Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Educational Theory, Practice, and Policy and the Wisdom of Social Psychology

The power of psychologically based interventions has garnered much interest in the general public and in the social sciences, especially in social psychology. Among the lessons that such social-psychological interventions provide are two of special importance for educational practice and social policy. The first is that different students can perceive the same classroom differently and that these perceptions can lead to substantial differences in outcomes. The second is that timely and well-placed interventions, almost irrespective of their duration, can change students’ perceptions of school and the classroom for the better. Randomized double-blind experiments show that such change is possible and can trigger lasting improvements in students’ academic trajectories. In the context of closing achievement gaps, these insights offer practical solutions and a better understanding of motivation. This article focuses on how wise interventions and insights from social psychology can further apply to improve human affairs, both inside and outside the classroom.
Financing transportation with land value taxes: Effects on development intensity

A significant portion of local transportation funding comes from the property tax. The tax is conventionally assessed on both land and buildings, but transportation increases only the value of the land. A more direct, efficient way to fund transportation projects is to tax land at a higher rate than buildings. The lower tax on buildings would allow owners to retain more of the profits of their investment in construction, and have the expected side effect of increased development intensity. A partial equilibrium simulation is created for Minneapolis, Richfield and Bloomington, Minnesota to determine the intensity effects of various levels of split-rate property taxes for both residential and nonresidential development. The results indicate that split-rate taxes would lead to higher density for both types of development in all three cities.
Combined spinal epidural anesthesia for laparoscopic appendectomy in adults: A case series

Background: Laparoscopy is one of the most common surgical procedures and is the procedure of choice for most of the elective abdominal surgeries performed preferably under endotracheal general anesthesia. Technical advances in the field of laparoscopy have helped to reduce surgical trauma and discomfort, reduce anesthetic requirement resulting in shortened hospital stay. Recently, regional anaesthetic techniques have been found beneficial, especially in patients at a high risk to receive general anesthesia. Herewith we present a case series of laparoscopic appendectomy in eight American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) I and II patients performed under spinal-epidural anaesthesia. Methods: Eight ASA Grade I and II adult patients undergoing elective Laparoscopic appendectomy received Combined Spinal Epidural Anaesthesia. Spinal Anaesthesia was performed at L2-L3 interspace using 2 ml of 0.5% (10 mg) hyperbaric Bupivacaine mixed with 0.5ml (25 micrograms) of Fentanyl. Epidural catheter was inserted at T10-T11 interspace for inadequate spinal anaesthesia and postoperative pain relief. Perioperative events and operative difficulty were studied. Systemic drugs were administered if patients complained of shoulder pain, abdominal discomfort, nausea or hypotension. Results: Spinal anaesthesia was adequate for surgery with no operative difficulty in all the patients. Intraoperatively, two patients experienced right shoulder pain and received Fentanyl, one patient was given Midazolam for anxiety and two were given Ephedrine for hypotension. The postoperative period was uneventful. Conclusion: Spinal anaesthesia with Hyperbaric Bupivacaine and Fentanyl is adequate and safe for elective laparoscopic appendectomy in healthy patients but careful evaluation of the method is needed particularly in compromised cardio respiratory conditions.
Apical node metastasis independently predicts poor survival in Dukes C colorectal cancer

Aim The prognostic significance of apical node metastasis in node‐positive colorectal cancer (CRC) is disregarded by the Fourth American Joint Committee on Cancer and the International Union Against Cancer (AJCC/UICC) TNM classification system. The influence of apical node metastases on overall 5‐year survival among patients with Dukes stage C CRC was examined.
Cooperative perception for autonomous vehicle control on the road: Motivation and experimental results

In this paper, we attempt to develop a reusable framework of cooperative perception for vehicle control on the road that can extend perception range beyond line-of-sight and beyond field-of-view. For this goal, the following problems are addressed: map merging, vehicle identification, sensor multi-modality, impact of communications, and impact on path planning. We provide experimental results using a self-driving vehicle and manned vehicles equipped with the cooperative perception systems that we propose and implement.
Salvage of free second toe with venous thrombosis by shunting retrograde arterial flow of second dorsal metatarsal artery

Although there are case reports about salvaging amputated digits without venous return by shunting retrograde blood flow from a distal digital artery to a proximal vein (Smith et al., Plast Reconstr Surg 71:52, 1983), successful salvage of a congested free toe with efferent arteriovenous (AV) shunting retrograde arterial flow from the second dorsal metatarsal artery (SDMA) has never been reported. In this paper, we describe the possible factors for venous thrombosis, the errors we committed in the operation, and how the free toe can survive without venous drainage. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. Microsurgery 25:322–324, 2005.
Brook : An Easy and Efficient Framework for Distributed Machine Learning

