Similar Letters Research Articles

Letter identity and visual similarity in the processing of diacritic letters.

Are letters with a diacritic (e.g., â) recognized as a variant of the base letter (e.g., a), or as a separate letter identity? Two recent masked priming studies, one in French and one in Spanish, investigated this question, concluding that this depends on the language-specific linguistic function served by the diacritic. Experiment 1 tested this linguistic function hypothesis using Japanese kana, in which diacritics signal consonant voicing, and like French and unlike Spanish, provide lexical contrast. Contrary to the hypothesis, Japanese kana yielded the pattern of diacritic priming like Spanish. Specifically, for a target kana with a diacritic (e.g., ガ, /ga/), the kana prime without the diacritic (e.g., カ, /ka/) facilitated recognition almost as much as the identity prime (e.g., ガ-ガ = カ-ガ), whereas for a target kana without a diacritic, the kana prime with the diacritic produced less facilitation than the identity prime (e.g., カ-カ < ガ-カ). We suggest that the pattern of diacritic priming has little to do with linguistic function, and instead it stems from a general property of visual object recognition. Experiment 2 tested this hypothesis using visually similar letters of the Latin alphabet that differ in the presence/absence of a visual feature (e.g., O and Q). The same asymmetry in priming was observed. These findings are consistent with the noisy channel model of letter/word recognition (Norris & Kinoshita, Psychological Review, 119, 517-545, 2012a).

