Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cyber-physical system design contracts

This paper introduces design contracts between control and embedded software engineers for building Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). CPS design involves a variety of disciplines mastered by teams of engineers with diverse backgrounds. Many system properties influence the design in more than one discipline. The lack of clearly defined interfaces between disciplines burdens the interaction and collaboration. We show how design contracts can facilitate interaction between 2 groups: control and software engineers. A design contract is an agreement on certain properties of the system. Every party specifies requirements and assumptions on the system and the environment. This contract is the central point of inter-domain communication and negotiation. Designs can evolve independently if all parties agree to a contract or designs can be modified iteratively in negotiation processes. The main challenge lies in the definition of a concise but sufficient contract. We discuss design contracts that specify timing and functionality, two important properties control and software engineers have to agree upon. Various design approaches have been established and implemented successfully to address timing and functionality. We formulate those approaches as design contracts and propose guidelines on how to choose, derive and employ them. Modeling and simulation support for the design contracts is discussed using an illustrative example.
Is assessment for learning feasible in large classes? Challenges and coping strategies from three case studies

ABSTRACT While assessment for learning (AfL) has been widely used in college English classrooms in China where teachers usually teach large classes, how AfL is implemented in the large-class higher education (HE) context is relatively underexplored. To address this gap, this study explores some of the challenges presented by large classes and the teachers’ coping strategies through case studies of three university English teachers’ AfL practices. Challenges are identified surrounding how the teachers dealt with (a) inadequate attention to individual students, (b) reduced opportunities for individualised feedback, (c) overwhelming marking responsibilities, and (d) involving students in assessment, with strategies of putting students in groups, matching names with faces, conducting teacher-student conferences, utilising technology to facilitate feedback processes, enabling peer feedback, and transforming students from assessees to assessors. Findings are framed around useful forms of AfL in large classes and the feasibility of AfL in terms of compromises between teacher agency and their temporal and contextual conditions. The paper concludes with implications for teacher assessment training, teacher education and policy-making.
Experience with Coeliac Axis Compression Syndrome

Seven patients with “coeliac axis compression syndrome” are reported. Five were treated surgically, but only two did well. A survey of 200 healthy adults showed epigastric bruits in 6·5%; only one of these had dyspepsia, though dyspepsia was present in 12·5% overall. Caution is urged in attributing a causal relationship between coeliac axis compression and pain and in proceeding to arteriography when compression is suspected on clinical grounds.
Building strong parent–teacher relationships in primary education: the challenge of two-way communication

ABSTRACT This study investigates which subjects teachers talk about with parents in parent–teacher conferences and other contact moments, and how they communicate with regard to these subjects. Fifty-five in-depth interviews were carried out with teachers from special education schools, at-risk schools serving low socio-economic status children and mainstream primary education schools in the southern part of the Netherlands. The results illustrate that (1) two-way communication is used the most in at-risk schools, (2) teachers find it difficult to involve parents in the decision-making process concerning special care for the child, and (3) the teachers’ attitude towards parents is best when it comes to difficult discussion topics. When situations are really difficult, teachers stand alongside the parents instead of addressing them from their expert role, asking them ‘How can we solve this together? ’. Teachers should be more aware of this quality, and not be afraid to address difficult subjects or conflicts.
Clinical and Ultrasound Examination of the Leeds Enthesitis Index in Psoriatic Arthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective. To compare scores for the Leeds enthesitis index in psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis using clinical assessment and ultrasonography (US). Design. Swelling and tenderness of the enthesis was assessed at six sites: lateral epicondyles of humerus (LE), medial condyles of femur (MC), and the insertion of the Achilles tendon (AT). US assessed “inflammatory activity” (power Doppler signal, oedema, tendon thickening, and bursal swelling) and “damage” (erosions and enthesophytes). Results. 94 patients were included, 71 with PsA and 23 with RA. The patients with RA were significantly older (PsA 47.6 years; RA 62.6 years; (mean difference in ages =15.0 years, 95% CI 9.3–20.7 years)). US scores were higher in RA at the LE, significantly so for the “damage” scores. No differences between RA and PsA were seen at the other sites. As a result, the odds ratio for PsA, given an US score above the median, was 0.41 (0.13–1.03). However, using the clinical score, the odds ratio for PsA was 2.16 (0.81–5.70). Conclusions. Although clinical scores of enthesitis are greater in PsA compared to RA, US enthesitis scores did not distinguish between RA and PsA. This may in part be due to more frequent juxta-articular involvement in RA and in part due to the older age of the subjects with RA.
Ongoing succession of biological soil crusts increases water repellency — a case study on Arenosols in Sekule, Slovakia

