Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using automatic speech recognition to assess the reading proficiency of a diverse sample of middle school students

This paper describes a study exploring automated assessment of reading proficiency, in terms of oral reading and reading comprehension, for a middle school population including students with reading disabilities and low reading proficiency, utilizing automatic speech recognition technology. We build statistical models using features related to fluency, pronunciation, and reading accuracy to predict three dependent variables: two are related to accuracy and speed of reading, the third is a reading comprehension measure from a state assessment of reading. The correlation coefficients of the best-performing linear regression models range from r = 0.64 (reading comprehension score) to 0.98 (correctly read words per minute). We further look at the features with the highest absolute regression weights in the three models and find that most of them fall into the classes of reading accuracy and reading speed. Still, features from the pronunciation class and other fluency features, e.g., relating to silences in the read speech, are also represented in the regression models but with less emphasis.
Separating-Plane Factorization Models: Scalable Recommendation from One-Class Implicit Feedback

We study the video recommendation problem based on a large amount of user viewing logs instead of explicit ratings. As viewing records are implicitly suggest user preferences, existing matrix factorization methods fail to generate discriminative recommendations based on such one-class positive samples. We propose a scalable approach called separating-plane matrix factorization (SPMF) to make effective recommendations based on positive implicit feedback, with a learning complexity that is comparable to traditional matrix factorization. With extensive offline evaluation in Tencent Data Warehouse (TDW) based on a large amount of data, we show that our approach outperforms a wide range of state-of-the-art methods. We also deployed our system in the QQ Browser App of Tencent and performed online A/B testing with real users. Results suggest that our approach increased the video click through rate by $23% over implicit-feedback collaborative filtering (IFCF), a scheme available in Apache Spark's MLlib.
BeppoSAX Observation of NGC 7582: Constraints on the X-Ray Absorber

This paper presents a BeppoSAX observation of NGC 7582 made during 1998 November and an optical spectrum taken in 1998 October. The new X-ray data reveal a previously unknown hard X-ray component in NGC 7582, peaking close to 20 keV. Rapid variability is observed with correlated changes in the 5-10 and 13-60 keV bands, indicating that a single-continuum component, produced by the active nucleus, provides the dominant flux across both bands. Comparison between RXTE and BeppoSAX data reveals changes in the 2-10 keV flux on timescales of months. Changes in the nuclear X-ray flux appear unrelated to the gradual decline in optical flux noted since the high state in 1998 July. The 0.5-2 keV flux of NGC 7582 is not significantly variable within the BeppoSAX observation but has brightened by a factor of ~2 since the ASCA observation of 1994. While there is some concern about contamination from spatially unresolved sources, the long-term variability in soft X-ray flux seems most likely associated with the nucleus or an event within the host galaxy of NGC 7582. The 2-100 keV spectrum is well fit by a power law of photon index Γ = 1.95, steeper by ΔΓ ≃ 0.40 than the index during the 1994 ASCA observation. The X-ray continuum is attenuated by a thick absorber of NH ~ 1.6 × 1024 cm-2 covering ~60% of the nucleus plus a screen with NH ~ 1.4 × 1023 cm-2 covering the entire nucleus. Comparison of the BeppoSAX and ASCA spectra shows an increase in the full screen by ΔNH ≃ 7 × 1022 cm -2 since 1994, confirming the absorption variability found by Xue et al. The increase in soft X-ray flux between 1994 and 1998 is consistent with the appearance of holes in the full screen, allowing ≲1% of the nuclear flux to escape and producing some clear lines of sight to the broad-line region. The data are also consistent with the scenario suggested by Aretxaga et al. of the radiative onset of a Type IIn supernova causing the observed optical change in NGC 7582.
Centre de Referència en Economia Analítica Barcelona Economics Working Paper Series Working Paper n o 91 Riding the South Sea Bubble

This paper presents a case study of a well-informed investor in the South Sea bubble. We argue that Hoare's Bank, a fledgling West End London banker, knew that a bubble was in progress and that it invested knowingly in the bubble; it was profitable to "ride the bubble. " Using a unique dataset on daily trades, we show that this sophisticated investor was not constrained by institutional factors such as restrictions on short sales or agency problems. Instead, this study demonstrates that predictable investor sentiment can prevent attacks on a bubble; rational investors may only attack when some coordinating event promotes joint action.
Formal modeling of frames and functional concepts 1 General Information 1 . 1 Applicants