Tanzimat Fermanı’nın İlanından Latin Alfabesinin Kabulüne Elifbâ Öğretimi

İslam dünyasında Kur’ân’ın öğrenilmesi ve öğretilmesi, İslam’ın ilk günlerinden itibaren önemli bir vazife olarak kabul edilmiştir. Kur’ân öğretiminin ilk basamağı hiç kuşkusuz Arap alfabesinin öğretilmesidir. Elifbâlar yoluyla yapılan bu öğretim faaliyeti, Kur’ân’ın usulüne uygun olarak okunabilmesi açısından önemlidir. Bu çalışmada Tanzimat Fermanı’nın ilanından Latin alfabesinin kabulüne (1839-1928) kadar geçen sürede ilk mekteplerde okutulan elifbâ dersinin tarihi süreci ele alınmaktadır. Araştırmanın temel problemi, Tanzimat Fermanı’nın ilanından Latin alfabesinin kabulüne (1839-1928) kadar geçen sürede sıbyan mektepleri ve ibtidâî mekteplerde okutulan elifbâlarda Kur’ân nasıl öğretilmiştir? olarak belirlenmiştir. Araştırmada mekteplerdeki elifbâ derslerinde yaşanan problemler ile derslerde kullanılan yöntemlerin tespit edilmesi ve elifbâlardaki gelişimin Kur’ân öğretimi bağlamında değerlendirilmesi hedeflenmiştir. İslam’ın ilk günlerinden günümüze Kur’ân’ın öğrenilmesine ve öğretilmesine büyük önem verilmesine rağmen Kur’ân’ın öğretildiği elifbâlarla ilgili çalışmaların yetersiz olduğu görülmektedir. Bu sebeple çalışmamız elifbâ öğretimi ile ilgili tarihi birikimi ortaya koyması bakımından önem arz etmektedir.Nitel yöntemin kullanıldığı araştırmada doküman analizi yapılmıştır. Çalışmada elifbâ öğretiminin tarihi süreci ile ilgili verilere literatür taraması ve Cumhurbaşkanlığı Osmanlı Arşivlerinden ulaşılmıştır. Çalışmada tetkik edilen 1856-1928 yılları arasında yayımlanmış elifbâlara ulaşmak için Milli Kütüphane başta olmak üzere birçok kütüphanenin katalogları taranmıştır. Ayrıca elifbâları tespit etmek için sahaflara ve koleksiyonerlere de başvurulmuştur. 1856-1928 yılları arasında hazırlanmış 200’ün üzerinde elifbâ tespit edilmiştir. Bu elifbâlar Osmanlı Türkçesi öğretiminde kullanılanlar, Kur’ân öğretiminde kullanılanlar hem Osmanlı Türkçesi hem de Kur’ân öğretiminde kullanılanlar olarak 3’lü tasnife tabi tutulmuştur. Çalışmada hem Osmanlı Türkçesi hem de Kur’ân öğretim elifbâları ele alınmıştır. Bu doğrultuda tespit edilen 62 elifbânın bazıları dijital bazıları ise matbu olarak temin edilmiştir. Elifbâların incelenmesi sırasında betimsel analiz yapılmış, elde edilen veriler yorumlanarak sonuçlara ulaşılmıştır.Araştırmamızın neticesinde sıbyan mekteplerindeki elifbâ derslerinde 19. yüzyılın ortalarına kadar Kur’ân öğretiminin ön planda olduğu, Osmanlı Türkçesi öğretiminin ise ikinci planda kaldığı görülmüştür. Kur’ân ve Osmanlı Türkçesinin öğretiminde yaşanan problemlerin sıbyan mekteplerine kayıt dönemi ve devam zorunluluğu olmaması; buna bağlı olarak derslerin bireysel usul ile yapılması ve tek bir elifbâ kullanılarak hem Kur’ân’ın hem Osmanlı Türkçesinin öğretilmeye çalışılması ile yakından ilgili olduğu belirlenmiştir. 19. yüzyılın ortalarından itibaren Osmanlı Türkçesini öğrenmenin geçmişe nazaran daha önemli hale gelmesinin, sıbyan mekteplerine alternatif olarak açılan ibtidâî mekteplerinde Kur’ân öğretiminin ikinci plana alınmasına sebep olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Özellikle 1890 yılından itibaren Osmanlı Türkçesi öğretmek amacıyla savtî usul ile hazırlanan elifbâlarda harflerin Türkçe seslerinin öğretilmesi, Türkçe açısından benzer sesli harflerin aynı harfmiş gibi kavratılması, Kur’ân okumak için gerekli olan cezm, şedde, med gibi konulara yeterince zaman ayrılmaması Kur’ân öğretimini olumsuz etkilemiştir. Söz konusu problemin çözümüne yönelik olarak Selanik Muallimler Kongresinde alınan kararlar neticesinde 1911 yılından itibaren Kur’ân ve Osmanlı Türkçesi öğretimi için ayrı ayrı elifbâlar hazırlanması da Kur’ân öğretimi açısından önemli bir gelişme olmuştur.Tetkik edilen elifbâlardan hareketle günümüzde Kur’ân öğretiminde kullanılacak elifbâların sesi esas alarak hazırlanmasının öğrenmeyi kolaylaştıracağı, harflerin Arapça seslerinin doğru telaffuz edilebilmesi açısından faydalı olacağı anlaşılmıştır. Ayrıca Kur’ân elifbâsı öğretiminde Türkçe bakımından sesleri birbirine benzeyen ص س ث harflerinin s harfinde birleştirilmeden farklı seslere sahip oldukları vurgulanarak; harflerin tavşanın ﻂ’sı, kurbağanın ﻕ’ı örneklerinde olduğu gibi Arapça harfler ile Türkçe harfler arasında ses bağı kurulmadan öğretilmesinin, Kur’ân’ın doğru telaffuzlarla okunmasını kolaylaştıracağı belirlenmiştir.

ESP Learner Motivations and Perceptions towards International Online Letter Exchange Program

The Online Letter Exchange Program (OLEP) was an online collaborative learning program hosted by the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Miyazaki, Japan. It has collaborated with the Faculty of Agriculture in one of the private universities in Malang. The program is designed to encourage students’ written communication skills and facilitate students with intensive real-life English communication experience with other students around Asia. The participant countries are from Japan, Taiwan, China, and Indonesia. One of its uniqueness lies in the policy that the participants share their specific fields, including agriculture and related fields. This study sought to investigate the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and perception of the students towards the OLEP as it was supplementary activity. The perception included the topic, the platform, and interaction. The data were gained from questionnaires and interviews and were then analyzed using thematic analysis. The result showed that extrinsic motivation was dominant in completing the task in OLEP. The positive and negative perception of the three aspects would be a valuable source for those who attempt a similar online letter exchange program

The Mirror Generalization Process in Reading: Evidence from Korean Hangul.

