Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Computer Assessment Tool for Concept Mapping.

Current educational theories emphasize assessment as a vital part of teaching-learning process. Alternative assessment techniques aim to expose and promote the process of the learning rather than the final outcome. Concept mapping is a technique for representing conceptual knowledge and relationships between concepts in a graphical form. Requiring to construct concept maps encourages learners to organize concepts and the relationships between them in a hierarchical structure. Although constructing concept maps might be difficult in every domain including mathematics and might require extensive domain knowledge, it is essential to employ concept mapping technique in order to reveal learner’s conceptual understanding. Hence, asking learners construct their concept maps or to fill missing parts in a pre-designed concept maps might be used as a part of the assessment process. A prototype computer system, called Concept Map Assessor (CMA), is designed to help learners to construct concept maps and to evaluate their performances in pre-designed concept maps. In this study, the basic features and elements of the CMA will be presented and its possible contributions to mathematics education will be discussed.
MR Imaging of Multiple Myeloma in Tumour Mass Measurement at Diagnosis and during Treatment

The bone marrow of the spine, pelvis and proximal femora was examined with MR imaging at diagnosis in 30 cases of multiple myeloma (MM), and during treatment on 69 occasions. The MR pattern was normal, focal or diffuse and correlated to stage. A tumour mass index (TMI) was calculated by estimating the total myeloma mass visualised at MR imaging. The TMI correlated significantly with stage, lytic bone lesions, serum calcium, serum β-2-microglobulin and survival. No abnormalities were seen at MR investigation in 4 of 6 patients classified as stage II because of osteoporosis only. Therapy efficacy evaluation with MR imaging corresponded to clinical evaluation on 54 of the 69 occasions. MR examination of bone marrow in MM patients can be used for tumour mass assessment, both at diagnosis and during follow-up. Valuable information can be obtained when the tumour mass is difficult to estimate using clinical criteria, e.g. in non-secretory MM or when osteoporosis is the only variable indicating an increase in the tumour mass.
Ribosome-inactivating proteins

Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) were first isolated over a century ago and have been shown to be catalytic toxins that irreversibly inactivate protein synthesis. Elucidation of atomic structures and molecular mechanism has revealed these proteins to be a diverse group subdivided into two classes. RIPs have been shown to exhibit RNA N-glycosidase activity and depurinate the 28S rRNA of the eukaryotic 60S ribosomal subunit. In this review, we compare archetypal RIP family members with other potent toxins that abolish protein synthesis: the fungal ribotoxins which directly cleave the 28S rRNA and the newly discovered Burkholderia lethal factor 1 (BLF1). BLF1 presents additional challenges to the current classification system since, like the ribotoxins, it does not possess RNA N-glycosidase activity but does irreversibly inactivate ribosomes. We further discuss whether the RIP classification should be broadened to include toxins achieving irreversible ribosome inactivation with similar turnovers to RIPs, but through different enzymatic mechanisms.
Path-Constrained Traffic Assignment

This paper presents a mathematical programming model and solution method for the path-constrained traffic assignment problem, in which route choices simultaneously follow the Wardropian equilibrium principle and yield the distance constraint imposed on the path. This problem is motivated by the need for modeling distance-restrained electric vehicles in congested networks, but the resulting model and solution method can be applied to various conditions with similar path-based constraints. The equilibrium conditions of the problem reveal that any path cost in the network is the sum of corresponding link costs and a path-specific out-of-range penalty term. The suggested method, based on the classic Frank–Wolfe algorithm, incorporates an efficient constrained shortest-path algorithm as its subroutine. This algorithm fully exploits the underlying network structure of the problem and is relatively easy to implement. Numerical results from the examples of problems provided show how the equilibrium conditions are reshaped by the path constraint and how the traffic flow patterns are affected by different constraint tightness levels.
Reasons for tooth extraction in a Brazilian population.

