До питання про шляхи українських економічних реформ

An increasing number of schools offer bilingual programs, where lessons are taught in more than one language. Several theories state that bilinguals have greater metalinguistic awareness than monolinguals. We investigated whether this greater metalinguistic awareness is also related to an increased ability to understand an unknown language. To measure metalinguistic awareness and the ability to understand text written in an unknown language, we designed the Indonesian Language Test (ILT). The ILT consists of items regarding a story in Indonesian. Dutch high school students from monolingual and bilingual classes were administered the ILT, a Dutch Language Test, an English Language Test, and a general intelligence test. The ILT showed promising psychometric properties. Bilingual students scored significantly higher on the ILT than monolingual students. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses showed (i) that ILT measures the ability to understand an unknown language, and (ii) that bilingual students score significantly higher than monolingual students on this ability. Both observations support the notion that bilingual education increases metalinguistic awareness and therefore the ability to understand an unknown language

A new limit on the Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray flux with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope

A particle cascade (shower) in a dielectric, for example as initiated by an ultra-high energy cosmic ray, will have an excess of electrons which will emit coherent \v{C}erenkov radiation, known as the Askaryan effect. In this work we study the case in which such a particle shower occurs in a medium just below its surface. We show, for the first time, that the radiation transmitted through the surface is independent of the depth of the shower below the surface when observed from far away, apart from trivial absorption effects. As a direct application we use the recent results of the NuMoon project, where a limit on the neutrino flux for energies above $10^{22}$\,eV was set using the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope by measuring pulsed radio emission from the Moon, to set a limit on the flux of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Monitor 2016/2017 Buurtsamenwerking Helpman/de Wijert Lectoraat Duurzaam Coöperatief Ondernemen:deel II uit de onderzoeksserie Monitor Lectoraat Duurzaam Coöperatief Ondernemen

Het lectoraat noemt dit Next Education, Next Governance en Next Business. Het lectoraat is nauw verbonden met Buurtsamenwerking Helpman/de Wijert, waarin alle hiervoor genoemde modellen tot uiting komen. In de Buurtsamenwerking wordt gezamenlijk een weg gezocht om ondernemers, overheid, wijkbewoners en onderwijs met elkaar te verbinden om samen te werken aan toepasbare oplossingen voor actuele vraagstukken. Aan de Buurtsamenwerking Helpman/de Wijert is de Innovatiewerkplaats verbonden. Annet Muller-ter Veen is als manager van de Innovatiewerkplaats verantwoordelijk voor het operationaliseren van de verbinding tussen alle partijen. Daarvoor vertaalt zij actuele vraagstukken naar concrete projecten, waarbij zich Community’s of Innovative Learners (COIL’s) vormen vanuit de participanten van het onderwijs, overheid, ondernemers en wijkbewoners. Al

Validation and verification of the GeneFinder (TM) COVID-19 Plus RealAmp kit on the ELITe InGenius (R) instrument

Background: Throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a rapid identification of the virus was essential to quickly recognize positive cases and limit further spread by applying appropriate infection prevention. Many diagnostic laboratories use a multiplex Real-Time PCR assay, as they are not only highly sensitive but also specific. Currently, there are several assays and platforms in the market available which target different SARS-CoV-2 genes. The aim of this study was to validate and verify the GeneFinder (TM) COVID-19 PLUS RealAmp kit on the ELITe InGenius (R) instrument and compare to the national reference method. Methods: GeneFinder (TM) COVID-19 PLUS RealAmp kit was evaluated against the routine WHO in- house RealTime PCR assay, which is also the national reference method in the Netherlands and used in our laboratory. The sensitivity was tested using the analytical panel from Qnostics (Glasgow, United Kingdom) and the specificity was tested with patient material comprising of other seasonal respiratory viruses. In addition, 96 clinical samples initially analyzed by routine Real-Time PCR were tested using the GeneFinder (TM) COVID-19 PLUS RealAmp kit on the ELITe InGenius (R) instrument. Results: The GeneFinder (TM) COVID-19 PLUS RealAmp kit had a similar performance compared to routine in-house testing, with a limit of detection of 500 dC/mL for the RdRp-gene and E gene. Meanwhile, the N gene showed a limit of detection of 50 dC/mL. The SARS-CoV-2 test was highly specific and detected no other respiratory viruses. The results of the clinical samples were comparable between both assays with similar Ct values observed for the in-house Real-Time-PCR and the GeneFinder (TM) COVID-19 PLUS RealAmp kit for the N gene. Conclusion: The GeneFinder (TM) COVID-19 PLUS RealAmp kit on the ELITe InGenius (R) instrument had an appropriate sensitivity and specificity that could be used in small scale laboratories or during night shifts where accurate diagnostics are crucial

