Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computer science concept inventories: past and future

Concept Inventories (CIs) are assessments designed to measure student learning of core concepts. CIs have become well known for their major impact on pedagogical techniques in other sciences, especially physics. Presently, there are no widely used, validated CIs for computer science. However, considerable groundwork has been performed in the form of identifying core concepts, analyzing student misconceptions, and developing CI assessment questions. Although much of the work has been focused on CS1 and a CI has been developed for digital logic, some preliminary work on CIs is underway for other courses. This literature review examines CI work in other STEM disciplines, discusses the preliminary development of CIs in computer science, and outlines related research in computer science education that contributes to CI development.
Modified STOP-Bang Tool for Stratifying Obstructive Sleep Apnea Risk in Adolescent Children

Purpose Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is prevalent in children and diagnostic polysomnography is costly and not readily available in all areas. We developed a pediatric modification of a commonly used adult clinical prediction tool for stratifying the risk of OSA and the need for polysomnography. Methods A total of 312 children (age 9–17 years) from phase 2 of the Tucson Children’s Assessment of Sleep Apnea cohort study, with complete anthropomorphic data, parent questionnaires, and home polysomnograms were included. An adolescent modification of STOP-Bang (teen STOP-Bang) was developed and included snoring, tired, observed apnea, blood pressure ≥ 95th percentile, BMI > 95th percentile, academic problems, neck circumference >95th percentile for age, and male gender. An apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 1.5 events/hour was considered diagnostic of OSA. Results Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves for parent-reported STOP-Bang scores were generated for teenage and pre-teen children. A STOP-Bang score of < 3 in teenagers was associated with a negative predictive value of 0.96. ROC curves were also generated based upon child-reported sexual maturity rating (SMR; n = 291). The ability of teen STOP-Bang to discriminate the presence or absence of OSA as measured by the AUC for children with SMR ≥ 4 (0.83; 95%CI 0.71–0.95) was better than children with SMR < 4 (0.63; 95%CI 0.46–0.81; p = 0.048). Conclusions In community dwelling adolescents, teen STOP-Bang may be useful in stratifying the risk of OSA.
Should psychiatrists be more cautious about the long-term prophylactic use of antipsychotics?

Summary Patients who recover from an acute episode of psychosis are frequently prescribed prophylactic antipsychotics for many years, especially if they are diagnosed as having schizophrenia. However, there is a dearth of evidence concerning the long-term effectiveness of this practice, and growing concern over the cumulative effects of antipsychotics on physical health and brain structure. Although controversy remains concerning some of the data, the wise psychiatrist should regularly review the benefit to each patient of continuing prophylactic antipsychotics against the risk of side-effects and loss of effectiveness through the development of supersensitivity of the dopamine D2 receptor. Psychiatrists should work with their patients to slowly reduce the antipsychotic to the lowest dose that prevents the return of distressing symptoms. Up to 40% of those whose psychosis remits after a first episode should be able to achieve a good outcome in the long term either with no antipsychotic medication or with a very low dose.
Community Detection Using Diffusion Information

Community detection in social networks has become a popular topic of research during the last decade. There exist a variety of algorithms for modularizing the network graph into different communities. However, they mostly assume that partial or complete information of the network graphs are available that is not feasible in many cases. In this article, we focus on detecting communities by exploiting their diffusion information. To this end, we utilize the Conditional Random Fields (CRF) to discover the community structures. The proposed method, community diffusion (CoDi), does not require any prior knowledge about the network structure or specific properties of communities. Furthermore, in contrast to the structure-based community detection methods, this method is able to identify the hidden communities. The experimental results indicate considerable improvements in detecting communities based on accuracy, scalability, and real cascade information measures.
Thermoreflectance small scale temperature measurement under ambient conditions