AIM To identify the reasons for tooth extraction in Recife, Brazil and to test whether they differ by socio-economic groups and levels of caries experience. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Ten health centres of the public health system and ten health centres of insurance companies. PARTICIPANTS Patients attending health centres. METHODS Ten dentists from each selected centre and two patients from each selected dentist were randomly selected from; the list of all health centres in Recife, all dentists carrying out dental extractions at each selected centre and all patients who had an appointment with the selected dentists respectively. Participants were examined by both the researcher (AC) and dentists. OUTCOME MEASURE Reasons for tooth extraction. RESULTS Of the 404 teeth extracted, 70.3 per cent were because of caries and its sequelae; 15.1 per cent because of periodontal disease; 6.4 per cent for pre-prosthetic reasons; 3.7 per cent wisdom teeth, 2.5 per cent for orthodontic reasons and 1 per cent for trauma and patient's request. A trend was observed for patients with less than secondary school education and lower salaries to have more tooth extraction due to caries, but the differences were not of statistical significance.
A sociogenomic perspective on neuroscience in organizational behavior

We critically examine the current biological models of individual organizational behavior, with particular emphasis on the roles of genetics and the brain. We demonstrate how approaches to biology in the organizational sciences assume that biological systems are simultaneously causal and essentially static; that genotypes exert constant effects. In contrast, we present a sociogenomic approach to organizational research, which could provide a meta-theoretical framework for understanding organizational behavior. Sociogenomics is an interactionist approach that derives power from its ability to explain how genes and environment operate. The key insight is that both genes and the environment operate by modifying gene expression. This leads to a conception of genetic and environmental effects that is fundamentally dynamic, rather than the static view of classical biometric approaches. We review biometric research within organizational behavior, and contrast these interpretations with a sociogenomic view. We provide a review of gene expression mechanisms that help explain the dynamism observed in individual organizational behavior, particularly factors associated with gene expression in the brain. Finally, we discuss the ethics of genomic and neuroscientific findings for practicing managers and discuss whether it is possible to practically apply these findings in management.
Effect of oil and water mixtures on adhesion in the wheel/rail contact

Abstract This article details the findings of a series of twin disc machine adhesion tests that investigated the effects of oil and water mixtures on adhesion at the wheel/rail interface. Oil was found to have a dominant effect on adhesion in the presence of water. Surfaces coated with oil at 4.7×10−3 g/cm2 and sprayed with water had levels of adhesion similar to those coated by a replenishing supply of oil. The tests showed that drying a wet contact can initially give a reduction in adhesion, that increased roughness results in increased adhesion in the presence of oil, and that increased contact pressure improves adhesion in the presence of oil.
Impaired Sacculocollic Reflex in Lateral Medullary Infarction

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine saccular dysfunction by measuring cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMP) and to correlate abnormality of cVEMP with results of other vestibular function tests in lateral medullary infarction (LMI). Methods: We recorded cVEMP in 21 patients with LMI documented on MRI. cVEMP was induced by a short tone burst and was recorded in contracting sternocleidomastoid muscle while patients turned their heads forcefully to the contralateral side against resistance. Patients also underwent video-oculographic recording of spontaneous, gaze-evoked and head shaking nystagmus (HSN), evaluation of ocular tilt reaction (OTR), measurement of the subjective visual vertical (SVV) tilt, bithermal caloric tests, and audiometry. Results: Nine patients (43%) showed abnormal cVEMP, unilateral in seven and bilateral in two. The cVEMP abnormalities included decreased p13–n23 amplitude in four, delayed p13/n23 responses in five, and both decreased and delayed responses in two. The abnormal cVEMP was ipsilesional in five, contralesional in two, and bilateral in two. The prevalence of OTR/SVV tilt, spontaneous nystagmus, and HSN did not differ between the patients with normal and abnormal cVEMP. Conclusion: cVEMP was abnormal in approximately half of the patients with LMI. The abnormal cVEMP indicates damage to the descending sacculocollic reflex pathway or disruption of commissural modulation between the vestibular nuclei.
What determines quality in maternity care? Comparing the perceptions of childbearing women and midwives.