1.6 Summary According to Barsalou 1992 frames as recursive attribute-value structures with constraints form the general format of concepts in human cognition. Based on empirical research, Barsa-lou's focus in developing frame theory was not on providing a formal theory. We intend to both sharpen and generalize his intuitive conceptions by developing an adequate mathematical model for frames. By examining the formal properties of frames and modeling frames of different concept types, our goal is to obtain a better understanding of frames and an adequate explanation of cognitive processes. This is necessary for the adoption of frames in various fields of application, such as frame-based semantics, medical diagnosis, scientific classification or frame-based knowledge systems. Frames describe the objects they represent by using attributes with assigned values. The values can be either atomic, or structured frames themselves. They can be specific, under-specified or unspecified. Our assumption is that attributes assign unique values to objects and thus describe functional relations. Hence, the attributes can be seen as the primes of concept formation. As discussed in Petersen 2007, frames can be represented by directed graphs with labeled nodes and arcs. Each node is labeled with a type and each arc is labeled with an attribute. A model-theoretic interpretation of the graphs will be developed by assigning to each node a type in an appropriate type signature and to each arc an appropriate partial function. To
Could Africa Be Like America?

Although there are important lessons for Africa from the experience of East Asia, the sectoral and spatial structures of an increasingly prosperous Africa will be more like those of the Americas. Because it is land-abundant, as is America, Africa will always have a larger primary sector and a smaller manufacturing sector than the land-scarce regions of Asia and Europe. Moreover, because much of its land is far from the sea, which raises internal transport costs, a prosperous Africa will be like America also in having a relatively unpopulated interior, based on agriculture and mining, with urban industrial concentrations on its coasts. Africa could surpass the current income level of South America, although it may never quite catch up with North America because of its tropical climate and its division into many countries, which obstructs internal movement of goods, ideas and people. What is mainly needed to raise Africa from poverty to prosperity are improvements in governance which will reduce the risks of investment and encourage the return of flight capital, physical and human. Similar improvements in governance are needed in all poor countries, but the policy priorities of land-abundant Africa differ from those of land-scarce Asia in three areas. First, it is even more crucial for Africa to apply knowledge to nature by promoting scientific research, education and training in agriculture and mining. Second, to overcome the problems of internal spatial dispersion, Africa must spend more on transport and communications and facilitate movement of people, especially from the interior to the coasts. Third, Africa must ensure widely distributed access to land and education, so that high levels of inequality do not slow growth and perpetuate poverty.
VINE—A NUMERICAL CODE FOR SIMULATING ASTROPHYSICAL SYSTEMS USING PARTICLES. II. IMPLEMENTATION AND PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS

We continue our presentation of VINE. In this paper, we begin with a description of relevant architectural properties of the serial and shared memory parallel computers on which VINE is intended to run, and describe their influences on the design of the code itself. We continue with a detailed description of a number of optimizations made to the layout of the particle data in memory and to our implementation of a binary tree used to access that data for use in gravitational force calculations and searches for smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) neighbor particles. We describe the modifications to the code necessary to obtain forces efficiently from special purpose “GRAPE” hardware, the interfaces required to allow transparent substitution of those forces in the code instead of those obtained from the tree, and the modifications necessary to use both tree and GRAPE together as a fused GRAPE/tree combination. We conclude with an extensive series of performance tests, which demonstrate that the code can be run efficiently and without modification in serial on small workstations or in parallel using the OpenMP compiler directives on large-scale, shared memory parallel machines. We analyze the effects of the code optimizations and estimate that they improve its overall performance by more than an order of magnitude over that obtained by many other tree codes. Scaled parallel performance of the gravity and SPH calculations, together the most costly components of most simulations, is nearly linear up to at least 120 processors on moderate sized test problems using the Origin 3000 architecture, and to the maximum machine sizes available to us on several other architectures. At similar accuracy, performance of VINE, used in GRAPE-tree mode, is approximately a factor 2 slower than that of VINE, used in host-only mode. Further optimizations of the GRAPE/host communications could improve the speed by as much as a factor of 3, but have not yet been implemented in VINE. Finally, we find that although parallel performance on small problems may reach a plateau beyond which more processors bring no additional speedup, performance never decreases, a factor important for running large simulations on many processors with individual time steps, where only a small fraction of the total particles require updates at any given moment.
Centrifuge modelling of sand compaction piles in soft clay under embankment load