We present Brook, a new framework for distributed machine learning problems. Like some previous frameworks, Brook adopts the parameter server paradigm that simpliﬁes the task of distributed programming. Unlike these frameworks, we build a novel system component called parameter agent that masks the communication details between workers and servers by mapping remote servers to local in-memory ﬁle. In this way, Brook provides a simple and platform-independent interface called RWW, where users can migrate existing single-machine programs, written in any programming language, to the distributed environment with minimal modiﬁcation. In addition, to achieve system efﬁciency and scalability, Brook is designed to minimize network trafﬁc, maximize CPU and memory utilizations, and support ﬂexible fault-tolerance strategies. Our evaluation results show that Brook has the highly competitive performance and scalability, while providing enhanced ease of use compared to existing frameworks.
Metabolic Regulation of a Bacterial Cell System with Emphasis on Escherichia coli Metabolism

It is quite important to understand the overall metabolic regulation mechanism of bacterial cells such as Escherichia coli from both science (such as biochemistry) and engineering (such as metabolic engineering) points of view. Here, an attempt was made to clarify the overall metabolic regulation mechanism by focusing on the roles of global regulators which detect the culture or growth condition and manipulate a set of metabolic pathways by modulating the related gene expressions. For this, it was considered how the cell responds to a variety of culture environments such as carbon (catabolite regulation), nitrogen, and phosphate limitations, as well as the effects of oxygen level, pH (acid shock), temperature (heat shock), and nutrient starvation.
Domain Adaptation with Active Learning for Coreference Resolution

In the literature, most prior work on coreference resolution centered on the newswire domain. Although a coreference resolution system trained on the newswire domain performs well on newswire texts, there is a huge performance drop when it is applied to the biomedical domain. In this paper, we present an approach integrating domain adaptation with active learning to adapt coreference resolution from the newswire domain to the biomedical domain. We explore the effect of domain adaptation, active learning, and target domain instance weighting for coreference resolution. Experimental results show that domain adaptation with active learning and target domain instance weighting achieves performance on MEDLINE abstracts similar to a system trained on coreference annotation of only target domain training instances, but with a greatly reduced number of target domain training instances that we need to annotate.
Crystal structure of Staphylococcus aureus transglycosylase in complex with a lipid II analog and elucidation of peptidoglycan synthesis mechanism

Bacterial transpeptidase and transglycosylase on the surface are essential for cell wall synthesis, and many antibiotics have been developed to target the transpeptidase; however, the problem of antibiotic resistance has arisen and caused a major threat in bacterial infection. The transglycosylase has been considered to be another excellent target, but no antibiotics have been developed to target this enzyme. Here, we determined the crystal structure of the Staphylococcus aureus membrane-bound transglycosylase, monofunctional glycosyltransferase, in complex with a lipid II analog to 2.3 Å resolution. Our results showed that the lipid II-contacting residues are not only conserved in WT and drug-resistant bacteria but also significant in enzymatic activity. Mechanistically, we proposed that K140 and R148 in the donor site, instead of the previously proposed E156, are used to stabilize the pyrophosphate-leaving group of lipid II, and E100 in the acceptor site acts as general base for the 4-OH of GlcNAc to facilitate the transglycosylation reaction. This mechanism, further supported by mutagenesis study and the structure of monofunctional glycosyltransferase in complex with moenomycin in the donor site, provides a direction for antibacterial drugs design.
A comparison of two methods of enhancing implant primary stability.

BACKGROUND Surgical technique and implant design have an effect on the primary stability of oral implants, which in turn increases resistance to implant micromotion during healing. PURPOSE This study was designed to compare the parameters associated with implant insertion using two different methods of enhancing implant primary stability and to identify any relationship between these parameters and changes in the stability of implants during the initial 6-month healing period following implant insertion. A comparison was made between two methods of enhancing primary implant stability: method 1, standard Brånemark System implants (Nobel Biocare AB, Gothenburg, Sweden) inserted with a technique designed to enhance primary stability, and method 2: Brånemark Mk IV implants (Nobel Biocare AB) inserted according to the manufacturer's instructions. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirteen patients were selected for inclusion in the study. A total of 42 implants were placed. Insertion torque data were recorded, and bone quality at the implant site was assessed at implant insertion. Resonance frequency analysis measurements were taken at implant insertion as well as at second-stage surgery 6 months later. RESULTS A statistically significant difference was recorded between the mean maximum insertion torque for type 4 bone and bone types 2 and 3. No significant difference was recorded between bone types 2 and 3. A significantly lower resonance frequency value was seen for standard implants placed into type 4 bone (p < .05). Across all implant types a significant difference in the energy required when inserting implants into type 4 bone and bone types 2 and 3 was seen. A significantly lower mean energy requirement was seen between the Mk IV implants placed into type 4 bone and the other combinations of implant types and bone. CONCLUSIONS Within the limitations of this study, the results agree with the manufacturer's claim that when compared with standard implants, the design of the Mk IV implant increases implant primary stability with a reduction in the energy imparted into the bone at the implant site.
The pedagogical effectiveness of ASR-based computer assisted pronunciation training

Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) systems with Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology have become increasingly popular to train pronunciation in the second language (L2). The advantage of these systems is the provision of a self-paced, stress-free type of training with automatic feedback on pronunciation quality. Despite this popularity, little is known on the actual pedagogical effectiveness of these systems. In other words, little empirical evidence is available as to whether and to what extent the use of these systems can improve pronunciation quality for a learner, while it is well-known that ASR-based feedback on non-native pronunciation quality is not yet 100% error-free. The research reported on in this thesis investigates the pedagogical effectiveness of ASR-based feedback on segmental quality. The thesis starts by identifying pedagogical requirements for pronunciation training in L2. Existing CAPT systems are then critically examined to establish which pedagogical requirements can be achieved with current ASR-based CAPT technology. Some of these suggestions are subsequently implemented to develop a customized ASR-based CAPT system (Dutch-CAPT) for teaching Dutch pronunciation to adult immigrants. First, a method is presented to select important segmental errors made by learners of Dutch with different mother tongues. By means of auditory analyses of different speech databases, an inventory of eight Dutch phonemes that appear to be particularly problematic tp learn is obtained. This inventory is subsequently implemented in Dutch-CAPT, which offers a simple form of feedback on segmental errors. The improvement made by a group of immigrants who used Dutch-CAPT is measured and compared to that of controls. The results indicate that the ASR-based feedback provided yielded the largest improvements in the pronunciation of the targeted phonemes, despite occasional errors in the feedback. The thesis ends with suggestions to design pedagogically sound and technologically reliable ASR-based CAPT, and to evaluate these systems
Chronic femoral artery occlusion augments exercise pressor reflex in decerebrated rats

Although the exercise pressor reflex evoked by static muscle contraction has been reported to be potentiated by acute ischemia of skeletal muscles, the effect of chronic muscle ischemia on the exercise pressor reflex remains unclear. We, therefore, determined if ligation of the femoral artery 72 hours prior to static contraction augmented the exercise pressor reflex in male rats. 72 hours after ligation of one femoral artery, rats were decerebrated at midcollicular level. The pressor responses to static muscle contraction were compared between the side ligated previously for 72 hours and the contralateral side. The pressor response to contraction of the side whose femoral artery was ligated 72 hours previously averaged 28 ± 8 mmHg whereas the pressor response to contraction of the contralateral freely perfused side averaged 10 ± 8 mmHg (n=4, P<0.05). Likewise the pressor response to contraction on the side whose femoral artery was ligated for 72 hours previously averaged 28 ± 8 mmHg, whereas the pressor response to contraction on the contralateral side whose femoral artery was ligated for only 3 minutes averaged 8 ± 3 mmHg (n=4, P<0.05). We conclude that chronic femoral arterial occlusion augments exercise pressor reflex. Supported by NIH grant HL30710.
BIK-BUS: Biologically Motivated 3D Keypoint Based on Bottom-Up Saliency

One of the major problems found when developing a 3D recognition system involves the choice of keypoint detector and descriptor. To help solve this problem, we present a new method for the detection of 3D keypoints on point clouds and we perform benchmarking between each pair of 3D keypoint detector and 3D descriptor to evaluate their performance on object and category recognition. These evaluations are done in a public database of real 3D objects. Our keypoint detector is inspired by the behavior and neural architecture of the primate visual system. The 3D keypoints are extracted based on a bottom-up 3D saliency map, that is, a map that encodes the saliency of objects in the visual environment. The saliency map is determined by computing conspicuity maps (a combination across different modalities) of the orientation, intensity, and color information in a bottom-up and in a purely stimulus-driven manner. These three conspicuity maps are fused into a 3D saliency map and, finally, the focus of attention (or keypoint location) is sequentially directed to the most salient points in this map. Inhibiting this location automatically allows the system to attend to the next most salient location. The main conclusions are: with a similar average number of keypoints, our 3D keypoint detector outperforms the other eight 3D keypoint detectors evaluated by achieving the best result in 32 of the evaluated metrics in the category and object recognition experiments, when the second best detector only obtained the best result in eight of these metrics. The unique drawback is the computational time, since biologically inspired 3D keypoint based on bottom-up saliency is slower than the other detectors. Given that there are big differences in terms of recognition performance, size and time requirements, the selection of the keypoint detector and descriptor has to be matched to the desired task and we give some directions to facilitate this choice.
Interaction of the C-Terminal Peptide of Pulmonary Surfactant Protein B (SP-B) with a Bicellar Lipid Mixture Containing Anionic Lipid