After soil surface disturbances biological soil crusts (BSC) cover rapidly the topmost soil millimeters. Depending on BSC age, development of soil water repellency, water infiltration and soil surface stability are influenced by this thin surface sealing. Within this study disturbed, early- mid- and late successional stages of BSC development were examined along a recovery transect. The results show an increase in water repellency and a decrease in water sorptivity and conductivity with ongoing BSC succession. Penetration resistance data shows very stable thin surface protection by cyanobacteria in early successional BSC that is non-repellent. Later successional stages show increased water repellency and lower water conductivity. We conclude that BSC development induces changes in surface structure and wettability. The soil surface wettability is strongly linked to the BSC community composition.
Healthcare-seeking Behaviour for Common Infectious Disease-related Illnesses in Rural Kenya: A Community-based House-to-house Survey

Community surveys of healthcare-use determine the proportion of illness episodes not captured by health facility-based surveillance, the methodology used most commonly to estimate the burden of disease in Africa. A cross-sectional survey of households with children aged less than five years was conducted in 35 of 686 census enumeration areas in rural Bondo district, western Kenya. Healthcare sought for acute episodes of diarrhoea or fever in the past two weeks or pneumonia in the past year was evaluated. Factors associa-ted with healthcare-seeking were analyzed by logistic regression accounting for sample design. In total, 6,223 residents of 981 households were interviewed. Of 1,679 children aged less than five years, 233 (14%) had diarrhoea, and 736 (44%) had fever during the past two weeks; care at health facilities was sought for one-third of these episodes. Pneumonia in the past year was reported for 64 (4%) children aged less than five years; 88% sought healthcare at any health facility and 48% at hospitals. Seeking healthcare at health facilities was more likely for children from households with higher socioeconomic status and with more symptoms of severe illness. Health facility and hospital-based surveillance would underestimate the burden of disease substantially in rural western Kenya. Seeking healthcare at health facilities and hospitals varied by syndrome, severity of illness, and characteristics of the patient.
“Sometimes My Mind, It Has to Analyze Two Things”: Identity Development and Adaptation for Refugee and Newcomer Adolescents

As the global population of refugees continues to expand, a growing body of literature is seeking to understand the impact of resettlement on children and families. Extant research has been divided between the risk factors created by conflict induced migration and protective factors associated in developing a bicultural identity. The current article provides data from a qualitative study of 18 young adults who arrived as newcomers in the United States before the age of 16. Participants responded to a semistructured, biographical interview exploring the policies, programs, people, and practices that impacted their development and cultural adaptation. In recounting their experiences of migrating as children and adolescents, these adults wove complex narratives about the family, educational, community, and cultural influences they faced as young people. Ultimately, the results point to the development of a unique newcomer identity that emerged from negotiating living in multicultural environments.
Parent Attachment, Relationship Quality, and Gender Influence of Adults With Parents With Past Same-Sex Relationships

Attachment scholars have focused on attachment outcomes between children and their parents. However, there is a dearth of studies examining the association between attachment and later romantic relationships for those who have had a parent in a same-sex relationship during childhood. To address this gap, we used a sample from the New Family Structures Study. The sample for this study comprised 248 adults, of which, 175 participants reported their mother having had a same-sex romantic relationship and 73 participants reported their father having had a same-sex romantic relationship. Regression analysis indicated that participants with mothers who have had same-sex relationships report higher attachment outcomes. Further, higher attachment outcomes predicted higher romantic relationship quality. Gender of the participants and their parents also statistically moderated romantic relationship quality and family-of-origin attachment for females with mothers who have had same-sex relationships. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
Modulation of feedback-related negativity during trial-and-error exploration and encoding of behavioral shifts

The feedback-related negativity (FRN) is a mid-frontal event-related potential (ERP) recorded in various cognitive tasks and associated with the onset of sensory feedback signaling decision outcome. Some properties of the FRN are still debated, notably its sensitivity to positive and negative reward prediction error (RPE)—i.e., the discrepancy between the expectation and the actual occurrence of a particular feedback,—and its role in triggering the post-feedback adjustment. In the present study we tested whether the FRN is modulated by both positive and negative RPE. We also tested whether an instruction cue indicating the need for behavioral adjustment elicited the FRN. We asked 12 human subjects to perform a problem-solving task where they had to search by trial and error which of five visual targets, presented on a screen, was associated with a correct feedback. After exploration and discovery of the correct target, subjects could repeat their correct choice until the onset of a visual signal to change (SC) indicative of a new search. Analyses showed that the FRN was modulated by both negative and positive prediction error (RPE). Finally, we found that the SC elicited an FRN-like potential on the frontal midline electrodes that was not modulated by the probability of that event. Collectively, these results suggest the FRN may reflect a mechanism that evaluates any event (outcome, instruction cue) signaling the need to engage adaptive actions.
Married Women’s Economic Independence and Divorce in the Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century United States