Thermoreflectance is a non-contact method to measure temperature on small scales which utilizes the temperature dependent change in normal reflectance of the surface under a probe light source. The sensitivity to the temperature change is determined by the thermoreflectance coefficient which is considered linear and calibrated over the temperature range to be studied. The current experiments conducted in an ambient environment show that the thermoreflectance coefficient exhibits a hysteresis with the first calibration and the hysteresis returns after several days. Under LED illumination centered about 535 nm the thermoreflectance coefficient is shown to change from -1.69x10
Effectiveness of paliperidone long-acting injection in clinical practice

Background: The efficacy of the long-acting injectable formulation of the antipsychotic paliperidone (paliperidone palmitate) has been investigated in randomized controlled trials. Due to the nature of study designs, these may not be representative of usual clinical practice. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical effectiveness of the long-acting injectable antipsychotic paliperidone palmitate using treatment continuation at 1 year as an outcome. Methods: Patients were initiated on paliperidone palmitate prior to December 2014 in a single health board in Wales (UK). Demographic factors that may have influenced outcome, including diagnosis, age at initiation, sex, inpatient or outpatient status on initiation, were analysed to assess whether they influenced patient outcome. For patients completing 1 year of treatment, inpatient stay in the 12 months prior to and following paliperidone palmitate initiation was compared. Results: Data were available for 64 patients; 41 had a diagnosis of schizophrenia and 7 had previously received clozapine. Continuation rates at 6 and 12 months were 69% and 63% respectively. Treatment continuation was not associated with demographic factors. For continuers, mean inpatient stay pre- and post-initiation was 83.2 ± 105.3 and 73.5 ± 103.3 days respectively (p = 0.61). The most common reason for discontinuation was lack of effect (n = 9). Conclusions: The proportion of patients remaining on treatment was comparable to that reported in other naturalistic studies. Prescribing for indications outside the product licence was relatively common, but did not appear to influence outcome, although the number of patients in each group was small. Treatment continuation at 6 months appeared to be a predictor of longer-term outcome.
Nurse education needed to address uncertainties of role and contribution in stroke rehabilitation units

Commentary on: Loft MI, Poulsen I, Esbensen BA, et al . Nurses’ and nurse assistants’ beliefs, attitudes and actions related to role and function in an inpatient stroke rehabilitation unit: a qualitative study. J Clin Nurs 2017;26:4905–14. Nurses and nurse assistants are key members of the multidisciplinary stroke rehabilitation team, being with the patient and working with them and their relatives continuously throughout their inpatient stay. However, nurses struggle to define their role and contribution in this context. Loft and colleague’s study,1 located in a small (15 beds) but well-staffed dedicated stroke rehabilitation unit (37 staff, with high levels of experience and seniority), aimed to explore …
A FRACTURE MECHANICS STUDY OF POLYPROPYLENE–WOOD FLOURS BLENDS

Polypropylene/wood blends were prepared from various resins and wood flours through extrusion compounding and injection molding. It was observed that the notched Izod strength of the blends with a relatively brittle resin matrix exceeded that of the neat resin at higher filler loading when the compounds contained the maleic-anhydride-polypropylene (MAPP) copolymer. The Izod strength of the blends with a tough matrix increased with the content of the interfacial modifier MAPP and is higher in blends with coarser fillers. The fracture mechanics analyses of the instrumented drop-weight Charpy test results were then performed to sudy the nature of these increases in impact fracture resistance. It was found that both the fracture toughness Kc and the critical strain release energy Gc increase with filler content in blends containing MAPP. In blends without MAPP, however, Gc decreases slightly with filler content while Kc increases less significantly. The increases of Gc with MAPP and with increasing filler particle size were also observed for the blends with a tougher PP as matrix. It is thus the reinforcing role of cellulosic fibers of the wood flours that contribute positively to the impact resistance of the PP/wood blends. It was thus proposed that higher wood filler aspect ratio, stronger interface, and tough copolymer matrix is the better choice in designing the PP/wood compounds.
Predicting Hospitalised Paediatric Pneumonia Mortality Risk: An External Validation of RISC and mRISC, and Local Tool Development (RISC-Malawi) from Malawi

