feature subset sampled according to a Bernoulli distribution. Parameter optimization is performed using gradient descent and is rendered tractable by using an importance sampling approach that circumvents frequent re-training of the base models after each gradient descent step. The degree of randomization in our parametric Random Subspace is thus automatically tuned through the optimization of the feature selection probabilities. This is an advantage over the standard Random Subspace approach, where the degree of randomization is controlled by a hyper-parameter. Furthermore, the optimized feature selection probabilities can be interpreted as feature importance scores. Our algorithm can also easily incorporate any differentiable regularization term to impose constraints on these importance scores

The Demand of Urban Consumers for Safe Pork in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

This study applied the contingent valuation method to analyze the consumers’ demand for the proposed safe pork. The data was collected by face-to-face interviewing 884 urban households in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. The results revealed that the majority of consumers (about 64%) paid attention to the proposed safe pork. Their willingness to pay was about VND 176,000 ($ 7.65) per kg, nearly double compared to the market price of conventional pork. The results showed that the respondents who had higher household income, larger proportion of elderly and children in the family, paid higher price of a conventional pork, and get more knowledge score on the safe pork are more likely, while the respondents who have more number of family members are less likely to pay for the proposed safe pork

Video Quality Assessment: From 2D to 3D - Challenges and Future Trends

International audienceThree-dimensional (3D) video is gaining a strong momentum both in the cinema and broadcasting industries as it is seen as a technology that will extensively enhance the user's visual experience. One of the major concerns for the wide adoption of such technology is the ability to provide sufficient visual quality, especially if 3D video is to be transmitted over a limited bandwidth for home viewing (i.e. 3DTV). Means to measure perceptual video quality in an accurate and practical way is therefore of highest importance for content providers, service providers, and display manufacturers. This paper discusses recent advances in video quality assessment and the challenges foreseen for 3D video. Both subjective and objective aspects are examined. An outline of ongoing efforts in standards-related bodies is also provided