BACKGROUND In the current climate of consumer orientation in health care services, a clear need has emerged to understand the extent of consumer focus among primary health care professionals. Few studies have compared the beliefs of health care staff with those of patients. This study sought to identify and compare the perceptions of women and midwives concerning women's beliefs about what constitutes quality in maternity services. METHODS Focus groups were conducted from July 1994 to June 1997 with 38 pregnant and postnatal women, and 47 midwives who were based in two large maternity units in Yorkshire, England. Transcriptions of data were analyzed to identify broad themes. RESULTS Ten dimensions of quality were identified. Similarities between midwives and women included beliefs about the importance of the relationship between the two parties, desired attributes of staff, and the environment of care. Key differences included underestimating the importance of information antenatally and postnatally, the importance of continuity during labor, need for control and confidence in adjusting to the maternal role, and involvement of the woman's partner in the delivery of care. CONCLUSIONS An understanding of the concerns of women by maternity care staff is important in the development of a woman-focused service, in line with current policy recommendations, and has implications for risk management and improving the service quality for those who provide and experience the service.
Analysis of Draw Bead Geometry on Wall Thinning and Concave/Convex Feature in Rectangular Deep Drawn Parts

The application of the draw bead could reduce the concave/convex wall features. However, it also affected the wall thinning. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the suitable draw bead geometry to obtain a straight wall without the wall thinning. In this study, the effects of draw bead geometry of height and width on concave/convex wall feature and wall thinning were investigated by using the finite element method (FEM) and experiments. Based on the stress distribution analysis, the increasing in draw bead width and the decreasing in draw bead height lead to the concave wall feature increased; however, the application of the too small draw bead width and the too large draw bead height generated the convex wall feature. The wall thinning also decreased as the draw bead width increased as well as the draw bead height decreased. Therefore, the application of suitable draw bead height and width significantly suppressed the concave/convex wall feature and wall thinning, which resulted in the straight wall with the smallest wall thinning could be achieved.
Strong lensing in Abell 1703: constraints on the slope of the inner dark matter distribution

Properties of dark matter haloes can be probed observationally and numerically, and comparing both approaches provides ways to constrain cosmological models. When it comes to the inner part of galaxy cluster scale haloes, interaction between the baryonic and the dark matter component is an important issue that is far from being fully understood. With this work, we aim to initiate a program coupling observational and numerical studies to probe the inner part of galaxy clusters. In this article, we apply strong lensing techniques on Abell 1703, a massive X-ray luminous galaxy cluster at z = 0.28. Our analysis is based on imaging data from both the space and ground in 8 bands, complemented by a spectroscopic survey. Abell 1703 is rather circular from the general shape of its multiply imaged systems and is dominated by a giant elliptical cD galaxy in its centre. This cluster exhibits a remarkable bright central ring formed by 4 images at z_(spec) = 0.888 only 5-13" away from the cD centre. This unique feature offers a rare lensing constrain for probing the central mass distribution. The stellar contribution from the cD galaxy (~1.25 x 10^1) M⊙ within 30 kpc) is accounted for in our parametric mass modelling, and the underlying smooth dark matter component distribution is described using a generalized NFW profile parametrized with a central logarithmic slope α. The rms of our mass model in the image plane is equal to 1.4". We find that within the range where observational constraints are present (from ~20 kpc to ~210 kpc), α is equal to 1.09^(+0.05)_(-0.11)(3σ confidence level). The concentration parameter is equal to c_(200) ~3.5, and the scale radius is constrained to be larger than the region where observational constraints are available (r_s = 730^(+15)_(-75) kpc). The 2D mass is equal to M(210 kpc) = 2.4 x 10^14 M⊙. However, we cannot draw any conclusions on cosmological models at this point since we lack results from realistic numerical simulations containing baryons to make a proper comparison. We advocate the need for a large sample of well observed (and well constrained) and simulated unimodal relaxed galaxy clusters in order to make reliable comparisons and to potentially provide a test of cosmological models.
Plasmid Patterns of Bacillus thuringiensis Type Strains