Mirror invariance or generalisation is the ability to recognise objects as being the same regardless of their spatial orientation. However, when, for example, learning to read Roman script, children need to hone these skills so that they can readily discriminate between mirror letters such as b/d or p/b. Korean Hangul makes a particularly interesting comparison as it has both lateral and vertical perceptually similar mirror letter pairs (i.e., ㅏㅓ, ㅑㅕ, ㅗㅜ, ㅛㅠ). In the current study, we investigated the mirror generalisation effect in native readers of Korean Hangul. We used a similar negative priming paradigm as used by (Ahr et al., Brain and Cognition 117:1-8, 2017) with Roman script readers. In contrast to their findings, we did not find evidence of negative priming due to either lateral (e.g., ㅏ + ㅓ) or vertical (e.g., ㅗ + ㅜ) mirror letter primes in Korean readers. One explanation for these results is that adult readers of Korean Hangul may not experience mirror invariance to the same extent as Roman script readers due to script-specific characteristics. Thus, learning to read this distinctive script may result in readers being less sensitive to mirror reversals than Roman script readers.

Changes in Error Patterns during N-back Training Indicate Reliance on Subvocal Rehearsal

Contemporary cognitive training literature suggests that training on an adaptive task produces improvements only in the trained task or near transfer effects. No study has yet systematically explained the mechanism behind improved performance on the N-back. In this study, we first investigated how improvements in an N-back task using eight pairs of phonologically similar words as stimuli occurred by examining error distributions of the task over training sessions. Nineteen participants (non-native English speakers) trained for 20 sessions over 5 weeks. We observed a reduction in false alarms to non-target words and fewer missed target words. Though the absolute number of phonological-based errors reduced as training progressed, the proportion of this error type did not decrease over time suggesting participants increasingly relied on subvocal rehearsal in completing the N-back. In the second experiment, we evaluated if improvements developed during N-back training transferred to tasks that relied on serial order memory using simple span tasks (letter span with phonologically distinct letters, letter span with phonologically similar letters, digit span forward, and digit span backward). Twenty-nine participants trained on the N-back and 16 trained on the Operation Span (OSPAN) for 15 sessions over 4 weeks. Neither group of participants showed improvements on any of the simple span tasks. In the third experiment, 20 participants (16 native English speakers) trained on the N-back for 15 sessions over 4 weeks also showed increasing reliance on subvocal rehearsal as they progressed through training. Self-report strategy use did not predict improvements on the N-back.

Cursive-Text: A Comprehensive Dataset for End-to-End Urdu Text Recognition in Natural Scene Images.

Reading text in natural scene images is an active research area in the fields of computer vision and pattern recognition as text detection, text recognition and script identification are required. In this data article, a comprehensive dataset for Urdu text detection and recognition in natural scene images is presented and analysed. To develop the dataset, more than 2500 natural scene images were captured using a digital camera and a built-in mobile phone camera. Three separate datasets for isolated Urdu character images, cropped word images and end-to-end text spotting were developed. The isolated Urdu character and cropped word images dataset contain a much larger number of samples than existing Arabic natural scene text datasets. The Urdu text spotting dataset contains images with Urdu, English and Sindhi text instances. However, the focus has been given to the Urdu text instances. The ground truths for each image in the isolated character, cropped word or text spotting datasets are provided separately. The proposed datasets can be used to perform Urdu text detection and recognition or end-to-end recognition in natural scenes. These datasets can also be helpful to develop Arabic and Persian natural scene text detection and recognition systems, as Urdu is a derived language of these scripts and has many similar letters. The datasets can also be helpful to develop multi-language translation systems, which can facilitate foreign tourists to read and translate multilingual text in natural scene images. To evaluate the datasets, state-of-the-art machine learning and deep neural networks were used to build the text detection and recognition models, where the best classification accuracies are achieved. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first dataset proposed for Urdu text detection, recognition or end-to-end text recognition in natural scene images. The aim of this data article is to present a benchmark work in the field of document analysis and recognition.Computer ScienceComputer Vision and Pattern RecognitionTablesFiguresImagesText FilesUsing a digital camera with a 20 megapixels (MP) sensor, an iPhone with a 12 MP back camera and a Samsung mobile with a 16MP back camera.RawAnalyzedEnvironmental factors such as illuminations, blurring and lighting conditions were considered while capturing images. The focus was given to the text within an image.The images in the dataset were obtained from the advertisement banners, sign-boards along the road side and streets, shop name boards, text written on the passing vehicles and walls.The images provided in this dataset were collected in different cities of Sindh, Pakistan.Summarized data are hosted with the article.The datasets and their related files are hosted in a Mendeley public data repository.DOI: https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/k5fz57zd9z/1URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/k5fz57zd9z.1