The Impact of Management Control on Employee Motivation and Performance in the Public Sector

This study examines the relations among various types of management control, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and performance in the public sector. We draw on motivation crowding theory and self-determination theory to argue that four different types of management control (i.e. personnel, cultural, action, and results control) are likely to have an influence on intrinsic motivation and/or extrinsic motivation. We test a structural equation model using survey data from 105 similar departments in the public sector. Our findings indicate that the use of personnel and cultural controls is positively associated with employees’ intrinsic motivation, and that the use of results controls is positively associated with employees’ extrinsic motivation. Moreover, both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are positively associated with performance. Taken together, these findings support the idea advocated by New Public Management proponents that results control can enhance employee motivation and performance in the public sector. However, the findings also highlight an essential nuance; in addition to results control, personnel and cultural controls are also important, as they enhance intrinsic motivation and performance. This implies that a sole focus on results control is too narrow and can lead to suboptimal levels of employee motivation and performance in the public sector

An air shower array for LOFAR: LORA

LOFAR is a new form of radio telescope which can detect radio emission from air showers induced by very high-energy cosmic rays. It can also look for radio emission from particle cascades on the Moon induced by ultra high-energy cosmic rays or neutrinos. To complement the radio detection, we are setting up a small particle detector array LORA (LOfar Radboud Air shower array) within an area of $\sim 300$ m diameter in the LOFAR core. It will help in triggering and confirming the radio detection of air showers with the LOFAR antennas. In this paper, we present a short overview about LORA and discuss its current status.Comment: 10 pages (using article.cls), 6 figures, accepted for the proceedings of 22nd European Cosmic Ray Symposium, 3-6 August 2010, Finlan

Ultra-Slow Discharges That Precede Lightning Initiation

We report on ultra-slowly propagating discharge events with speeds in the range 1-13 km/s, much lower than any known lightning process. The propagation speeds of these discharges are orders of magnitude slower than leader or streamer speeds, but faster than the ion drift speed. For one particular event, a lightning leader forms about 40 ms later within 50 m of the discharge, likely within the same high field region. A second slow event forms 9 ms prior to the initiation, and leads into the negative leader. Most slow events appear to not be directly involved with lightning initiation. This suggests that the classic streamer cascade model of initiation is not always a definitive process. In this work we describe these discharge events displaying unique behavior, their relation to common lightning discharges, and their implications for lightning initiation

Do large language models solve verbal analogies like children do?

Analogy-making lies at the heart of human cognition. Adults solve analogies such as \textit{Horse belongs to stable like chicken belongs to ...?} by mapping relations (\textit{kept in}) and answering \textit{chicken coop}. In contrast, children often use association, e.g., answering \textit{egg}. This paper investigates whether large language models (LLMs) solve verbal analogies in A:B::C:? form using associations, similar to what children do. We use verbal analogies extracted from an online adaptive learning environment, where 14,002 7-12 year-olds from the Netherlands solved 622 analogies in Dutch. The six tested Dutch monolingual and multilingual LLMs performed around the same level as children, with MGPT performing worst, around the 7-year-old level, and XLM-V and GPT-3 the best, slightly above the 11-year-old level. However, when we control for associative processes this picture changes and each model's performance level drops 1-2 years. Further experiments demonstrate that associative processes often underlie correctly solved analogies. We conclude that the LLMs we tested indeed tend to solve verbal analogies by association with C like children do