Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Redefining Classroom Boundaries: Learning to Teach Using New Technologies

This article reports on a longitudinal study that plots the development of a network of Teaching and Learning Observatory (TLO) sites in the United Kingdom. The TLO sites were used to enhance pre- and in-service teacher education. The research explores how classroom boundaries could be redefined through a technological innovation such as the TLO. The TLO linked a network of relatively remote schools with a university education department through video conferencing and interactive internet technology. Two years on, the TLO network emerged as an powerful tool for binding together school learners, student teachers, teachers, mentors, teacher educators and researchers. The technology facilitated interaction in a range of contexts in dynamic learning communities. The potential is illustrated in this article by a research study of student teacher subject knowledge enhancement resulting from use of the TLO.
Is It Possible to Prevent Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome by Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonist Triggering and Modified Luteal Support in Patients With Polycystic Ovarian Morphology?

Background Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist triggering plus 1,500 IU human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) supplementation protocol was previously claimed effective in reducing the ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) incidence in high responders. Methods This retrospective study included women with polycystic ovarian (PCO) morphology who were at high risk of OHSS and were given the GnRH agonist trigger plus hCG luteal support protocol in a single center. Results The mean peak estradiol level was 5,336 ± 2,341 (1,187 - 19,746) pg/mL. The mean number of follicles > 12 mm on the day of trigger was 22 ± 7 (9 - 51). A total of 88 cycles were undertaken. Sixty-three (71.5%) women underwent fresh embryo transfer. Fresh embryo transfer was canceled in 21 (23.8%) and embryo transfer was canceled in four (4.5%) women. The overall clinical pregnancy rate was 46.4% per started cycle. A total of 12 (13.6%) patients developed OHSS. “Freeze-all” policy did not attenuate OHSS in four patients, and three of these patients developed OHSS despite 1,500 IU hCG was not administered. Conclusion We conclude that OHSS may still occur with the use of a GnRH agonist trigger combined with low-dose hCG supplementation protocol in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or PCO morphology. Furthermore, we also conclude that “freeze-all” policy also will not completely eliminate OHSS development in high-risk women.
An object-oriented metrics suite for Ada 95

Ada 95 added object-oriented programming capabilities to the existing Ada standard. The object-oriented paradigm results in new relationships within and among software modules. Traditional software product metrics, i.e., those metrics developed for functionally oriented software, do not account for these new relationships and may be insufficient for use in object-oriented development. This paper addresses this deficiency by 1) defining a set of object-oriented metrics tailored to Ada 95 software, and 2) providing empirical evidence of their validity. This set of metrics includes product measures quantifying the class-related software attributes of size, coupling, cohesion, and complexity. The results indicate that many of the metrics examined do correlate to the number of revisions made to the classes during development.
The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VI. Isophotal Analysis and the Structure of Early-Type Galaxies

We present a detailed analysis of the morphology, isophotal parameters, and surface brightness profiles for 100 early-type members of the Virgo Cluster, from dwarfs (MB = -15.1 mag) to giants (MB = -21.8 mag), imaged in the g and z passbands using the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Dust and complex morphological structures are common. Dust is detected in 42% of galaxies brighter than BT = 12.15 mag, while kiloparsec-scale stellar disk, bars, and nuclear stellar disks are seen in 60% of galaxies with intermediate luminosity. Isophotal parameters are derived typically within 8 kpc from the center for the brightest galaxies, and 1.5 kpc for the faintest systems, with a resolution of 7 pc. For most galaxies, the surface brightness profiles are well described by a Sérsic model with index n that increases steadily with the galaxy luminosity; only for 8 of the 10 brightest galaxies are the inner profiles (typically within 100 pc of the center) lower than expected based on an extrapolation of the outer Sérsic model, and are better described by a single power-law function. Contrary to previous claims, we find no evidence in support of a strong bimodal behavior of the logarithmic slope of the inner surface brightness profile, γ; in particular the γ distribution for galaxies that do not show evidence of multiple morphological components is unimodal across the entire magnitude range spanned by the ACSVCS galaxies. Although the brightest galaxies have shallow inner profiles, the shallowest profiles are found in faint dwarf systems. The widely adopted separation of early-type galaxies between "core" and "power-law" types is questioned based on the present study.
SURVIVOR BONDS: HELPING To HEDGE MORTALITY RISK