ABSTRACT Practically all Bacillus thuringiensis strains contain a set of self-replicating, extrachromosomal DNA molecules or plasmids, which vary in number and size in the different strains. The plasmid patterns obtained from gel electrophoresis have previously been used as a tool to characterize strains, but comparison of the plasmid patterns has been limited in the number and diversity of strains analyzed. In this report, we were able to compare the plasmid patterns of 83 type strains (out of 84) and 47 additional strains from six serotypes. The information obtained from this comparison showed the importance of this tool as a strain characterization procedure and indicates the complexity and uniqueness of this feature. For example, with one exception, all type strains showed a unique plasmid pattern. All were unique in such a way that none showed even a single comigrating plasmid in the agarose gels, and therefore, cluster analysis was impossible, indicating that plasmid patterns are qualitative rather than quantitative features. Furthermore, comparison between strains belonging to the same serotype showed a great difference in variability. Some serotypes (e.g., israelensis) showed the same basic pattern among all its strains, while other serotypes (e.g., morrisoni) showed a great diversity of patterns. These results indicate that plasmid patterns are valuable tools to discriminate strains below the serotype level.
Factor II Activity is Similarly Increased in Patients With Elevated Apolipoprotein CIII and in Carriers of the Factor II 20210A Allele

Background Few studies have so far investigated the relationship between apolipoprotein CIII (Apo CIII) and coagulation pathway in subjects with or without coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods and Results Serum Apo CIII concentrations and plasma coagulant activities of factor II (FII:c), factor V (FV:c), and factor VIII (FVIII:c), and activated factor VII (FVIIa) were analyzed in a total of 933 subjects, with (n=687) or without (n=246) angiographically demonstrated CAD and not taking anticoagulant drugs. Activated factor X (FXa) generation assay was performed on plasma from subgroups of subjects with low and high levels of Apo CIII. A statistical incremental concentration of FII:c, FV:c, and FVIIa levels was observed through the quartiles of Apo CIII distribution in the population considered as a whole. Significant results were confirmed for FII:c in CAD and CAD‐free subgroup when separately considered. Subjects within the highest Apo CIII quartile (>12.6 mg/dL) had high FII:c levels not statistically different from those of carriers of 20210A allele (n=40; 4.28%). In a multiple linear model, Apo CIII was the best predictor of FII:c variability, after adjustment for age, gender, plasma lipids, CRP, creatinine, diagnosis, and carriership of 20210A allele. FXa generation was increased and its lag time shortened in plasmas with high Apo CIII levels. However, after thrombin inhibition by hirudin, differences between low and high Apo C‐III samples disappeared. Conclusions Elevated concentrations of Apo CIII are associated with an increase of thrombin activity to an extent comparable with the carriership of G20210A gene variant and mainly modulating the thrombin generation.
Comparing the Power of Full Disk Encryption Alternatives

This paper examines the energy costs of different approaches to full disk encryption, including hardware encryption, software encryption, and "no encryption". Using the DEEP power measurement platform, we measured the energy consumed by each configuration under various workloads. We demonstrate that hardware encryption saves energy for many (though not all) workloads, but that the energy savings may not compensate for the hardware price at current rates.
Asymptotic Outage Probability Analysis for General Fixed-Gain Amplify-and-Forward Multihop Relay Systems