Influencing Pain Inferences Using Random Numerical Anchoring: Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundNumerical anchoring occurs when exposure to a numeric quantity influences a person’s subsequent judgment involving other quantities. This could be applicable to the evaluation of pain, where exposure to an unrelated number before the evaluation of pain could influence pain ratings.ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine whether exposure to a random numeric anchor influences subsequent pain intensity ratings of a hypothetical patient.MethodsIn this study, 385 participants read a vignette describing a patient with chronic pain before being randomly assigned to one of four groups. Groups 1 and 2 spun an 11-wedge number wheel (0-10), which was, unbeknown to the participants, programmed to stop on a high number (8) or a low number (2), respectively. Group 3 spun a similar letter wheel (A-K), which was programmed to stop on either the letter C or I (control 1). Group 4 did not spin a wheel (control 2). Participants were then asked to rate the patient’s pain intensity using a 0 to 10 numeric rating scale.ResultsThe high-number group rated the patient’s pain (median 8, IQR 2) significantly higher than the letter wheel control (median 7, IQR 2; P=.02) and the low-number group (median 6, IQR 2; P<.001). The low-number group rated the pain significantly lower than controls 1 and 2 (median 7, IQR 2; both P=.045).ConclusionsPain ratings were influenced by prior exposure to a random number with no relevant information about the patient’s pain, indicating anchoring had occurred. However, contrary to the traditional definition of anchoring where anchoring occurs even when participants are unaware of the anchor’s influence, in this study, the anchoring effect was seen only in participants who believed that the anchor had influenced them. This suggests that anchoring effects could potentially occur among health care providers tasked with evaluating a patient’s pain and should be evaluated further.

Can a motivational letter increase attendance to psychological treatment for gambling disorder?

High rates of treatment refusal and dropout have complicated the delivery of psychological treatment for gambling disorder, which continues accumulating evidence for efficacy. Incorporating motivational interviewing and addressing outcome expectations into psychological treatments has been shown to increase overall attendance. However, no studies have investigated whether motivational interviewing and outcome expectations can increase attendance at the initial and subsequent sessions of psychological treatment for gambling disorder. Participants were 69 prospective clients who contacted an outpatient training clinic requesting treatment services for gambling-related problems. They were randomly assigned to receive a mailed letter that incorporated principles of motivational interviewing and addressed outcome expectancies plus a telephone reminder call or to receive a telephone reminder call only. Clients who received the letter plus reminder call were more likely to attend the initial session than were clients who received the reminder call only. Clients receiving the letter were also more likely to reschedule their initial session and less likely to not show up than were clients receiving the reminder call only. There was no significant difference in attendance at subsequent sessions. These results suggest that mailing a similar letter to prospective clients of psychological treatment for gambling disorder is worthwhile, given the associated ease and low cost. Future investigations should further investigate the value of strengthening the motivation of prospective clients and clinics before initial treatment sessions, and they should investigate the distinction between clients who reschedule versus not show up. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Religion, politics and an apocryphal admonition: the German East African “Mecca letter” of 1908 in historical-critical analysis

AbstractThis article analyses a Muslim missive, which was circulated in German East Africa in 1908. Erroneously dubbed the “Mecca letter”, it called believers to repentance and sparked a religious revival, which alarmed the German administration. Their primarily political interpretation of the letter was retained in subsequent scholarship, which has overlooked two important textual resources for a better understanding of the missive: the presence of similar letters elsewhere and the fourteen copies still available in the Tanzanian National Archive. Presenting the first text-critical edition of the letter, together with a historical introduction of the extant specimens and a textual comparison to similar missives elsewhere, the article argues that the East African “Mecca letter” of 1908 was nothing more than a local circulation of a global chain letter. As such, its rapid transmission was not connected to a single political agency, but was likely prompted by a large variety of motivations.