One of the key problems facing annuity providers is mortality risk, the risk of underestimating mortality improvements. The authors argue that the government could help the issuers of annuities to hedge aggregate mortality risk by introducing a new type of bond, which the authors call a survivor bond. The future coupons on this bond depend on the percentage of the population of retirement age on the issue date who are still alive on the future coupon payment dates. The coupons on the bond therefore decline over time but continue in payment until the last members of this population cohort have died. The government would therefore be assuming a risk that has hitherto been borne by the private sector. However, governments now issue inflation-indexed bonds, and the authors would argue that inflation risk is a much greater risk than mortality risk in aggregate. Furthermore, governments directly contribute to mortality risk: for example, they promote public health campaigns that, if successful, lead to mortality improvements that are difficult to predict many years ahead. Survivor bonds enable pension provision to be a shared responsibility between the public and private sectors.
Employee motivation, external orientation and the technical efficiency of foreign-financed firms in China: a stochastic frontier analysis

By using a stochastic frontier model, we have identified several firm-specific attributes as determinants of technical efficiency in foreign-financed manufacturing firms in southern China. The empirical results suggest a strong association between efficiency and employee motivation, which includes the use of bonus incentives and flexibility in employment policy. In terms of the external orientation behavior of firms, the findings do not support the export|efficiency relationship. Sample firms with a high degree of export-orientedness were less efficient, possibly due to the high transaction costs in China of exportation. As for the effects of expatriate input on production, our empirical evidence revealed that firms with a relatively high expatriate ratio performed less efficiently than others did. These two findings may have significant implications for the marketing strategies and management (including the localization) of human resources of foreign-financed firms in China. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
NONSMOOTH OPTIMIZATION VIA BFGS

We investigate the BFGS algorithm with an inexact line search when applied to nonsmooth functions, not necessarily convex. We define a suitable line search and show that it generates a sequence of nested intervals containing points satisfying the Armijo and weak Wolfe conditions, assuming only absolute continuity. We also prove that the line search terminates for all semi-algebraic functions. The analysis of the convergence of BFGS using this line search seems very challenging; our theoretical results are limited to the univariate case. However, we systematically investigate the numerical behavior of BFGS with the inexact line search on various classes of examples. The method consistently converges to local minimizers on all but the most difficult class of examples, and even in that case, the method converges to points that are apparently Clarke stationary. Furthermore, the convergence rate is observed to be linear with respect to the number of function evaluations, with a rate of convergence that varies in an unexpectedly consistent way with the problem parameters. When the problem is sufficiently difficult, convergence may not be observed, but this seems to be due to rounding error caused by ill-conditioning. We try to give insight into why BFGS works as well as it does, and we conclude with a bold conjecture.
Global Mapping of H3K4me1 and H3K4me3 Reveals the Chromatin State-Based Cell Type-Specific Gene Regulation in Human Treg Cells

Regulatory T cells (Treg) contribute to the crucial immunological processes of self-tolerance and immune homeostasis. Genomic mechanisms that regulate cell fate decisions leading to Treg or conventional T cells (Tconv) lineages and those underlying Treg function remain to be fully elucidated, especially at the histone modification level. We generated high-resolution genome-wide distribution maps of monomethylated histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4me1) and trimethylated H3K4 (H3K4me3) in human CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ Tregs and CD4+CD25+FOXP3− activated (a)Tconv cells by DNA sequencing-by-synthesis. 2115 H3K4me3 regions corresponded to proximal promoters; in Tregs, the genes associated with these regions included the master regulator FOXP3 and the chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 7 (CCR7). 41024 Treg-specific H3K4me1 regions were identified. The majority of the H3K4me1 regions differing between Treg and aTconv cells were located at promoter-distal sites, and in vitro reporter gene assays were used to evaluate and identify novel enhancer activity. We provide for the first time a comprehensive genome-wide dataset of lineage-specific H3K4me1 and H3K4me3 patterns in Treg and aTconv cells, which may control cell type-specific gene regulation. This basic principle is likely not restricted to the two closely-related T cell populations, but may apply generally to somatic cell lineages in adult organisms.
Query Expansion via structural motifs in Wikipedia Graph

The search for relevant information can be very frustrating for users who, unintentionally, use too general or inappropriate keywords to express their requests. To overcome this situation, query expansion techniques aim at transforming the user request by adding new terms, referred as expansion features, that better describe the real intent of the users. We propose a method that relies exclusively on relevant structures (as opposed to the use of semantics) found in knowledge bases (KBs) to extract the expansion features. We call our method Structural Query Expansion (SQE). The structural analysis of KBs takes us to propose a set of structural motifs that connect their strongly related entries, which can be used to extract expansion features. In this paper we use Wikipedia as our KB, which is probably one of the largest sources of information. SQE is capable of achieving more than 150% improvement over non expanded queries and is able to identify the expansion features in less than 0.2 seconds in the worst case scenario. Most significantly, we believe that we are contributing to open new research directions in query expansion, proposing a method that is orthogonal to many current systems. For example, SQE improves pseudo-relevance feedback techniques up to 13%
Relationship between Individual External Doses, Ambient Dose Rates and Individuals’ Activity-Patterns in Affected Areas in Fukushima following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident

The accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on March 11, 2011, released radioactive material into the atmosphere and contaminated the land in Fukushima and several neighboring prefectures. Five years after the nuclear disaster, the radiation levels have greatly decreased due to physical decay, weathering, and decontamination operations in Fukushima. The populations of 12 communities were forced to evacuate after the accident; as of March 2016, the evacuation order has been lifted in only a limited area, and permanent habitation is still prohibited in most of the areas. In order for the government to lift the evacuation order and for individuals to return to their original residential areas, it is important to assess current and future realistic individual external doses. Here, we used personal dosimeters along with the Global Positioning System and Geographic Information System to understand realistic individual external doses and to relate individual external doses, ambient doses, and activity-patterns of individuals in the affected areas in Fukushima. The results showed that the additional individual external doses were well correlated to the additional ambient doses based on the airborne monitoring survey. The results of linear regression analysis suggested that the additional individual external doses were on average about one-fifth that of the additional ambient doses. The reduction factors, which are defined as the ratios of the additional individual external doses to the additional ambient doses, were calculated to be on average 0.14 and 0.32 for time spent at home and outdoors, respectively. Analysis of the contribution of various activity patterns to the total individual external dose demonstrated good agreement with the average fraction of time spent daily in each activity, but the contribution due to being outdoors varied widely. These results are a valuable contribution to understanding realistic individual external doses and the corresponding airborne monitoring-based ambient doses and time-activity patterns of individuals. Moreover, the results provide important information for predicting future cumulative doses after the return of residents to evacuation order areas in Fukushima.
Intratumoral Dendritic Cell Administration Radiotherapy Potentiates the Therapeutic Efficacy of Updated

We examined whether radiotherapy (RT) could enhance the efficacy of dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy of cancer. Mice bearing s.c. D5 melanoma or MCA 205 sarcoma tumors were treated with intratumoral (i.t.) injections of bone marrow-derived unpulsed DCs in combination with local fractionated tumor irradiation. DC administration alone slightly inhibited D5 tumor growth and had no effect on MCA 205. RT alone caused a modest inhibition of both tumors. DC administration combined with RT inhibited D5 and MCA 205 tumor growth in an additive and synergistic manner, respectively. In both tumor models, RT intensified the antitumor efficacy of DC administration independent of apoptosis or necrosis within the tumor mass. Combination treatment of i.t. DCs plus RT was superior to s.c. injections of tumor lysate-pulsed DCs plus interleukin 2 in inhibiting D5 tumor growth and prolonging survival of mice. Splenocytes from mice treated with i.t. DCs plus RT contained significantly more tumor-specific, IFN-secreting T cells compared with control groups. Moreover, adoptive transfer of these splenocytes mediated significant tumor regression in mice bearing established pulmonary metastases. Combined treatment followed by resection of residual s.c. tumor conferred protective immunity against a subsequent i.v. tumor challenge. Furthermore, i.t. DC plus RT treatment of s.c. tumor in mice bearing concomitant pulmonary metastases resulted in a significant reduction of lung tumors. i.t. DC administration combined with RT induces a potent local and systemic antitumor response in tumor-bearing mice. This novel regimen may be beneficial in the treatment of human cancers.
Understanding the Performance of Low Power Raspberry Pi Cloud for Big Data

Nowadays, Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices generate data at high speed and large volume. Often the data require real-time processing to support high system responsiveness which can be supported by localised Cloud and/or Fog computing paradigms. However, there are considerably large deployments of IoT such as sensor networks in remote areas where Internet connectivity is sparse, challenging the localised Cloud and/or Fog computing paradigms. With the advent of the Raspberry Pi, a credit card-sized single board computer, there is a great opportunity to construct low-cost, low-power portable cloud to support real-time data processing next to IoT deployments. In this paper, we extend our previous work on constructing Raspberry Pi Cloud to study its feasibility for real-time big data analytics under realistic application-level workload in both native and virtualised environments. We have extensively tested the performance of a single node Raspberry Pi 2 Model B with httperf and a cluster of 12 nodes with Apache Spark and HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System). Our results have demonstrated that our portable cloud is useful for supporting real-time big data analytics. On the other hand, our results have also unveiled that overhead for CPU-bound workload in virtualised environment is surprisingly high, at 67.2%. We have found that, for big data applications, the virtualisation overhead is fractional for small jobs but becomes more significant for large jobs, up to 28.6%.
Prevalence of Dental Caries in relation to Body Mass Index, Daily Sugar Intake, and Oral Hygiene Status in 12-Year-Old School Children in Mathura City: A Pilot Study