We analyze the effects of the Married Women’s Property Acts and Earnings Acts (EAs) on divorce rates in the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century United States. We find that the property acts increased divorce rates, which is consistent with the predicted outcome, in household extensive bargaining models, of an increase in the married woman’s relative bargaining power. We also find some evidence that the EAs had a positive effect on divorce rates, though it is not statistically significant after accounting for the possibility that divorce rates changed prior to the enactment of an EA. To support our causal argument, we control for regional trends in the divorce rate and account for the timing of the laws’ effects. We also assess alternative explanations for the rise in divorce rates during the late nineteenth century, including age structure, divorce law, urbanization, economic development, and foreign immigration, and we find that only age structure and urbanization positively affected divorce rates along with the property acts. Finally, we provide support for our argument from court cases in which the acts were used to defend a woman’s property rights against claims from her ex-husband.
TLR4 and NKT Cell Synergy in Immunotherapy against Visceral Leishmaniasis

NKT cells play an important role in autoimmune diseases, tumor surveillance, and infectious diseases, providing in most cases protection against infection. NKT cells are reactive to CD1d presented glycolipid antigens. They can modulate immune responses by promoting the secretion of type 1, type 2, or immune regulatory cytokines. Pathogen-derived signals to dendritic cells mediated via Toll like Receptors (TLR) can be modulated by activated invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cells. The terminal β-(1–4)-galactose residues of glycans can modulate host responsiveness in a T helper type-1 direction via IFN-γ and TLRs. We have attempted to develop a defined immunotherapeutic, based on the cooperative action of a TLR ligand and iNKT cell using a mouse model of visceral leishmaniasis. We evaluated the anti-Leishmania immune responses and the protective efficacy of the β-(1–4)-galactose terminal NKT cell ligand glycosphingophospholipid (GSPL) antigen of L. donovani parasites. Our results suggest that TLR4 can function as an upstream sensor for GSPL and provoke intracellular inflammatory signaling necessary for parasite killing. Treatment with GSPL was able to induce a strong effective T cell response that contributed to effective control of acute parasite burden and led to undetectable parasite persistence in the infected animals. These studies for the first time demonstrate the interactions between a TLR ligand and iNKT cell activation in visceral leishmaniasis immunotherapeutic.
Improving pneumococcal vaccination rates of medical inpatients in urban Nepal using quality improvement measures

Streptococcus pneumoniae infection is associated with high morbidity and mortality in low income countries. In Nepal, there is a high lung disease burden and incidence of pneumonia due to multiple factors including indoor air pollution, dust exposure, recurrent infections, and cigarette smoking. Despite the ready availability of effective pneumococcal vaccines (PNV), vaccine coverage rates remain suboptimal globally. Quality Improvement (QI) principles could be applied to improve compliance, but it is a virtually new technology in Nepal. This QI study for Patan Hospital sought to introduce the concept of QI there, to measure the baseline pneumococcal vaccination rate of qualifying adult patients discharged from the medical wards and to assess reasons for non-vaccination. QI interventions were instituted to improve this rate, measuring the effectiveness of QI methods to produce the desired outcomes using the Model for Improvement, Plan-Do-Study-Change (PDSA) methodology. In the three week baseline assessment, 2 out of 81 (2%) eligible patients recalled ever receiving a prior pneumococcal vaccine; 68 (84%) unvaccinated patients responded that they were not asked or were unaware of the PNV. After the QI interventions, the pneumococcal vaccination rate significantly increased to 42% (23/56, p<0.001). Post-intervention, the leading reason for non-vaccination was cost (20%, 11/56). Only 5 (9%) unvaccinated patients were not asked or were unaware of the PNV, a significant change in that process outcome from baseline (p<0.001). Quality improvement measures were effective in increasing pneumococcal vaccination rates, despite the limited familiarity with QI methods at this major teaching hospital. QI techniques may be useful in this and other efforts to improve quality in resource-limited settings, without great cost.
Differential Calcium Signaling Mediated by Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels in Rat Retinal Ganglion Cells and Their Unmyelinated Axons

