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This article reports on the development and validation of the Informal Second Language Engagement questionnaire (ISLE) for capturing various aspects of learner engagement with informal second language practices. Whereas other questionnaires have primarily focused on learner behavior (the frequency, quantity, and diversity of informal activities in which learners engage), the ISLE additionally targ

Background: The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and morbidity of neck pain with or without cervical rhizopathy, upper extremity motor deficit and/or thoracolumbar pain in elderly men. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire study of 3,000 community-dwelling older men with a mean age of 75.4 ± 3.2 years (range 69–81) to determine if they had experienced neck pain

Background: The aim of this study was to compare performance on the six-minute walk test (6MWT) performed over 15 m and 30 m courses by children and youths with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: Children and youths with CP at Gross Motor Function Classification System levels I–IV performed the 6MWT in a straight 15 m-long corridor (first trial) and 30 m-long corridor (second trial). The intraclass cor

We demonstrate a significant improvement in the optical performance of GaAs nanowires achieved using a mixed nitrogen-hydrogen plasma which passivates surface states and reduces the rate of nonradiative recombination. This has been confirmed by time-resolved photoluminescence measurements. At room temperature, the intensity and lifetime of radiative recombination in the plasma-treated nanowires wa

We present property probes, a mechanism for helping a developer interactively explore partial program analysis results in terms of the source program, and as the program is edited. A node locator data structure is introduced that maps between source code spans and program representation nodes, and that helps identify probed nodes in a robust way, after modifications to the source code. We have dev

Despite the benefits of a diverse approach to crop pollination, global food production remains reliant on a low diversity of managed pollinators, especially the European honey bee (Apis mellifera). To facilitate more robust pollinator management and improve the resilience of the production system, it is necessary to understand regional variation in the pollination ecology of global food crops. Wat

There is a general consensus that private car ownership is a significant barrier to transport system change, specifically in regard to injuries, space, air pollutants, or greenhouse gas emissions. Observed changes in automobile characteristics also suggest that the system is becoming less sustainable, given trends towards larger cars with greater mass and horsepower. It is thus relevant to underst

We apply insights from the political economy of secession to analyse the early years of the Irish Free State (IFS). The IFS was fortuitous in a debt settlement that enabled it to begin its existence debt free while also receiving financial assistance to quell civil unrest. Yet the IFS was unable to continue to provide the welfare spending inherited from the old regime thereby exacerbating inequali

Background: Clinical Impression of Severity Index for Parkinson's Disease (CISI-PD) is a simple tool that can easily be used in clinical practice. Few studies have investigated the relationship between health-related quality of life and the CISI-PD. Objective: To analyze the association of CISI-PD scores with those of generic (EQ-5D-5L) and Parkinson's disease (PD) disease-specific (Parkinson's Di

The design of an adaptive controller with bounded L2-gain from disturbances to errors for linear time-invariant systems with uncertain parameters restricted to a finite set is investigated. The synthesis of the controller requires finding matrices satisfying non-convex matrix inequalities. We propose an approach for finding these matrices based on repeatedly linearizing the terms that cause the no

The manuscript is devoted to optimal control for a class of linear positive systems with linear objective function and linear constraints. The solution to the corresponding Bellman equation is a linear value function, which can be found by linear programming.

In this paper, we linear quadratic team decision problems, where a team of agents minimizes a convex quadratic cost function over T time steps subject to possibly distinct linear measurements of the state of nature. We assume that the state of nature is a Gaussian random variable and that the agents do not know the cost function nor the linear functions mapping the state of nature to their measure

We study network SIR (Susceptible - Infected - Recovered) epidemic models in the case of two interacting populations. We analyze the dynamics behavior of the fractions of infected individuals in the two populations. In contrast to the classical scalar SIR epidemic model, where the fraction of infected individuals is known to have an unimodal behavior (either decreasing throughout time or initially

Within the Action Plan for Humanitarian Adaptation to Climate Change initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office a new and innovative framework to humanitarian action is developed, the forecast-based financing mechanism. This scientifically based funding system shall enable practitioners and donors to react faster to oncoming natural extreme events, while supporting local communities in adaptin