Historiography on the �Siberian� Period of Mikhail Bakunin (1857-1861): A Critical Discourse

paper critically reviews the available scientific and biographical literature, which examines the four-year period of social activity of the Russian thinker and opposition politician Mikhail Bakunin in Siberia during the “thaw” of the late 1850s and early 1860s. purpose of the study is to provide critical perspectives on the myths of historiography that interfere with the reconstruction of Mr. Bakunin’s “Siberian period.” Thus, the author of the article aims to achieve the restoration of Mikhail Bakunin’s place and role in the public life of Russia in those times. In particular, the author refutes the myth that the “great rebel” was allegedly in a voluntary self-isolation during that period of his life. In addition, the dubious source of this historiographical version is critically analyzed, dating back to Mikhail Katkov, a very famous ideologist of imperial conservatism. author argues that the Katkov’s legend turned into a toolbox of official communist historiography, and then it was reproduced virtually unchanged in publications of the Soviet era until the collapse of the dominant regime. First of all, the author proposes to radically rethink the false conception of the Siberian period of Mikhail Bakunin that has become entrenched in historical literature. Second, the author considers it necessary to justify the redirection of the copyright affiliation of some sources of radical revolutionary journalism in 1860-1861 to Mikhail Bakunin, including the famous Letters (1860) to the editorial office of the Russian emigrant newspaper The Bell. Based on the methodology of textual content analysis of the keywords inherent in this journalistic message and similar letters from Mr. Bakunin from Siberia, the author formulates the main conclusion: the real author of this appeal at that moment could be only the closest friend and associate of Alexander Herzen, i.e., Mr. Bakunin himself.

Development and implementation of “advanced cancer shared care letters” to improve shared care between oncologists and family physicians.

37 Background: Optimal care of patients living with advanced cancer requires a collaborative approach between oncologists and family physicians (FPs), starting early in the disease trajectory. We developed and implemented “advanced cancer shared care letters” to improve communication, collaboration and role clarity amongst providers. Methods: A physician-to-physician standardized “advanced cancer shared care letter” for colorectal cancer was created at a Canadian tertiary cancer center with input across stakeholders. The letter is ordered by the oncologist when they determine a patient to have advanced (i.e. incurable) cancer. The letter outlines components of shared care, division of responsibilities, monitoring for complications, responding to oncological emergencies, and consultation services such as palliative care. A cover sheet is provided for FPs to return to confirm their involvement, indicate their comfort level with providing a palliative approach to care (e.g. advance care planning, managing symptoms) and ask questions. Letters were piloted in two gastrointestinal (GI) oncology outpatient clinics for two months, and then implemented in the seven remaining GI clinics over two months. Metrics were collected for five months to evaluate implementation. Results: Over 5 months, 76 shared care letters were ordered; in 5 cases, no FP was identifiable. Cover sheets were returned by 39/71 FPs (55%). Content returned included prognosis questions, goals of care conversations, supportive services available in their practice and those in use by the patient, capacity to manage symptoms (e.g. opioid prescribing), and requests to engage palliative care services. Implementation challenges included frequent change in clerical staff and management, electronic chart challenges and variable adoption. Conclusions: The shared care letter provides a useful mechanism for FPs and oncologists to share information. It increases communication and care coordination between typically siloed providers, to enhance patient experience. A similar letter is provided to patients and we are now developing a shared care letter that is generalizable for any type of advanced cancer.

Write2me: using patient feedback to improve postconsultation urology clinic letters

Letters between hospital clinicians and general practitioners following an outpatient clinic (OPD) consultation have generally not been shared with patients. Recent guidelines from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges recommend...