Background Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of under-5 mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Clinical prediction tools may aide case classification, triage, and allocation of hospital resources. We performed an external validation of two published prediction tools and compared this to a locally developed tool to identify children admitted with pneumonia at increased risk for in-hospital mortality in Malawi. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the performance of the Respiratory Index of Severity in Children (RISC) and modified RISC (mRISC) scores in a child pneumonia dataset prospectively collected during routine care at seven hospitals in Malawi between 2011–2014. RISC has both an HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected tool. A local score (RISC-Malawi) was developed using multivariable logistic regression with missing data multiply imputed using chained equations. Score performances were assessed using c-statistics, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and likelihood statistics. Results 16,475 in-patient pneumonia episodes were recorded (case-fatality rate (CFR): 3.2%), 9,533 with complete data (CFR: 2.0%). The c-statistic for the RISC (HIV-uninfected) score, used to assess its ability to differentiate between children who survived to discharge and those that died, was 0.72. The RISC-Malawi score, using mid-upper arm circumference as an indicator of malnutrition severity, had a c-statistic of 0.79. We were unable to perform a comprehensive external validation of RISC (HIV-infected) and mRISC as both scores include parameters that were not routinely documented variables in our dataset. Conclusion In our population of Malawian children with WHO-defined pneumonia, the RISC (HIV-uninfected) score identified those at high risk for in-hospital mortality. However the refinement of parameters and resultant creation of RISC-Malawi improved performance. Next steps include prospectively studying both scores to determine if incorporation into routine care delivery can have a meaningful impact on in-hospital CFRs of children with WHO-defined pneumonia.
Pharmacokinetics of orbifloxacin in crucian carp (Carassius auratus) after intravenous and intramuscular administration

The pharmacokinetics of orbifloxacin was studied after a single dose (7.5 mg/kg) of intravenous or intramuscular administration to crucian carp (Carassius auratus) reared in freshwater at 25°C. Plasma samples were collected from six fish per sampling point. Orbifloxacin concentrations were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with a 0.02 μg/ml limit of detection, then were subjected to noncompartmental analysis. After intravenous injection, initial concentration of 5.83 μg/ml, apparent elimination rate constant (λz ) of 0.039 hr-1 , apparent elimination half-life (T1/2λz ) of 17.90 hr, systemic total body clearance (Cl) of 75.47 ml hr-1 kg-1 , volume of distribution (Vz) of 1,948.76 ml/kg, and volume of distribution at steady-state (Vss) of 1,863.97 ml/kg were determined, respectively. While after intramuscular administration, the λz , T1/2λz , mean absorption time (MAT), absorption half-life (T1/2ka ), and bioavailability were determined as 0.027 hr-1 , 25.69, 10.26, 7.11 hr, and 96.46%, respectively, while the peak concentration was observed as 3.11 ± 0.06 μg/ml at 2.0 hr. It was shown that orbifloxacin was completely but relatively slowly absorbed, extensively distributed, and slowly eliminated in crucian carp, and an orbifloxacin dosage of 10 mg/kg administered intravenously or intramuscularly would be expected to successfully treat crucian carp infected by strains with MIC values ≤0.5 μg/ml.
Getting Leopards to Change their Spots: Co-creating a New Professional Role Identity

We investigated how professional role identity change can be accomplished in highly institutionalized contexts characterized by resiliency. We show that the collective professional role identity of family physicians was changed through a process of reinterpreting multiple logics and their relationships. Through our inductive analyses, we identified four mechanisms that occurred through social interactions and collectively served to rearrange the constellation of logics guiding physician role identity: (1) revealing the influence of a hidden logic; (2) reinforcing the conflict between logics; (3) reframing the meaning of a dominant logic; and (4) re-embedding the new arrangement of logics. We found that the change in physician professional role identity required significant identity work by a group of actors, but particularly by the managers who had been charged with leading the reform initiative. We contribute to the professional role identity and institutional literatures by showing how others can engage in social interactions with professionals to facilitate the reinterpretation and rearranging of institutional logics that guide collective professional role identity.
Comparison of surgical results in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy after classic or modified morrow septal myectomy