In this paper, we present an analysis of the outage probability for fixed-gain amplify-and-forward (AF) multihop relay links operating in the high SNR regime. Our analysis exploits properties of Mellin transforms to derive an asymptotic approximation that is accurate even when the per-hop channel gains adhere to completely different fading models. The main result contained in the paper is a general expression for the outage probability, which is a functional of the Mellin transforms of the per-hop channel gains. Furthermore, we explicitly calculate the asymptotic outage probability for four different systems, whereby in each system the per-hop channels adhere to either a Nakagami-m, Weibull, Rician, or Hoyt fading profile, but where the distributional parameters may differ from hop to hop. This analysis leads to our second main result, which is a semi-general closed-form formula for the outage probability of general fixed-gain AF multihop systems. We exploit this formula to analyze an example scenario for a four-hop system where the per-hop channels follow the four aforementioned fading models, i.e., the first channel is Nakagami-m fading, the second is Weibull fading, and so on. Finally, we provide simulation results to corroborate our analysis.
A Cough Aerosol Simulator for the Study of Disease Transmission by Human Cough-Generated Aerosols

Aerosol particles expelled during human coughs are a potential pathway for infectious disease transmission. However, the importance of airborne transmission is unclear for many diseases. To better understand the role of cough aerosol particles in the spread of disease and the efficacy of different types of protective measures, we constructed a cough aerosol simulator that produces a human-like cough in a controlled environment. The simulated cough has a 4.2 l volume and is based on coughs recorded from influenza patients. In one configuration, the simulator produces a cough aerosol containing particles from 0.1 to 100 μm in diameter with a volume median diameter (VMD) of 8.5 μm and a geometric standard deviation (GSD) of 2.9. In a second configuration, the cough aerosol has a size range of 0.1–30 μm, a VMD of 3.4 μm, and a GSD of 2.3. The total aerosol volume expelled during each cough is 68 μl. By generating a controlled and reproducible artificial cough, the simulator allows us to test different ventilation, disinfection, and personal protection scenarios. The system can be used with live pathogens, including influenza virus, which allows isolation precautions used in the healthcare field to be tested without risk of exposure for workers or patients. The information gained from tests with the simulator will help to better understand the transmission of infectious diseases, develop improved techniques for infection control, and improve safety for healthcare workers and patients. Copyright 2013 American Association for Aerosol Research
An Evaluation of Initial Vancomycin Dosing in Infants, Children, and Adolescents

Background. The pharmacokinetics of many medications change as we age, thus most would assume dosing strategies would adjust for these changes. The objective of this study is to evaluate the initial vancomycin dosing in three pediatric age groups based on measured serum trough concentrations. Methodology. This retrospective database review included patients aged from 1 month to 18 years old admitted to the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital. Patients had to have received vancomycin dosed at 15 mg/kg every 8 hours with an appropriately measured trough concentration. The primary outcome was to determine the percentage of patients in 3 pediatric age groups achieving therapeutic trough concentrations with the initial vancomycin dosing regimen. Results. Twenty-five patients were included in the study. None of the patients had therapeutic trough concentrations after receiving vancomycin 15 mg/kg every 8 hours. Only one patient had a supratherapeutic level, while all of the other patients had levels less than 10 mcg/mL. Conclusions. Vancomycin 15 mg/kg every 8 hours did not provide therapeutic serum trough concentrations for any pediatric age groups. Higher doses and/or more frequent dosing regimens need to be evaluated for each age group to determine the most appropriate strategies for producing therapeutic trough concentrations.
Mechanically caused damage to Hfr cells of Escherichia coli K12.

Brinton, Gemski & Carnahan (1964) have described 'sex-pili' specifically associated with the donor condition in Escherichia coli K12. Without providing data they mentioned the feasibility of removing the sex-pili from the surface of donor cells and regeneration of these organelles. This paper describes experiments of a similar kind in which donor cells were damaged by treating either mating pairs or unmated donor cells in a Waring Blendor or similar device. The damaged donor cells were unable to form zygotes and unable to adsorb the male-specific coli-phage /̂ 2 (Dettori, Maccacaro & Piccinin, 1961). The damage is only temporary, being repaired by growth unless chloramphenicol is present. The damage reported here differs from the lethal effects reported by Clowes (1963) and Gross (1963) who described cellular damage associated with mating in E. coli K12. They observed death of F~ cells during conjugation when the ratio of Hfr to F~ organisms is raised above about 0-2 (Gross, 1963).