The hydrophobic lung surfactant SP-B is essential for respiration. SP-B promotes spreading and adsorption of surfactant at the alveolar air-water interface and may facilitate connections between the surface layer and underlying lamellar reservoirs of surfactant material. SP-B63–78 is a cationic and amphipathic helical peptide containing the C-terminal helix of SP-B. 2H NMR has been used to examine the effect of SP-B63–78 on the phase behavior and dynamics of bicellar lipid dispersions containing the longer chain phospholipids DMPC-d 54 and DMPG and the shorter chain lipid DHPC mixed with a 3∶1∶1 molar ratio. Below the gel-to-liquid crystal phase transition temperature of the longer chain components, bicellar mixtures form small, rapidly reorienting disk-like particles with shorter chain lipid components predominantly found around the highly curved particle edges. With increasing temperature, the particles coalesce into larger magnetically-oriented structures and then into more extended lamellar phases. The susceptibility of bicellar particles to coalescence and large scale reorganization makes them an interesting platform in which to study peptide-induced interactions between lipid assemblies. SP-B63–78 is found to lower the temperature at which the orientable phase transforms to the more extended lamellar phase. The peptide also changes the spectrum of motions contributing to quadrupole echo decay in the lamellar phase. The way in which the peptide alters interactions between bilayered micelle structures may provide some insight into some aspects of the role of full-length SP-B in maintaining a functional surfactant layer in lungs.
Learning Heteroscedastic Models by Convex Programming under Group Sparsity

Popular sparse estimation methods based on l1-relaxation, such as the Lasso and the Dantzig selector, require the knowledge of the variance of the noise in order to properly tune the regularization parameter. This constitutes a major obstacle in applying these methods in several frameworks--such as time series, random fields, inverse problems--for which the noise is rarely homoscedastic and its level is hard to know in advance. In this paper, we propose a new approach to the joint estimation of the conditional mean and the conditional variance in a high-dimensional (auto-) regression setting. An attractive feature of the proposed estimator is that it is efficiently computable even for very large scale problems by solving a second-order cone program (SOCP). We present theoretical analysis and numerical results assessing the performance of the proposed procedure.
A microscopic probabilistic description of a locally regulated population and macroscopic approximations

We consider a discrete model describing a locally regulated spatial population with mortality selection. This model was studied in parallel by Bolker and Pacala, [2] and Dieckmann, Law and Murrell [9], [4], [10]. We first generalize this model by adding spatial dependence. Then we give a path-wise description in terms of Poisson point measures. We show that different re-normalizations may lead to different macroscopic approximations of this model. The first approximation is deterministic and gives a rigorous sense to the number density. The second one is a superprocess already studied by Etheridge [6]. Finally, we study in specific cases the long time behavior of the system and of its deterministic approximation.
Hypofibrinogenaemia caused by a novel FGG missense mutation (W253C) in the γ chain globular domain impairing fibrinogen secretion

Background: Inherited disorders of fibrinogen are rare and affect either the quantity (hypofibrinogenaemia and afibrinogenaemia) or the quality of the circulating fibrinogen (dysfibrinogenaemia). Extensive allelic heterogeneity has been found for all three disorders: in congenital afibrinogenaemia >30 mutations, the majority in FGA, have been identified in homozygosity or in compound heterozygosity. Several mutations have also been identified in patients with hypofibrinogenaemia; many of these are heterozygous carriers of afibrinogenaemia null mutations. Objective: To report the case of a patient from Slovakia diagnosed with hypofibrinogenaemia characterised by fibrinogen concentrations of around 0.7 g/l. Results: The patient was found to be heterozygous for a novel missense mutation W253C (W227C in the mature protein) in the C-terminal globular domain of the fibrinogen γ chain. Co-expression of the W253C FGG mutant cDNA (fibrinogen Bratislava) in combination with wild-type FGA and FGB cDNAs showed that fibrinogen molecules containing the mutant γ chain can assemble intracellularly but are not secreted into the media, confirming the causative nature of the identified mutation. Conclusions: Current analysis of fibrinogen Bratislava indicates that the domains important for the processes of hexamer assembly and hexamer secretion should not be considered as strictly restricted to one or other fibrinogen chain.
Data mining cDNAs reveals three new single stranded RNA viruses in Nasonia (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

We report three novel small RNA viruses uncovered from cDNA libraries from parasitoid wasps in the genus Nasonia. The genome of this kind of virus is a positive‐sense single‐stranded RNA with a 3′ poly(A), which facilitates cloning from cDNAs. Two of the viruses, NvitV‐1 and NvitV‐2, possess a RNA‐dependent RNA polymerase that associates them with the family Iflaviridae of the order Picornavirales. A third virus, NvitV‐3, is most similar to the Nora virus from Drosophila. A reverse transcription‐PCR method developed for NvitV‐1 indicates that it is a persistent commensal infection of Nasonia.