Sand compaction piles are used in practice for ground improvement of soft subsoil in order to accelerate consolidation, reduce compressibility, and increase strength. The current design procedure of sand compaction piles is based on simple empirical calculations, which does not take full account of the sand pile behaviour. This research project investigates the behaviour of a base reinforced embankment constructed on a soft clay layer, which is improved with sand compaction piles. In order to gain a better understanding of in-teractions within the structure, physical investigations are being conducted by means of centrifuge modelling. Tests were performed under plane strain conditions in a strong box, using a newly developed sand compac-tion pile installation tool for in-flight pile construction. Initial analysis of test data shows the change in stress state due to sand compaction pile installation and the influence on clay behaviour.
Ultrastructural Alterations of Myelinated Fibers and Oligodendrocytes in the Prefrontal Cortex in Schizophrenia: A Postmortem Morphometric Study

Schizophrenia is believed to result from altered neuronal connectivity and impaired myelination. However, there are few direct evidence for myelin abnormalities in schizophrenia. We performed electron microscopic study of myelinated fibers and oligodendrocytes and morphometric study of myelinated fibers in the prefrontal cortex in gray and white matters in schizophrenia and normal controls. Six types of abnormal fibers and ultrastructural alterations of oligodendrocytes were found in schizophrenia. No significant group differences in area density of myelinated fibers were found. Frequency of pathological fibers was increased significantly in gray matter in young and elderly schizophrenia patients and in patients with predominantly positive symptoms. In contrast, in white matter, frequency of altered fibers was increased significantly in elderly patients, in patients with predominantly negative symptoms, and correlated with illness duration. Progressive alterations of myelinated fibers in white matter might be followed by alterations of myelinated fibers in gray matter in schizophrenia.
Risk factors for the development of Clostridium difficile colitis in a surgical ward

Purpose Clostridium difficile colitis (CDC) is a nosocomial infection. We attempted to discover the risk factors for the development of CDC in patients admitted to our surgical ward. Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review of all patients admitted to our surgical ward between January 2010 and July 2011. CDC was confirmed when toxin A/B or toxin B polymerase chain reaction was detected in the stool and clinical symptoms, such as diarrhea, were present. We divided patients into the CDC and non-CDC groups, and compared the clinical features between the two groups. Results The rate of CDC occurrence was 0.4% (19/4,720 patients). Univariate analysis showed that colectomy (P < 0.001), hospital stays longer than 10 days (P < 0.001), aged over 55 years (P < 0.001) and transfer from medical ward (P = 0.009) were significant parameters for CDC. Multivariate analysis showed that colectomy (P < 0.001; odds ratio [OR], 8.405; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.927 to 24.132) and hospital stays longer than 10 days (P = 0.035; OR, 10.253; 95% CI, 1.176 to 89.392) were high risk factors for CDC occurrence in the surgical ward. Conclusion The risk factors for CDC in a surgical ward could be colectomy and a long duration of hospitalization. Therefore, clinicians should consider the possibility of CDC when patients undergo colectomy, are admitted for a long time, and have postoperative diarrhea.
The Impact of Talibanization on the Education of IDP's in N. W. F. P. Pakistan.

The study looked into a descriptive research to evaluate the impact of talibanization on the education of IDP’s in NWFP (Pakistan). The study has defined the needs, problems and opportunities, contribution of NGO’s and emerging trends of IDP’s regarding maddrassa education/ general education. The main focus of the study was the needs and contribution of NGO’s towards the development of IDP’s education. Data was collected through survey and questionnaire. Main objectives of the study were to determine the needs, problems, opportunities, contribution of NGO’s towards the development of IDP’s education and emerging trends of IDP’s. The following results were made by the researcher in the light of analysis of the data. Majority of the IDP’s students suffer inferiority complex due to displacement. Majority of the students were not satisfied with the camps teachers; in addition books were not available for students. Further; AV aids were not being used comprehensively in camps for the motivation of student. There were no recreation and games facilities in camps as well in schools. In adequacy and leakage of funds was also found. Majority of the respondents were not satisfied with the NGO’s role. The respondents were not in favour of talibaniztion. Majority of the respondents were in favour of army control. Majority of respondents stated that Taliban were responsible for such a terrible situation. Majority of the respondents were satisfied with the behaviour of school staff. Lack of provision of guidance and counselling was also noticed. As for as objectives of the study were concerned, they were,
Repolarization variability mechanism and its relation with cardiac arrhythmogenesis