Abstract The study was conducted to evaluate the surgical results in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) who underwent either classic Morrow septal myectomy or modified procedure. The modified Morrow septal myectomy has gained interest as a new treatment for patients with drug-refractory symptoms of HOCM; however, its benefits in comparison to the classic procedure are unknown. In all, 236 symptomatic HOCM patients underwent surgical treatment from January 2006 to January 2015. Among them, 86 patients were treated by the classic Morrow myectomy and 150 patients via the modified procedure. Septal thickness, maximal left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) pressure gradient (PG), and the presence of a permanent pacemaker were recorded after operation and follow-up The left ventricular septal thickness (22.1 ± 11.9 vs 17.1 ± 4.0 mm for classic procedure, and 22.3 ± 4.4 vs 16.1 ± 3.5 mm for modified procedure; P < .001), LVOT velocity (410.6 ± 134.0 vs 210.5 ± 81.4 mm/s for classic procedure, and 432.7 ± 119.3 vs 167.7 ± 50.1 mm/s for modified procedure; P < .001), LVOT PG (76.0 ± 43.5 vs 19.8 ± 16.7 mm Hg for classic procedure, and 80.8 ± 40.7 vs 12.3 ± 8.5 mm Hg for modified procedure; P < .001) were significantly decreased after the operation in both groups. The modified group, however, showed significantly greater reduction in these echocardiographic parameters than the classic group. PG was completely eliminated in 142 (94.7%) patients receiving the modified myectomy, and a resting PG over 30 mm Hg was demonstrated in 16 (18.6%) patients in the classic group at follow-up (P = .001). Thirty-two (37.2%) patients in the classic groups had a mitral valve replacement, which is significant more than 14 (9.3%) in the modified group (P < .001). Both the classic procedure and the modified procedure can reduce LVOT obstruction and alleviate symptoms in patients with HOCM. The modified Morrow septal myectomy is superior to the classic procedure in reducing the LVOT gradient with a lower incidence of mitral valve replacement.
Data-Driven Affinely Adjustable Distributionally Robust Unit Commitment

This paper proposes a data-driven affinely adjustable distributionally robust method for unit commitment considering uncertain load and renewable generation forecasting errors. The proposed formulation minimizes expected total operation costs, including the costs of generation, reserve, wind curtailment, and load shedding, while guaranteeing the system security. Without any presumption about the probability distribution of the uncertainties, the proposed method constructs an ambiguity set of distributions using historical data and immunizes the operation strategies against the worst case distribution in the ambiguity set. The more historical data is available, the smaller the ambiguity set is and the less conservative the solution is. The formulation is finally cast into a mixed integer linear programming whose scale remains unchanged as the amount of historical data increases. Numerical results and Monte Carlo simulations on the 118- and 1888-bus systems demonstrate the favorable features of the proposed method.
Can spectral–spatial image segmentation be used to discriminate experimental burn wounds?

Abstract. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a noncontact and noninvasive optical modality emerging the field of medical research. The goal of this study was to determine the ability of HSI and image segmentation to discriminate burn wounds in a preclinical porcine model. A heated brass rod was used to introduce burn wounds of graded severity in a pig model and a sequence of hyperspectral data was recorded up to 8-h postinjury. The hyperspectral images were processed by an unsupervised spectral–spatial segmentation algorithm. Segmentation was validated using results from histology. The proposed algorithm was compared to K-means segmentation and was found superior. The obtained segmentation maps revealed separated zones within the burn sites, indicating a variation in burn severity. The suggested image-processing scheme allowed mapping dynamic changes of spectral properties within the burn wounds over time. The results of this study indicate that unsupervised spectral–spatial segmentation applied on hyperspectral images can discriminate burn injuries of varying severity.
Dynamics of chromatin accessibility and long-range interactions in response to glucocorticoid pulsing