Automatic Identification of Personal Automobiles Plates of Iran Using Genetic Algorithm

In this study, a new method for using LPR systems for Iranian plates number has been presented. Increasing the precision of the letter recognition process and reducing the amount of training are in fact the main advantages of the new hybrid model. The K-NN has been implemented as the first classification method, because it was simple, and it was resistant to the noisy data, and for large datasets it is also effective at zero cost. The confusion problem related to the similarity of letters in plate numbers has also been resolved by using the classification model of the multi-class genetic algorithm. The genetic algorithm improves K-NN performance in the recognition of similar letters. Vehicle license plate recognition (LPR) plays an important role in ITS and is mainly used in access control systems.The purpose of this research is to determine the Iranian plate automobiles that are specifically owned by the automobile. The confusion caused by the similarity between the letters of the alphabet and numeric characters is one of the problems of the Persian LPR systems at the diagnostic stage. In this regard, a method using the KNN-based advantages of genetic algorithm as a hybrid model is presented in this study to overcome the above problem. The genetic algorithm has been trained and tested only with the same letters, thus the cost of training for the genetic algorithm has significantly decreased. Comparison of the results obtained from the experiments carried out in this study with the results of a similar study shows that the combined KNN-genetic algorithm model significantly improved the detection rate of the letters for all tested cases from 94% to 97.03% . Keywords: Coding, plate recognition, genetics, Iran automobile, Genetic Algorithm DOI : 10.7176/CEIS/10-6-04 Publication date :July 31 st 2019

Characteristics of Arabic Alphabets: with Special Reference to the Role of the Letter [kha – [خ as Dustbin in the Arabic Language

This paper is shedding light on the significance and functions of some of the Arabic alphabets. An Arabic letter is found to play an effective role in expressing the speaker or the writer’s target meaning. Our concern here is with the letter [kha - خ], phonetically transcribed as /X/.The discussion in this essay will focus on one strange phenomenon; that this letter is playing a unique role in Arabic. It is found to be associated with almost all the ugly words and dirty jobs in the Arabic language. Its work is similar to the function of the dustbin, where all the house garbage is collected. From 285 root words begins with this letter, it is found that 85% of the words are carrying negative connotative or denotative meanings. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge – there is no similar letter found to play the same role, in any other language as this letter [ خ], does in Arabic. With this result the researchers can showhow rich and lively this language is. The Arabic language has great potentials to maintain survival, shoulder to shoulder, with other living languages of the world. It is also expected to play - with some efforts from its speakers and its linguists - an effective role in the recent human history.

Dose-response analysis of ranibizumab as-needed regimens for visual improvement in patients with diabetic macular edema using a modelling approach

BackgroundRanibizumab and aflibercept are anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapies for diabetic macular edema (DME) but have only been directly compared in one study: the Protocol T study, a 24-month randomized controlled trial which compared the safety and efficacy of three anti-VEGF agents (ranibizumab 0.3 mg, aflibercept 2.0 mg and bevacizumab 1.25 mg). The ranibizumab dose used in Protocol T is not licensed for use outside of the US, where a higher ranibizumab dose of 0.5 mg is approved. Therefore, the relevance of the head-to-head Protocol T study findings to healthcare providers in Europe is limited. The purpose of this research was to predict the visual outcomes that may have been achieved in Protocol T with ranibizumab 0.5 mg. MethodsA simplified dose-response model was constructed to describe the relationship between average monthly dose and one-year best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) change from baseline. A linear mixed effects model was evaluated and Bayesian Monte-Carlo Markov chains method was used to estimate the model parameters. ResultsIf ranibizumab 0.5 mg PRN had been studied in Protocol T, it would have resulted in a BCVA gain of 14–15 early treatment diabetic retinopathy study (ETDRS) letters; 3–4 letters more than the actual BCVA gain reported with ranibizumab 0.3 mg PRN. In Protocol T patients with poor baseline BCVA (<69 letters), a similar additional letter gain would have been achieved. ConclusionThe relevance of the Protocol T study findings are limited due to the use of ranibizumab 0.3 mg PRN which, based on the modelling approach reported herein, resulted in sub-optimal visual gains.