Enhanced temporal variability of ventricular repolarization has been related to increased ventricular arrhythmic risk. In this study, we investigate the influence of stochastic ion channel gating on the variability of four arrhythmic risk biomarkers: action potential (AP) duration (APD), AP triangulation and systolic and diastolic calcium levels. Different levels of white noise, representing different channel numbers, were introduced by means of a stochastic differential equation for the gating variables of the ten Tusscher-Panfilov human ventricular model (TP06). In single cells the rapid and slow delayed rectifier potassium currents (IKr and IKs) were the main contributors to biomarkers variability, which was shown to be increased at fast pacing frequencies, particularly for APD and diastolic calcium. At tissue level, electrotonic coupling masked the effects of stochastic gating on the variability of all the investigated biomarkers. In particular, a very notable reduction in variability was obtained for 2D and 3D tissue models, with 80% reduction with respect to 1D models, and more than 20 folds with respect to isolated cells under physiological conditions. This indicates that large variations in cellular AP are required in order to reproduce physiological variability levels measured in tissue.
Effective Coding Gain for Space-Time Codes

The performance of space-time codes is evaluated in terms of diversity gain and coding gain, two measures which describe the worst-case pairwise error probability between codewords at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We introduce the concept of effective coding gain to provide an estimate on the bit error rate (BER) at low-to-moderate SNR. This concept connects the number of nearest neighbours with degradation in error performance. We demonstrate the value of the new concept through analysis of space-time block codes for the quasi-static Rayleigh fading channel
A small matter of design: an analysis of end users as designers

The paper presents an analysis of end user design in a PD project exploring user-driven innovation as a perspective and method for PD. End user designs are analysed in relation to existing perspectives on innovative design. End users work as designers are analysed in relation to existing perspectives on what it means to be a reflective designer. A series of examples present end users as competent designers and additionally emphasize the understanding of end user design as more than design of innovative products and functionality -- end user design is characterised as inquiry and negotiations of disparate logics and results in expressions that call for engaging in communication. It is concluded that the fundamental goal of PD as "giving voice" to end users has not changed or become less important despite new media platforms and business appreciations of user-drive. Rather, it is important for PD to elaborate how to hear and understand end user voices by supporting user negotiations and inquiries and engaging in partly unconscious communication of expressions beyond functionality.
Estrogen regulates development of the somatic cell phenotype in the eutherian ovary

Steroids play a critical role in gonadal differentiation in birds, reptiles, and amphibia whereas gonadal differentiation in mammals is thought to be determined by genetic mechanisms. The gonads of female mice incapable of synthesizing estrogens due to disruption of the aromatase gene (ArKO) provide a unique model to test the role of estrogen in regulating the gonadal phenotype. We have shown that in the absence of estrogen, genetically female mice develop testicular tissue within their ovaries. The ovaries develop cells that possess structural and functional characteristics of testicular interstitial cells and of seminiferous tubule‐like structures lined with Sertoli cells. Moreover, the ovaries express mRNA for the testis‐specific Sertoli cell transcription factor Sox 9 and espin protein, which is specific for inter‐Sertoli cell junctions. The development of the testicular tissue in this model can be reverted/postponed by replacing estrogen. When ArKO female mice were fed a diet containing phytoestrogens, the appearance of Leydig and Sertoli cells was postponed and reduced. Furthermore, administration of estradiol‐17J decreased the number of Sertoli and Leydig cells in the ovaries. These findings constitute definitive evidence that estrogen plays a critical role in maintaining female somatic interstitial and granulosa cells in the eutherian ovary. —Britt, K. L. , Kerr, J., O'Donnell, L. , Jones, M. E. E. , Drummond, A. E. , Davis, S. R. , Simpson, E. R. , Findlay, J. K. Estrogen regulates development of the somatic cell phenotype in the eutherian ovary. FASEB J. 16, 1389–1397 (2002)
Viewing Instructions Accompanying Action Observation Modulate Corticospinal Excitability

Action observation interventions may have the potential to contribute to improved motor function in motor (re)learning settings by promoting functional activity and plasticity in the motor regions of the brain. Optimal methods for delivering such interventions, however, have yet to be established. This experiment investigated the effect on corticospinal excitability of manipulating the viewing instructions provided to participants (N = 21) prior to action observation. Specifically, motor evoked potential responses measured from the right hand muscles following single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the left motor cortex were compared when participants were instructed to observe finger-thumb opposition movement sequences: (i) passively; (ii) with the intent to imitate the observed movement; or (iii) whilst simultaneously and actively imagining that they were performing the movement as they observed it. All three action observation viewing instructions facilitated corticospinal excitability to a greater extent than did observation of a static hand. In addition, the extent to which corticospinal excitability was facilitated was greater during combined observation and imagery, compared to passive observation. These findings have important implications for the design of action observation interventions in motor (re)learning settings, where instructions that encourage observers to simultaneously imagine themselves performing the observed movement may offer the current optimal method for improving motor function through action observation.