Although physiological steroid levels are often pulsatile (ultradian), the genomic effects of this pulsatility are poorly understood. By utilizing glucocorticoid receptor (GR) signaling as a model system, we uncovered striking spatiotemporal relationships between receptor loading, lifetimes of the DNase I hypersensitivity sites (DHSs), long-range interactions, and gene regulation. We found that hormone-induced DHSs were enriched within ±50 kb of GR-responsive genes and displayed a broad spectrum of lifetimes upon hormone withdrawal. These lifetimes dictate the strength of the DHS interactions with gene targets and contribute to gene regulation from a distance. Our results demonstrate that pulsatile and constant hormone stimulations induce unique, treatment-specific patterns of gene and regulatory element activation. These modes of activation have implications for corticosteroid function in vivo and for steroid therapies in various clinical settings.
A framework for privacy aware data management in relational databases

This paper is about MAPaS – modelling and analysis of privacy-aware systems – framework, which targets the development of privacy aware SQL queries operating on a given database. MAPaS supports the specification of purpose and role-based access control policies that regulate the access to data based on purpose compliance, role and purpose-based authorisations. The current version of MAPaS allows the definition of the scheme of the database whose data must be protected and the SQL queries that should be executed on such a database. A rich analysis toolkit allows user to assess the compliance of these queries with the specified privacy policies. The analysis can be done even before the database is populated. The use of MAPaS bring users to define SQL queries which are privacy aware by design.
On the Determination of Flow Stress Using Bulge Test and Mechanical Measurement

The standard uniaxial tensile test is a widely accepted method to obtain relevant properties of sheet metal materials. These fundamental parameters can be used in numerical modeling of sheet forming operations to predict and assess formability and failure analysis. However the range of strain obtained from tensile test is limited and therefore if one will need further information on material behavior, extrapolation of tensile data is performed. The bulge test is an alternative to obtain ranges of deformation higher than tensile test, thus being possible to obtain non-extrapolated data for material behavior. Several methods may be used to obtain stress-strain data from bulge test, but a common concept is behind them, which needs the measurement of bulge pressure, curvature of bulge specimen, its thickness at the pole and the application of membrane theory. Concerning such measurements, optical methods are being used recently but classical mechanical methods are still an alternative with its own strengths. This paper presents the use and development of a mechanical measuring system to be incorporated in a hydraulic bulge test for flow curve determination, which permits real-time data acquisition under controlled strain rates up to high levels of plastic deformation. Numerical simulations of bulge test using FEM are performed and a sensitivity analysis is done for some influencing variables used in measurements, thus giving some directions in the design and use of the experimental mechanical system. Also, first experimental results are presented, showing an efficient testing procedure method for real time data acquisition with a stable evaluation of the flow curve.
Mothers improve their daughters’ vegetable intake: A randomized controlled trial

The increasing prevalence of childhood overweight makes children an important target for health promotion programmes. An intervention was designed for mothers to provide more vegetables to their daughters’ diet. A randomized controlled trial compared a self-regulation condition with a control condition in 155 mothers aged 25–50 years. Dependent variable was children’s (aged 6–11 years) vegetable consumption which was reported by their mothers at three points in time. After baseline (Time 1), the intervention group received theory-based instructional leaflets to promote self-regulatory skills for providing a healthy nutrition for children. Changes were assessed after two weeks (Time 2) and at three-month follow-up (Time 3). The self-regulation intervention in mothers led to an increase in vegetable intake among their daughters at Time 2 but not at Time 3. However, maintenance of vegetable consumption at Time 3 was mediated by the amount of vegetable intake at Time 2. Engaging mothers in self-regulatory health promotion programmes may be a feasible strategy to facilitate more vegetable intake among their daughters.