The Queer Kairotic: Digital Transgender Suicide Memories and Ecological Rhetorical Agency

When two transgender teenagers posted eerily similar suicide letters to public Tumblr accounts in late 2014 and early 2015, they inspired a viral memorialization effort across the website. In this article, I argue the widespread circulation of transgender suicide rhetoric facilitates the possibility for queer rhetors to provoke collective enactments of rhetorical agency even after their deaths. I identify the suicide letters as an emergent rhetorical form, which on its dissemination and due to its intelligibility, incites a kairotic moment. The kairotic moment may be protracted by a network of bodies who feel and collectively reproduce its sensate exigence. As it becomes viral, the kairotic moment acts as the queer futurity of ecological rhetorical agency because it stretches the visceral pressure of exigence beyond its original spatiotemporal emergence, draws bodies into collaborative networks, and orients invention toward the dismantling of normative rhetorical constructs and the composition of alternative worlds.

As Easy as ABC? Teaching and Learning About Letters in Early Literacy

AbstractLetter learning is nuanced, complex, and essential to the development of an effective literacy processing system. Forming and naming letters, rapidly differentiating between visually similar letters, and recognizing their sound correspondences are foundational to becoming a reader and writer. Indeed, control over letters affects monitoring, searching, and self‐correcting in reading and writing. The authors argue for (a) assessment that monitors evolving letter knowledge, (b) instruction that is focused and brief and capitalizes on students’ unique strengths and ways of knowing, and (c) isolated letter work that is balanced with the use of authentic texts. Transcripts of teacher–student interactions during reading and writing, personal alphabet books, magnetic letter sorts, and links to teacher resources illustrate how letter learning can be fostered in a variety of activity settings while ensuring student engagement and supporting overall literacy development.

ANALISIS EFEKTIVITAS PELUNASAN HUTANG PAJAK DI KANTOR PELAYANAN PAJAK PRATAMA BITUNG

Tax liability represents accrued taxes including administrative sanctions in the form of interest, penalty or increment stipulated in tax assessment letters or similar letters under the provisions of the transitional tax laws. Implementation of tax liability in Bitung City is caused by external factors of taxpayers and internal factors of the fiskus (Tax Officers). This study aims to determine the effectiveness of tax repayment in KPP Pratama Bitung. The method of analysis used in this research is descriptive qualitative by using ratio of effectiveness ratio. The results of the researchand analysis show that the repayment of tax debt in KPP Pratama Bitung can be seen from the year 2013, 2014, 2015 the realization of the tax debt repayment did not reach the target and ini 2016, 2017 the realization of the debt repayment past the expected target. Based on the results of the analysis, the repayment of tax debt in KPP Pratama Bitung in 2013 is quite effetive, 2014 and 2015 ineffective, 2016 and 2017 are very effective..Keywords: Effectiveness, Tax Payable

Polish Jesuits and Their Dreams about Missions in China, According to the Litterae indipetae

From the very beginning, Polish Jesuits were aware of the fact that the general of the Society of Jesus required them to focus on completely different missionary areas than the Far East. Nevertheless, in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu one can find more than two hundred so-called indipetae (shortened version of Litterae ad Indiam petentes)—letters sent by Polish Jesuits to their general asking for foreign missions, especially in China. They were written by 114 Jesuit fathers and brothers but ultimately only four (Andrzej Rudomina, Michał Boym, Jan Mikołaj Smogulecki, Jan Bąkowski) ever preached the word of God in the Middle Kingdom. By analyzing the content of Polish indipetae letters, this paper underlines the most important sources of missionary vocations among Polish Jesuits, through comparison with similar letters from the fathers and brothers of other Jesuit provinces.

Circularly Polarized Implantable Antenna for 915 MHz ISM-Band Far-Field Wireless Power Transmission

A wireless power link with circular polarization is studied in this letter for far-field wireless power transmission. First, a miniaturized circularly polarized (CP) implantable antenna is designed at 915 ISM band. The proposed antenna features a good miniaturization with the dimensions of 11 × 11 × 1.27 mm3 by employing the stub loading and capacitive coupling among the stubs. It has the smallest size and maintains good radiation performance, compared with previous CP implantable antennas. The simulated impedance bandwidth covers from 889 to 924 MHz for | S 11| less than −10 dB, and the axial-ratio (AR) bandwidth (AR < 3 dB) is from 901 to 912 MHz. The results show that the antenna is suitable for far-field wireless power transmission. The proposed wireless power link achieves higher converted dc power compared to previous similar letter.