Aberrant calcium regulation has been implicated as a causative factor in the degeneration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in numerous injury models of optic neuropathy. Since calcium has dual roles in maintaining homeostasis and triggering apoptotic pathways in healthy and injured cells, respectively, investigation of voltage-gated Ca channel (VGCC) regulation as a potential strategy to reduce the loss of RGCs is warranted. The accessibility and structure of the retina provide advantages for the investigation of the mechanisms of calcium signalling in both the somata of ganglion cells as well as their unmyelinated axons. The goal of the present study was to determine the distribution of VGCC subtypes in the cell bodies and axons of ganglion cells in the normal retina and to define their contribution to calcium signals in these cellular compartments. We report L-type Ca channel α1C and α1D subunit immunoreactivity in rat RGC somata and axons. The N-type Ca channel α1B subunit was in RGC somata and axons, while the P/Q-type Ca channel α1A subunit was only in the RGC somata. We patch clamped isolated ganglion cells and biophysically identified T-type Ca channels. Calcium imaging studies of RGCs in wholemounted retinas showed that selective Ca channel antagonists reduced depolarization-evoked calcium signals mediated by L-, N-, P/Q- and T-type Ca channels in the cell bodies but only by L-type Ca channels in the axons. This differential contribution of VGCC subtypes to calcium signals in RGC somata and their axons may provide insight into the development of target-specific strategies to spare the loss of RGCs and their axons following injury.
A video is worth a thousand words: Scale development for consumer-to-consumer social interaction

Consumers increasingly share information about products, services, and brands with other consumers via online and offline channels. They chat about purchases with friends, post pictures of new products on Instagram, write restaurant reviews on Yelp, and tweet about brands. Researchers have shown that these types of active consumer social interactions (ACSI) lead to increased sales, purchase intentions, product judgments, and product diffusion. However, despite the influential nature of ACSI, few researchers have created validated scales to measure a person's intention to engage in ACSI (ACSII) that encompass the wide range of communication activities that comprise the construct. Therefore, to address this gap, the current research developed a reliable, validated scale measuring six distinct ACSII activities: word-of-mouth, video sharing, texting, emailing, online reviewing, and blogging, that were shown to be generalizable across positive and negative product and service scenarios. The method involved eleven steps and three rounds of data collection to ensure a reliable and valid scale. First, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to define the construct of ACSII, investigate related variables, and place the ACSII construct in a theoretical framework. Then, a pilot study with 912 students and staff of a large midwestern university was conducted to gather qualitative data from participants about experiences with ACSI in order to confirm and adjust the conceptualization of the ACSI construct outlined in the literature review. The data from the pilot survey were analyzed, and 97 initial items to measure ASCII were developed from the analysis. The content
Weighted Sum Rate Optimization for Downlink Multiuser MIMO Coordinated Base Station Systems: Centralized and Distributed Algorithms

This paper considers the joint linear transceiver design problem for the downlink multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems with coordinated base stations (BSs). We consider maximization of the weighted sum rate with per BS antenna power constraint problem. We propose novel centralized and computationally efficient distributed iterative algorithms that achieve local optimum to the latter problem. These algorithms are described as follows. First, by introducing additional optimization variables, we reformulate the original problem into a new problem. Second, for the given precoder matrices of all users, the optimal receivers are computed using minimum mean-square-error (MMSE) method and the optimal introduced variables are obtained in closed form expressions. Third, by keeping the introduced variables and receivers constant, the precoder matrices of all users are optimized by using second-order-cone programming (SOCP) and matrix fractional minimization approaches for the centralized and distributed algorithms, respectively. Finally, the second and third steps are repeated until these algorithms converge. We have shown that the proposed algorithms are guaranteed to converge. We also show that the proposed algorithms require less computational cost than that of the existing linear algorithm. All simulation results demonstrate that our distributed algorithm achieves the same performance as that of the centralized algorithm. Moreover, the proposed algorithms outperform the existing linear algorithm. In particular, when each of the users has single antenna, we have observed that the proposed algorithms achieve the global optimum.
Fully atomistic modeling of an electric field poled guest-host nonlinear optical polymer

Fully atomistic molecular modeling is performed on an electric field poled guest-host nonlinear optical polymer system at two different densities. The higher density (HD) represents a sub-Tg system, while the lower density (LD) corresponds to a system above Tg. The electric field alignment of dopants was studied by calculating 〈cos θ〉 and 〈cos3 θ〉 and comparing with the theoretically predicted order parameters. For the LD system, the dipole orientational order achieved during 1.5 ns of NVT dynamics at 500 K was similar to the theoretical prediction. The applied field was also found to constrain the side group of the host, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The shape of the volume swept by the dopants was found to be less cylindrical as the field was increased. The partial radial distribution functions indicated that the dopants were likely to be located near the host side group. No significant differences in the static conformational properties of the host were observed between poled and unpoled structures.