Aim. To correlate the prevalence of dental caries to body mass index, daily sugar intake, and oral hygiene status of 12-year-old school children of Mathura city. Material and Methods. The study design was cross-sectional and included 100 school children aged 12 years (n = 50 boys and n = 50 girls) who were randomly selected from two schools based upon inclusion and exclusion criteria. Body weight/height was recorded and BMI was calculated and plotted on CDC-BMI for age growth charts/curves for boys and girls to obtain percentile ranking. Dental caries was recorded using WHO criteria. Oral hygiene status of the study subjects was assessed using oral hygiene index-simplified. Data regarding the daily sugar intake was recorded using 24-hour recall diet frequency chart. The data obtained was analysed using SPSS version 11.5 for windows. Result. Only 27 subjects were affected by caries. The mean DMFT/dmft was 0.37 ± 0.79 and 0.12 ± 0.60, respectively. Statistical analysis by means of a logistic regression model revealed that only oral hygiene status had a significant effect on caries prevalence (OR = 5.061, P = 0.004), whereas daily sugar intake and body mass index had no significant effect. Conclusion. From the analysis, it was concluded that oral hygiene status had a significant effect on caries prevalence of 12-year-old school children of Mathura city.
Role of TGF-β in Survival of Phagocytizing Microglia: Autocrine Suppression of TNF-α Production and Oxidative Stress

Microglia are recognized as residential macrophageal cells in the brain. Activated microglia play a critical role in removal of dead or damaged cells through phagocytosis activity. During phagocytosis, however, microglia should survive under the harmful condition of self-producing ROS and pro-inflammatory mediators. TGF-β has been known as a classic anti-inflammatory cytokine and controls both initiation and resolution of inflammation by counter-acting inflammatory cytokines. In the present study, to understand the self-protective mechanism, we studied time-dependent change of TNF-α and TGF-β production in microglia phagocytizing opsonized-beads (i.e., polystyrene microspheres). We found that microglia phagocytized opsonized-bead in a time-dependent manner and simultaneously produced both TNF-α and TGF-β. However, while TNF-α production gradually decreased after 6 h, TGF-β production remained at increased level. Microglial cells pre-treated with lipopolysaccharides (a strong immunostimulant, LPS) synergistically increased the production of TNF-α and TGF-β both. However, LPS-pretreated microglia produced TNF-α in a more sustained manner and became more vulnerable, probably due to the marked and sustained production of TNF-α and reduced TGF-β. Intracellular oxidative stress appears to change in parallel with the microglial production of TNF-α. These results indicate TGF-β contributes for the survival of phagocytizing microglia through autocrine suppression of TNF-α production and oxidative stress.
A new phylogenetic test for comparing multiple high‐dimensional evolutionary rates suggests interplay of evolutionary rates and modularity in lanternfishes (Myctophiformes; Myctophidae)

The interplay between evolutionary rates and modularity influences the evolution of organismal body plans by both promoting and constraining the magnitude and direction of trait response to ecological conditions. However, few studies have examined whether the best‐fit hypothesis of modularity is the same as the shape subset with the greatest difference in evolutionary rate. Here, we develop a new phylogenetic comparative method for comparing evolutionary rates among high‐dimensional traits, and apply this method to analyze body shape evolution in bioluminescent lanternfishes. We frame the study of evolutionary rates and modularity through analysis of three hypotheses derived from the literature on fish development, biomechanics, and bioluminescent communication. We show that a development‐informed partitioning of shape exhibits the greatest evolutionary rate differences among modules, but that a hydrodynamically informed partitioning is the best‐fit modularity hypothesis. Furthermore, we show that bioluminescent lateral photophores evolve at a similar rate as, and are strongly integrated with, body shape in lanternfishes. These results suggest that overlapping life‐history constraints on development and movement define axes of body shape evolution in lanternfishes, and that the positions of their lateral photophore complexes are likely a passive outcome of the interaction of these ecological pressures.
GIMME A BREAK! IDENTIFICATION AND ESTIMATION OF THE MACROECONOMIC EFFECTS OF MONETARY POLICY SHOCKS IN THE UNITED STATES

We employ a non-recursive identification scheme to identify the effects of a monetary policy shock in a Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) model for the US post-WWII quarterly data. The identification of the shock is achieved via heteroskedasticity, and different on-impact macroeconomic responses are allowed for (but not imposed) in each volatility regime. We show that the impulse responses obtained with the suggested non-recursive identification scheme are quite similar to those conditional on a recursive VAR estimated with pre-1984 data. In contrast, recursive vs. non-recursive identification schemes return different short-run responses of output and investment during the Great Moderation. Robustness checks dealing with a different definition of investment, an alternative break-point, and federal funds futures rates as an indicator of the monetary policy stance are documented and discussed.